Author Topic: Also boughts vanished again last night  (Read 2159 times)

notthatamanda

Also boughts vanished again last night
« on: April 17, 2019, 11:15:55 AM »
I'm in the US.  I noticed this morning, I was away, on an ipad, and MacBook, using Safari.
Now I'm home and on Internet explorer and a laptop.
The difference in sales is pretty apparent, and depressing.

Edit:  I spoke too soon.  They only vanished on one of my books, my best seller.  They are there on another one of my books.  I find that weird, but maybe it isn't affecting sales at all.  Yesterday the book got up to 13K overall ranking.  Maybe the algos are trying to force people to buy ads on it?  But how would those people know to do that?  I am probably too tired to be speculating like this, apologies. 
« Last Edit: April 17, 2019, 11:24:36 AM by notthatamanda »
 

Bill Hiatt

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Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2019, 01:49:32 AM »
I'm in the US.  I noticed this morning, I was away, on an ipad, and MacBook, using Safari.
Now I'm home and on Internet explorer and a laptop.
The difference in sales is pretty apparent, and depressing.

Edit:  I spoke too soon.  They only vanished on one of my books, my best seller.  They are there on another one of my books.  I find that weird, but maybe it isn't affecting sales at all.  Yesterday the book got up to 13K overall ranking.  Maybe the algos are trying to force people to buy ads on it?  But how would those people know to do that?  I am probably too tired to be speculating like this, apologies.
My guess would be A/B testing again. Also Boughts still appear on my bestseller, which in any case has AMS ads running already.

I have a theory as to why Amazon keeps doing that. I think it would like to get of the also boughts, but its data keeps showing sales decline when they disappear. I can't figure out why else they keep testing over and over.

Who was it who said that the the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result?


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Joe Vasicek

Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2019, 04:38:27 PM »
The also boughts were one of the major innovations that allowed Amazon to dominate the ebook space. Getting rid of them is one of those head-scratchingly stupid moves that makes me think that now is a good time to buy Barnes & Noble stock.

I've seen a lot of red flags with Amazon recently. I just went through a months-long customer service nightmare where emailing jeff@amazon.com did f*ck all to resolve anything. Perhaps I should start a new thread about that. In any case, there are other issues with the company: Bezos's divorce, censorship scandals, random ebooks and audiobooks disappearing from customers' libraries, all sorts of problems with the Createspace migration, and the fact that AWS is basically propping up the entire company.

In the next five years, it wouldn't surprise me if Amazon spins off or sells KDP. Even if it doesn't, I believe that it's going to exist in a very different (and probably much diminished) form by that time. Getting rid of the also boughts is just another way they're shooting themselves in the foot.
 

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Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2019, 12:36:46 AM »
The also boughts were one of the major innovations that allowed Amazon to dominate the ebook space. Getting rid of them is one of those head-scratchingly stupid moves that makes me think that now is a good time to buy Barnes & Noble stock.

I've seen a lot of red flags with Amazon recently. I just went through a months-long customer service nightmare where emailing jeff@amazon.com did f*ck all to resolve anything. Perhaps I should start a new thread about that. In any case, there are other issues with the company: Bezos's divorce, censorship scandals, random ebooks and audiobooks disappearing from customers' libraries, all sorts of problems with the Createspace migration, and the fact that AWS is basically propping up the entire company.

In the next five years, it wouldn't surprise me if Amazon spins off or sells KDP. Even if it doesn't, I believe that it's going to exist in a very different (and probably much diminished) form by that time. Getting rid of the also boughts is just another way they're shooting themselves in the foot.
Is there ever a good time to buy Barnes and Noble stock?

The sad thing is that I don't think Amazon is trying to get rid of or diminish KDP. There's not a whole lot of love between Amazon and large trad publishers. Part of the reason KDP exists in the first place is to give Amazon an alternate content stream. And that part's worked if Data Guy is to be believed. The last available figures (admittedly dated now) indicate that a majority of sales in romance, science fiction, and fantasy ebooks are indie sales. DG's recent presentation at the Nebulas, which you can see referenced in one of the other threads, provides more recent data that show that science and fantasy at least are still indie-dominated. That's a lot of book sales. And as long as Amazon wants to keep KU, it has to keep KDP, because most of the trads still haven't bought into the KU model.

None of that means, however, that  Amazon won't kill the whole thing off through poor decision-making. And now that books are only a small part of Amazon's business, I think it's possible that if KDP becomes too much of a nuisance (scammers, scandals, etc.) that Amazon might wash its hands of it. An announcement that KU is being phased out would be the first indicator that something like that is becoming more likely.

It's also not impossible that, if the US ever decides to actually enforce antitrust laws, Amazon could get broken up, though that would involve way more than KU. I could see a situation in which Amazon.com (just the storefront) is one company, and each product or service line becomes another company. For instance, Amazon Studios would be completely separate. The Amazon imprints would be spun into a different company, with KDP maybe being separate or being part of that publishing company. In the latter case, there'd probably end up being more gatekeeping. Amazon Web Services, Amazon Restaurant Services, Amazon Home Services, AmazonFresh, etc. might each be a separate company. Of course, there are many other possible patterns.

I checked my Also Boughts again this morning, and they're still there. I think Amazon would (stupidly) like to get rid of them, but I believe the data they're gathering keeps telling them that would be a bad idea.


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TimothyEllis

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Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2019, 02:12:09 AM »
I think Amazon would (stupidly) like to get rid of them, but I believe the data they're gathering keeps telling them that would be a bad idea.

I think the ads side of Amazon is driving trying to get rid of also-boughts, because without them, they think there will be more money spent on ads.

One set of bean counters is fighting the other set of bean counters who know what also-boughts bring in.
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notthatamanda

Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2019, 10:35:54 AM »
Also boughts still missing from that book, but sales popped back up to double digits, except for today, but you know, Easter.   So I guess it was just a coincidence, conahura, knock wood.

I think the ads side of Amazon is driving trying to get rid of also-boughts, because without them, they think there will be more money spent on ads.

They could fix that dang lock up at page 61 and which would allow for more impressions and the opportunity for paying for clicks, but what do I know.
 

CoraBuhlert

Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2019, 03:46:53 PM »
One thing I've seen recently is that if I search for a specific author, I get a strip of further books by that author rather than regular also-boughts.

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notthatamanda

Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2019, 08:33:04 PM »
I haven't seen that, but that would be even better for the individual author than the also boughts, IMHO. 
Still no also boughts on my psychological thriller, but most of the romance have them, except the stand alones that never sold enough to get them.
It's not affecting sales, it just bugs me, cause I want to know the reasoning.  Endless speculation it is.
 

CoraBuhlert

Re: Also boughts vanished again last night
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2019, 10:58:34 AM »
As a writer, I like this new feature. As a reader, I don't like it, because if I want to see more books from the same author, I can click on their author name and get more books. and if it's a favourite author, I've probably read their other books already anyway. Meanwhile, the also-boughts point me to other books by other authors I might like as well.

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