Retirement | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

This is the third major change announced by Amazon in the last days. After retiring Amazon giveaways, Amazon now is ending its Kindle Matchbook program on October 31.

Strangely enough, I heard the news on The Passive Voice and The Digital Reader instead of Amazon. This, despite the fact that all of my books are on the Matchbook program!

Launched in 2013, Kindle Matchbook was a program where authors and publishers had the option of creating ebook and print bundles that combine a Kindle ebook with a print book sold by Amazon. The ebook could be given away for free, or sold for $1.99 or $0.99.

All of my eBooks are available for free to anyone who’s bought the print edition. However, only a handful of people take advantage of the free offer each month.

My personal experience agrees with The Digital Reader’s claim that most authors have never heard of the program, and the ones that do have books in the program report that there was little interest from readers.

“I can see why they are retiring it. I’ve had all my books enrolled in Matchbook since the beginning, allowing people to get a free ebook copy of any paperback they buy,” Shawn Inmon wrote on FB. “I think I’ve given away maybe 20 copies in all those years. It just doesn’t seem to be something people are interested in.”

Still, I will personally miss it. I think there’s something wrong about charging twice for the same content, depending on the medium, and I loved the ability to offer my readers something back.

If you’ve bought any of my books in print and wish to take advantage of the free offer while it lasts, here’s your chance.