Author Topic: Dear Amazon, ....  (Read 7084 times)

TimothyEllis

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Dear Amazon, ....
« on: October 19, 2018, 12:58:19 PM »
I'm starting a thread where you can post messages to Amazon you wish they would read. No guarantee they will, but this thread will be indexed into google, so google alerts will likely happen.

Just make sure you only post what you want to be totally public.


Dear Amazon,

When a new LLC starts uploading books, are you checking the registered address to make sure it is a bricks and mortar location which does rent out out office space? Just wondered. All addresses for authors should be verifiable buildings.

Also on the subject of verifiable authors, why not include a tax number on each book uploaded, so that the personal tax number of the actual author is recorded for each book, enabling you to cross-check easily if the author is banned or not. Likewise bans should be done at the author level, not the publisher level. Plenty of authors pretending to be publishers these days, so whenever a publisher is banned, they create a new LLC to publish from again. You dont appear to be able to identify these, so why not make the tax number of the author on each book the way to tell? Even if an author is with a publisher of any kind, they still have their own tax number. And this is the common base, no matter how a book is published. Anyone can get as many LLC tax numbers as they want to create LLC's for. But everyone only has a single personal tax number. For an author, their personal tax number should be their identifier.

I also still advocate creating a third ranking chart solely for KU. Free books have a chart, sales should have a chart for only sales, and KU should have a chart solely for KU borrows. You show both ranks sets on the product page for books in KU. This will also highlight books with high borrows, but low sales. The incentive of rank bonus for KU books should be remove, as KU is so entrenched now, I dont believe its a factor in people joining KU anymore. Move KU into its own rank structure, and you remove a lot of the incentive for scammers to scam KU. And in the process, you return the sales ranks to some semblance of rationality, instead of the scammer controlled wasteland it currently is.

There is a demonstrable correlation between sales on a day also-boughts are on the top of the product page, and when they are either at the bottom, or not there at all. Also-boughts are the best way of getting more sales. AMS ads are a very expensive joke at the author level. They keep costing more and more and more, and keep delivering less and less. And when the also-bought slider is missing, all the books being advertised are of no interest to people looking for a book other people read before or after reading the one they are on at the time.

Also-boughts promote sales, especially for authors with zero advertising budget. AMS has totally distorted the Kindle store on the basis of who can throw the most money at ads. The result is the top ranks are full of advertised books, and not books which made it there on their merit. I guess you dont care the Kindle store ranking system is now a total joke, when it used to be the best way to find your next book.

At the moment, AMS is a discrimination tool. Those with advertising funds get an advantage, those without do not. It turns the book market into a who can spend the most for visibility circus, and buggers up the ability for people to find the book they want to read next. And it makes it much harder for a new author to get a start.
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Jo

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2018, 06:26:35 PM »
Dear Amazon,

please set up a proper, searchable adult area for books. Not a dungeon, but a real area to which only people have access who are provenly adult as per their country of residence's definition. Now place all the stuff in there which shouldn't and may not be seen by and sold to minors, be it super-brutal or pornographic in nature. Allow for anything which is actually legal to be sold there and don't set up arbitrary rules regarding what is acceptable and what not.

While you're at it, could we please get a good search function?
Jo
 
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WasAnn

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2018, 08:30:30 AM »
Dear Amazon,

 WTAF is wrong with you?

 Okay, on a more serious note, putting books into proper categories is not hard. You are swamped with romance. Romance appears in EVERY single category, to include self-help and language learning. This is not proper categorization and it makes for a bad customer experience.

 Suggestion: Put a check box in the KDP upload screen, just before category selection. This check mark says: Is this book a romance? If that is checked, then NO non-romance category can be chosen. There are plenty of subcategories for romance, to include SF romance, that everyone can get their proper romance and nekkie time jollies in the correct category. Have keyword populated subcats outside of romance excluded by that tick mark. If a book is not ticked but is a romance/erom, then send a nastygram to that freaking author and ship them to the salt mines (or remove the book if you're short on salt mines).

