Independent authors have Stuff like this to help them sell books

I'm an independent author therefore I too have stuff like this. It is a handy author page where anyone who wants to find out what you write and who you are can do just that. They can also find out what readers have said about your books. And they...scroll...scroll

can see the full list of that author's books - but my paperback edition of The Glassblower's Daughter is not listed, even though I have updated that page several times. So if you want to buy the paperback use this link and eventually I'm sure the page will catch up and list it ll correctly.

Ouch, Amazon, That Hurts!

A cream tea did much to ease my pain

Why would Amazon start listing my book as being published by Vesta Publishing when it isn't? But they do - see previous posts - and so I have been taking them to task. They helpfully emailed me the other day with the information that there is a handy 'suggest changes to product details' button at the foot of the page. I was pleased and also felt a fool because you would think I might have scrolled down to the foot of the page to see what else lurked. Although I don't find those pages inviting. Do you?
I made my change. I clicked 'submit your changes' and I arrived at a screen which said...

 If you don't hear from us right away, 

don't despair; 

we tend to review corrections for more popular items first, 

but we take them all seriously 

and will reply as soon as possible

Ow ow ow! OK, I am not a popular item as well as being too foolish to check for ways to amend the listing at the foot of the page. But  all the same - OWW!!!

Wordclay speak to me from the grave

Not from this grave!  - this is Mum's

Last week, having found out that the publishing companies: AuthorHouse, Vesta Publishing, Lightning Source and the now defunct Wordclay, were all part of the Author Solutions empire, I used their online form to communicate the following message:

Re: ASIN: 1604818743 The Glassblower's Daughter 
Dear Author Solutions,Can you confirm you are the publisher of the above item which is one of two titles that I published with Wordclay? I am having difficulty understanding how Wordclay went out of the business without telling me who I now need to deal with to get information about how my titles are selling. Amazon have investigated the mystery and they tell me that AuthorHouse publish my title. But when I rang AuthorHouse yesterday, they denied any knowledge of either of my titles.

I did not get any reply that day or the next and was also busy trying to talk to Amazon and the other players listed above (see previous post).

But today Hurrah! I got a message from Wordclay. The message above had been forwarded to them perhaps ( I am guessing) and they said: to paraphrase:

Greetings Frances,
We were your publisher but we have closed for business now so now you have no publisher. We have asked all resellers to cancel your titles but it might take a while so your books might still be available for a short while. Final accounts will be settled before April. 
Best wishes
Wordclay

Phew - what a relief. So if I want to carry on having a paperback version of my books I will need to sort out some other arrangement. I wonder why Wordclay couldn't have sent a message like that when they made their announcement about closing down, back on December 4th.
But there remains an unanswered question which is this: how come Vesta Publishing and AuthorHouse are listed on Amazon.co.uk and on BooksEtc as being the publisher of my titles when they are not?
Amazon.com, I should make clear, has continued to list Wordclay as the publisher.
I assume that the answer is really simple. But if it is, why don't the companies listed know what it is? They don't even seem to talk to each other let alone to me.

Aaarghhh!! Something weird is going on

I have been on the phone to Chanelle in the USA for 40 minutes now and she is as puzzled as I am.
'I'm gonna put you on hold...'
Chanelle is from AuthorHouse Publishing.... she has gone off to speak to someone. I'm shivering (because I've got a temperature) and I've put the phone on loudspeaker so I can wrap the sofa blanket round me and snuggle while I wait.  I am beyond puzzled. I am disturbed. Is foul play going on?  I have been having an alarming exchange of emails with Amazon. Amazon list my paperbacks as being published by a Vesta Publishing who I have never heard of....
'Are you still there Ma'am?'
Hell yes - and Chanelle sounds disturbed now.
'Ma'am did you say that you have an email from Amazon that says Vesta Publishing are affiliated to us?'
'Yes.'
'Could you send that to me please?'
'OK'.

So I forward the relevant exchange of emails to AuthorHouse. The gist of those messages is as follows:

Me to Amazon 10 January 2013:

Dear Amazon,
I rang AuthorHouse yesterday. They agreed that they were part of Author Solutions but denied that either of my titles was published by them and said my ISBN numbers were not on their records. The person I spoke to did not know Vesta publishing.
Have you asked AuthorHouse if they are my publisher? Who am I to believe - you, who say they are, or them, who deny it?
There is a disturbing lack of transparency here and I am very confused and upset. Please ask them why they deny being my publisher even though you list them as my publisher and see what they say. I would like you to report back to me what the results of that would be. I am not satisfied that you have investigated this fully. There is too much discrepancy. It is suspicious.
Best wishes
Frances

On 10 January Amazon answered. This is a summary of their message:
We can't take down the titles you asked us to remove based on what you've said to us so far.  Wordclay was affiliated to Author Solutions and it has gone out of business. Vesta Publishing is one of AuthorHouse's imprints and both are affiliated to Author Solutions. So your rights aren't being infringed. Contact any of these companies if you want to get to the bottom of this, - or get yourself a lawyer.

Now that IS alearming. Help!