One of the best things about buying digital books is that they can be updated after the initial publishing, and it usually doesn’t require buying a new version to get the latest updates. Kindle books are updated all the time, but you might not know unless you check.
You’ve probably purchased a Kindle book from a famous author, and eventually received an email from Amazon letting you know that there’s a new version out there with updated content.
For the rest of us, who aren’t famous, it’s a little different. When we publish a new update, as I have done with almost every book I have written, I have to manually request for Amazon to update the existing purchasers with the new version. However, you won’t get an email.
You might wonder why Amazon doesn’t just update everybody with the new version all the time, and the reason is simple: because you can add notes and annotations to your Kindle books, when a new version is released, those notes might not apply to the updated version, and that would cause problems.
So you have to choose to “install” updates to the book. It makes sense, though it’s not the most convenient thing ever.
Finding Updates for Your Kindle Books
All you have to do is head to the Manage Your Kindle item on the Amazon menu. Search for the book. You should – not always – see a link that says “update available” next to any book that has an update. Then just click the update this title now link.
Here’s a caveat. It sometimes takes awhile for that update link to show (and sometimes it never does). However, there appears to be a workaround solution.
If you know there is an update, and you want it now, and you have already bought the book, and the “update this title now” link is not showing, here’s an idea I have been told works.
You should be able to delete the book on your Manage Your Kindle page. Then go back to the kindle store and find the book. It will show you that you have already purchase it, and give you the download link.
Yes, it would be easy if you could just download the book without deleting it first, but the new one doesn’t override the other one, for the reasons mentioned above.
Yes, this may take a few minutes work – but it is certainly easier that buying a new book, and for us authors, it is a joy to be able to fix issues that we notice after the book has been published, or update it based on new information. For this, I am very grateful!
Thank you for buying and reading my books – I am overwhelming grateful for that!