Bonus, the giant number of customers who are not looking for nekkie time jollies do not have to wade through hundreds of books with two-dicked aliens pounding away in order to actually find the young adult science fiction adventure books.

Hint: Two-dicked aliens in a reverse-harem with some girl from Minnesota is not actually young adult science fiction.

Fix your categories with simple measures. Make the book store useful to all those who, you know, shop there.


Science Fiction is my game.
 
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Ghost5

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2018, 09:44:12 AM »
Bonus, the giant number of customers who are not looking for nekkie time jollies do not have to wade through hundreds of books with two-dicked aliens pounding away in order to actually find the young adult science fiction adventure books.

Hint: Two-dicked aliens in a reverse-harem with some girl from Minnesota is not actually young adult science fiction.

 :icon_rofl: :icon_rofl: :icon_rofl:
 

Jeff Tanyard

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2018, 10:23:25 AM »
I think I'll add "nekkie time jollies" to my personal lexicon.   :icon_rofl:

As for my own contribution to the thread...

Dear Amazon,

Please give us detailed sales data for more than just the last 90 days.  D2D already gives us data for whatever calendar period we choose.  They also have all kinds of other sorting options.  There's no reason y'all can't do the same.
v  v  v  v  v    Short Stories    v  v  v  v  v    vv FREE! vv
     
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy (some day) | Author Website
 

MelanieMRodriguez

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2018, 10:55:43 AM »
Dear Amazon,

If you could just please put up the upload your own cover first instead of the cover creator option first? Would be so great. Just a little thing, but after you keep creating books for awhile, always hitting it accidentally is kind of annoying. Plus the majority of writers actually get their own ebook covers. At least I hope so.

Also, never change anything else. Because every time you make a change for what should be for the better, you've always just made my world worse. Thanks. :mhk9U91:

P.S. Nevermind about the cover creator. Nevermind please. Please nevermind? I'm not complaining anymore.  :lalala Don't do anything rash, it's cool. We're all cool. *Nightmares about a new section where you have to describe your cover to get it placed accurately where it is supposed to go as well as having all author names clearly identified on every book as well as stock photo identifying. Wondering why they would go to that extreme, you remember they always whack hard, not soft.*
 :help

No nightmare, no nightmare!

I am a happy, healthy and satisfied author. :mhk9U91: Love you! Don't ever change.

Seriously. Don't ever change.

 
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PaulineMRoss

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2018, 08:04:45 PM »
Dear Amazon,

KU should be a privilege, not a right. To that end:

1) New accounts must wait 6 months before any books are allowed into KU.

2) Old accounts not touched for 6 months are mothballed. If reactivated, they act like new accounts, with a six month wait to get into KU.

3) Impose a limit on books enrolled into KU each month by any one account - three books, or 3000 KENPC total or whatever.

4) Accounts guilty of any KU infringement to be booted out of KU for 6 months.

And thank you for cleaning up the store a bit.

PS Agree with everyone about miscategorisation. It's a total pain (for readers, not just for authors).

Writing epic fantasy as Pauline M Ross; writing Regency romance as Mary Kingswood
Bookbub score: 16 for 93
 
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Marigold

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2018, 11:10:09 PM »
Dear Amazon,

Please lower the KU page-read cap to 1,500 as a further deterrent to scammers.
 

Lysmata Debelius

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2018, 02:18:38 AM »
Hey, Amazon :)
Can we talk about categories?
1)Listen to WasAnn's brilliant suggestions
2)Let's seperate keywords and category placement. Make all the categories available to be chosen on upload, and not depend on  keywords.
 
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Luke Everhart

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Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2018, 03:19:27 AM »
Dear Amazon,

 WTAF is wrong with you?

 Okay, on a more serious note, putting books into proper categories is not hard. You are swamped with romance. Romance appears in EVERY single category, to include self-help and language learning. This is not proper categorization and it makes for a bad customer experience.

 Suggestion: Put a check box in the KDP upload screen, just before category selection. This check mark says: Is this book a romance? If that is checked, then NO non-romance category can be chosen. There are plenty of subcategories for romance, to include SF romance, that everyone can get their proper romance and nekkie time jollies in the correct category. Have keyword populated subcats outside of romance excluded by that tick mark. If a book is not ticked but is a romance/erom, then send a nastygram to that freaking author and ship them to the salt mines (or remove the book if you're short on salt mines).

