Love Makes Way and Amazon
I know I have many, many readers waiting for Amazon to release Love Makes Way in ebook form. For those that don't know what's going on, Amazon had a "cyber event" in October that basically shut them down on the eastern seaboard. The day it happened was the day I hit, "publish" on Love Makes Way.
My husband, Gregg, is in cyber security. I understand cyber issues and events from a layman's perspective, but he understands them in a deep way that most mortals couldn't possibly grasp. I understand that there are things that have to happen to right it all back. His company was involved in a terrible event a couple of years ago that took over a year from which to fully resolve and reset.
So while I understand that single entry (of uploading the ebook) getting caught up in everything, what happened next doesn't make sense. On the advice of a customer service agent, I created a brand new upload. Started fresh. Gave it a different name. Didn't input the ISBN number so that the system wouldn't get confused and think I was doubling up on anything.
And that one got stuck.
I created a new entry and tried making it a preorder thinking I could come at it from a different angle inside the system. I put it up for preorder on December 1 for it to publish December 5. On December 5, I got an email that said, "Congratulations! Your book is available in the Kindle store! Click this link..." That link resolve to a page that said, "Oops, it looks like what you're looking for is not here."
As of yesterday, December 29, 2025, we are at 10 weeks since attempting to publish the book. The agent's supervisor told Gregg that it likely won't be published any time soon -- only, no one can explain why it won't and why multiple entries of the book are all stuck -- yet I was able to publish a short story "Love's Fiercest Light" on December 25th. That went live within 2 hours. So, we know it's not my account.
We have run deep-dive epub validators. Gregg understands code and what it all means. The issue is NOT the epub we uploaded. However, in order to make sure that wasn't the issue in some hidden way a validator just couldn't see, we re-did the epub and it got stuck, too.
My return to publishing after the 2-year hiatus following the tragic death of our 14-year-old son has been ruined by their lack of customer service and help. No one knows what is going on on their end and it is so disheartening and frustrating and beginning to be infuriating. I had ads running that went nowhere because the preorder just got canceled and the page removed. I had Bookbubs and other promotions for books in the series to promote the release of the last book in the series that never published. I've spent HUNDREDS of dollars that literally went nowhere. Readers have quit even asking when it will be published because IT’S BEEN 10 WEEKS.
Here is a timeline.
October 19, 2025: Initial eBook upload of "Love Makes Way" via KDP. Enters "publishing" status but gets stuck due to technical outage (likely AWS/cyber-related). Paperback publishes successfully on Amazon.
October 22, 2025 (Case listed as "Closed"): First phone contact. Book stuck >72 hours. Agent identifies technical issue, escalates to tech team. Email promises update in 1-2 business days.
October 24, 2025 (Case listed as "Closed"): Second call. Original and new version stuck; release day missed. Pre-order canceled by system, lost orders irretrievable. Escalated, follow-up promised. I announce release day on personal blog. eBook and print formats available via author's website (with $1 savings on eBook) and other retailers (Barnes & Noble, Google, Apple, Kobo). Explicitly notes the book is stuck on Amazon due to a "massive cyber event," leading to canceled preorders; paperbacks delayed but shipping for direct orders. Also appears in library digital catalogs (e.g., OverDrive in EPUB format).
October 25, 2025: Follow-up email: Issue ongoing, update soon.
October 28, 2025: We request update: 9 days stuck.
October 29, 2025 Third call. Agent moves stuck versions to draft, lifts pre-order suspension. We republish. Email provides publishing instructions.
October 31, 2025: Follow-up email: Technical delay confirmed, teams working.
November 3, 2025 Fourth call. Still pending after republish. Missed release by >2 weeks. Transferred to supervisor.
November 14, 2025 Fifth call, escalated to supervisor. Multiple versions stuck. Email apologizes, promises 3-5 day follow-up.
November 15, 2025: Checking the cases site, I send an email questioning the "resolved" status my case is showing. (November 18, 2025: Follow-up email. Explains "resolved" due to system-wide issue, no individual action possible - aka "we have a requirement to close cases within a certain timef rame or our stats get dinged.)
November 17, 2025 Sixth call. Nearly a month stuck, >300 pre-orders lost. Agent confirms broader publisher impact, no timeline. Case left open per our demands.
November 20, 2025: We email noting overdue callback and request higher escalation. Begins an email thread with technical managers that will not call back but continue to praise us for our for patience and understanding without actually doing anything about it. Every single email is coming from someone different. At about email #15, the person on the Amazon end doesn't even know what the original issue is and explains that sometimes books take longer than 72 hours to publish. Last email sent 12/23. The response told me that the technical team was working on the stuck status of a paperback that I unpublished in June and archived. No one will explain why that book is the focus of anyone and how it got stuck in the first place - since I didn't do anything to it but unpublish it to publish a new version (The Prodigal - which published just fine).
December 29, 2925: We informed support that we would no longer like to be lied to. An hour-long phone call with escalation ends in them saying something was resolved. On the phone with them, Gregg republished one of the entries that had been moved back to draft. It went into "live-revisions in review" status. He was informed that the status would be published by the end of the day. Less than an hour later, it went back into "publishing" - the same status of all of the other stuck ones - and is no longer showing "live".
December 30, 2025: We received an email from Amazon that the book was live. They told me it was a browser cache issue that kept me from finding the book. (Here is the link given to me: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4N7TR98. I can assure you that my issue has nothing to do with my browser cache.)
So, as of right now - No resolution on Amazon—Kindle eBook is still unpublished, only the paperback is available (ASIN: 1681902915, $17.99). The digital eBook is widely available elsewhere, confirming the issue is isolated to KDP/Amazon. No new public updates from Amazon; we continue to sell eBook directly.
I have no hope that this book will ever publish on Amazon. I've reached out to Draft2Digital to apply for access to Amazon through their platform (they are strict with the rules of who can publish with Amazon through them) but it's the holidays, so it may be a while before I hear back.
If you are waiting to purchase the book on Amazon, I cannot tell you when that will be available. However, here is everywhere else the book is for sale:
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Direct from Hallee (and save $1) Ebook ISBN: 978-1-68190-252-4 |
U.S. Army Special Forces sniper Gerald “Jerry” McBride is no stranger to danger, but his heart faces uncharted territory when he reconnects with surgical nurse Olive Duncan. Years after she patched his wounds in a German hospital, their chance reunion at Fort Campbell sparks a romance that sweeps both of them off their feet. When Jerry invites Olive as his plus-one to a friend’s wedding on a Caribbean cruise, he’s ready to take the leap with a ring in his pocket.
But the ship’s idyllic voyage hides a deadly undercurrent. A Chinese-backed plot to smuggle thousands of weapons into Haiti threatens to destabilize the region, and the pirates orchestrating it have infiltrated the crew.
When the pirates take the cruise ship with Jerry's special forces team on board, it turns the wedding venue from a celebration into a battlefield.
They have no weapons and no gear. Can they take back the ship and save the people they love, or will celebration turn to tragedy?