Bonus, the giant number of customers who are not looking for nekkie time jollies do not have to wade through hundreds of books with two-dicked aliens pounding away in order to actually find the young adult science fiction adventure books.

Hint: Two-dicked aliens in a reverse-harem with some girl from Minnesota is not actually young adult science fiction.

Fix your categories with simple measures. Make the book store useful to all those who, you know, shop there.
:clap:

Yep, Dear Great & Powerful Zon, the categories need attention!
For a month the #1 book in 'Epic Fantasy' & and in 'Sword & Sorcery' was a book that a reader (who 5 starred it) described as "like Harry Potter, if Harry was 20 and got laid more" with a harem. Its keywords include sex,harem,harry,potter. If adolescent, arrested development, sexual wish-fulfillment fantasy is your bag, fine, but IT'S NOT S&S or EPIC FANTASY! :HB
(note: not a knock on actual Harry Potter books which I think are great for all ages 👍)
Urban Fantasy Author
Magic & Mirth meets Action & Attitude
 

Jason A. Holt

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2018, 03:47:15 AM »
All addresses for authors should be verifiable buildings.

There is no rural mail delivery where I live. I have to use a PO box.
 

rowanoak

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2018, 01:06:26 AM »
Dear Amazon,

Please give us authors more transparency by:

1. Telling us the page rate at the time we are earning it, NOT midway into the next month.

2. Telling us how many borrows we get.

3. Explaining actions taken against us (pagestripping, weird emails that don't make sense).

Thanks!

- Us authors
 
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TimothyEllis

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Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #12 on: October 28, 2018, 02:10:32 PM »
Dear Amazon,

BRING BACK ALSO-BOUGHTS !!!!!!!!!!

While it makes you advertising money, I fail to see how a whole heap of books I and most of my readers are never going to want to read, makes any sense being on my product pages.

I've seen a big drop in sales since you removed the also-boughts, because my books stopped advertising each other, and top selling books in the genre stopped advertising my books, and vise versa.

Also-boughts WORKED, and made finding similar books easy.

Without also-boughts, you've DESTROYED the best part of your product pages, and replaced it with a money grab mechanism which tells the world AMAZON NO LONGER CARE ABOUT SELLING BOOKS, ONLY ADVERTISING SPACE!

Are you a book seller? Or an advertiser? Because your attempt to be both SUX big time!

The ability to find books I'd never ever read is now in my face. The ability to find what I want to read is now almost non-existent, and so difficult I dont even bother anymore.

I dont give a rat's arse about books an author throws a lot of money at to make visible.

I care about what other books people are reading which are as good as what I just read. And more often than not, I found what I read next off the also-bought slider on my own books!

BRING BACK THE ALSO-BOUGHT SLIDER.

« Last Edit: October 28, 2018, 02:14:01 PM by TimothyEllis »
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Marigold

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2018, 01:36:06 AM »
Dear Amazon,

BRING BACK ALSO-BOUGHTS !!!!!!!!!!

While it makes you advertising money, I fail to see how a whole heap of books I and most of my readers are never going to want to read, makes any sense being on my product pages.

I've seen a big drop in sales since you removed the also-boughts, because my books stopped advertising each other, and top selling books in the genre stopped advertising my books, and vise versa.

Also-boughts WORKED, and made finding similar books easy.

Without also-boughts, you've DESTROYED the best part of your product pages, and replaced it with a money grab mechanism which tells the world AMAZON NO LONGER CARE ABOUT SELLING BOOKS, ONLY ADVERTISING SPACE!

Are you a book seller? Or an advertiser? Because your attempt to be both SUX big time!

The ability to find books I'd never ever read is now in my face. The ability to find what I want to read is now almost non-existent, and so difficult I dont even bother anymore.

I dont give a rat's arse about books an author throws a lot of money at to make visible.

I care about what other books people are reading which are as good as what I just read. And more often than not, I found what I read next off the also-bought slider on my own books!

BRING BACK THE ALSO-BOUGHT SLIDER.

For the last few days, my also-boughts were reduced to a handful and shoved down to the very bottom on my book pages. Today, all of my also-boughts are back, and right where they belong, too!
My conclusion: maybe Amazon read your post and actually did something about it, Timothy.  :banana:
 

Pepper

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2018, 02:13:09 AM »
Dear Amazon

The person who bought 16 of my books in one go and then returned every single one of them two days later, did NOT read them. This person is clearly trying to make illegal copies or something. Could you not check their account rather than giving them their money back?
 

Robin

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #15 on: November 01, 2018, 11:53:36 PM »
Dear Amazon,

How hard is it to consistently send new release alerts to readers who follow an author from your own web page? Why do alerts get sent some months and not others? Why have a huge button encouraging follows if you aren't going to bother to send them any information?

Oh and please bring back Also Boughts and restore them to prominence over the stoopid sponsored ads.

Ta.
 
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TimothyEllis

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Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2018, 12:09:47 AM »
Dear Amazon,

*Reader hat on*

I cant find anything to read. I make a point of reading regularly, even on days I write, taking time each day to read for a while. It keeps me up to date, and keeps my writing brain fresh.

BUT

I can no longer find anything to read.

You REMOVED the Also-Bought sliders off my books, and since I read what I also write, I can no longer find anything to read. I used to go to one of my books, and check the also-bought slider for anything I hadn't seen. I usually found 3 or 4 off that slider, or off the slider on a book I clicked through to. I'd download samples, and at least 1 would be bought and read fully.

Now, all I see are sponsored product ads, and these fall into 2 groups.
1. I'm never going to read it no matter how long you keep showing it to me.
2. Total CRAP.
The ratio tends to be 1:10. 1 book I will never read because I dont read that stuff, and 10 books which are complete crap. (Apologies to anyone here on my sliders, but assume your book is one I just dont read.)

So, 3 advertising sliders on my own book, and ZERO books I actually want to click on.

The only books I've bought in the last few months were from follower email notifications, and these were all 2-4 weeks after the book had come out because you dont place any priority on new release notifications. FOLLOWER NEW RELEASE NOTIFICATIONS SHOULD GO OUT ON DAY 1!

And guess what? I used to find new releases for the authors I do follow on my book's also-bought sliders, and so I'd buy their book around day 2-3, instead of day 16 to 30 off the release emails.

BRING BACK THE ALSO-BOUGHT SLIDER! So I can start buying more books. I've run out of reading FFS!
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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Maggie Ann

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #17 on: November 02, 2018, 03:52:41 AM »
Dear Amazon,

Ditto on the new release notifications. I'm now using Bookbub to follow authors and just today got a notification for a new release that actually came out today. See? It can be done.

           
 
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guest819

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Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #18 on: November 02, 2018, 04:19:41 AM »
Dear Amazon,

Ditto on the new release notifications. I'm now using Bookbub to follow authors and just today got a notification for a new release that actually came out today. See? It can be done.

You've been able to do this for yonks on Amazon. Years before BookBub did it. Not that I'm an advocate for Amazon, Bookbub is my friend.
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #19 on: November 02, 2018, 04:56:01 AM »
Dear Amazon,

Ditto on the new release notifications. I'm now using Bookbub to follow authors and just today got a notification for a new release that actually came out today. See? It can be done.

You've been able to do this for yonks on Amazon. Years before BookBub did it. Not that I'm an advocate for Amazon, Bookbub is my friend.

Yes, but Amazon sends out the notifications weeks after release and sometimes not at all. Bookbub sent me the notification on the actual day of release.

           
 
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TimothyEllis

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Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2018, 05:20:52 PM »
Dear Amazon,

Today you sent me an email saying "Transfer your Amazon account to get the best digital reading experience."

All I can say is BULLsh*t!

The books available on the .com.au store are a pathetic subset of the .com store. And they are more expensive to buy there than to buy using US$ and converting to A$.

There is no digital music available at all.

And you refuse to transfer my US$ gift balance to the AU store, so in effect, me going to the AU store is you stealing my money!

Come back when you have a real offer to make, because in the meantime, I'm not changing!


Edit: Here's the list of what gets transfered, and what doesn't. Why would anyone want to transfer given what they lose?

Quote
May Transfer

The following content will transfer to your new Amazon account, as long as the content is available for purchase from the new Amazon website.

    Kindle books
    Audible audiobooks
    Amazon Music
        If you have an Amazon Music subscription, it will remain active on your new account for the duration of its current term.
        Renewal terms, pricing, and availability of Amazon Music may vary by country and website.
    Amazon Prime
        If you have a paid or free trial Amazon Prime subscription, it will remain active on your account for the duration of its terms.
        Renewal terms, pricing, and availability of Amazon Prime may vary by country and website.
    Amazon Drive files

May Not Transfer

The following content will not be transferred to your new Amazon website.

    Appstore games and apps
        Purchased titles will not be available after transferring your account; however, active Appstore subscriptions will remain active for the remaining duration of the subscription as long as Appstore is supported in the new Amazon website.
        Renewal terms, pricing, and availability of Appstore apps and subscriptions may vary by country and website.
    Prime Video rentals or purchases
        Rented or purchased Prime Video titles will not be available after transferring your account; however, active Prime Video subscriptions will remain active for the remaining duration of the subscription as long as Prime Video is supported in the new Amazon website.
        Renewal terms, pricing, and availability of Prime Video titles and subscriptions may vary by country and website.
    Amazon Gift Card or promotional balances
        Amazon Gift Card funds may only be used for the website they were purchased for and cannot be used on other Amazon websites.
        Amazon Gift Card funds and promotional balances will remain available on your original website in the event that you transfer your account back to your first Amazon website in the future.
    Newsstand and magazine subscriptions from the Kindle Store
        Any active newsstand and magazine subscriptions on your account will be cancelled when you transfer your account and a pro-rated refund will be applied if there are any remaining months or issues you have already paid for.
        If the subscription is available in the new Amazon website, we will re-enable your subscription automatically, starting with a 14-day free trial.
        You will not be able to access past issues after you’ve transferred your account.
    Books borrowed through Prime Reading or Kindle Owners' Lending Library
        Books borrowed through Amazon Prime will be automatically returned and your credits will not be deducted.
    Kindle Unlimited
        Books and magazines borrowed through Kindle Unlimited will be automatically returned and your Kindle Unlimited subscription will be cancelled.
    Amazon Household and Family Library profiles
        Amazon Household and Family Library profiles will be automatically deleted and you will be unable to join another household for 180 days.
    Amazon FreeTime or Kindle FreeTime Unlimited
        Your FreeTime Unlimited subscription will automatically be cancelled.
    Alexa set up, features and skills
        Your Alexa set up will be reset, including smart home devices, Routines, timers, alarms, enabled skills and linked accounts. Skills availability and Alexa features may differ. For more information, go to Access Australian and New Zealand Alexa Features.
    Payment methods and billing info
        You will need to go to the Manage Your Content and Devices or Your Account page to re-enter you billing address and 1-Click payment method.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2018, 05:30:04 PM by TimothyEllis »
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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TimothyEllis

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Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #21 on: November 04, 2018, 11:40:30 AM »
Dear Amazon,

So now it turns out you're manipulating what people see on the product page according to what country they are logged in from.

So for me in Australia, no also-boughts, when almost everyone else sees them.

Total dick-move Amazon. It wont get me moving to the Aus store.

Give me back my also-boughts!
Genres: Space Opera/Fantasy/Cyberpunk, with elements of LitRPG and GameLit, with a touch of the Supernatural. Also Spiritual and Games.



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RappaDizzy

Re: Dear Amazon, ....
« Reply #22 on: November 06, 2018, 12:29:14 PM »
Dear Amazon

After all this time waiting to transfer my books from Createspace to KDP I now get

500 Internal Server Error. :evil2:

The question now is which side will blame the other & how long will that take????


p.s. On second thought, don’t rush, I’m just waiting on D2D now