Writer Sanctum
Corporate Sector => What are Amazon doing now? [Public] => Topic started by: Marti Talbott on September 25, 2021, 01:55:17 AM
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In the Amazon search when I enter my name, several other books come up mixed with mine.
You can see that the first two book are not mine.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=marti+talbott&i=digital-text&crid=2J0O9QR82K06O&sprefix=marti+talbott%2Caps%2C296&ref=nb_sb_ss_c_3_13_ts-doa-p
This is why it is happening. If you right click on the description section of an offending book, and choose View page source, you can see that the author has entered MY NAME in that book's keywords.
EXample:
view page source
input type="text" id="twotabsearchtextbox"
value="marti talbott"
name="field-keywords"
autocomplete="off" placeholder="" class="nav-input nav-progressive-attribute" dir="auto" tabindex="0" aria-label="Search"
I notified Amazon and the last I heard, my complaint has been elevated to a higher level to someone with the rights to look a the offender's keywords.
I find it very unfair that readers can possibly be tricked into buying books that aren't written by me.
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Are you talking about the sponsored books?
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No. Let's see, how do I explain this better? It's not an individual product page, but the one that lists all my books. It's not this page either - › Visit Amazon's Marti Talbott Page. It's when someone searched the category page (books) under my name.
We all have a basic page on Amazon that displays all the books written by a particular author. So when you go to the Amazon search, where you specify books, and enter the name of the author, the page is displayed. This link goes to the page that should list all my books, but instead, the first two books are written by someone else.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=marti+talbott&i=stripbooks&crid=2WXPNJL8YEMT6&sprefix=marti+talbott%2Caps%2C285&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_13
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I see the two books you mentioned, and they both say ‘sponsored’ next to them. It’s possible they didn’t include sponsored listings on that page before but they seem to be there now. I know Amazon likes to switch things up.
It’s kinda crummy from a customer perspective. When I search for a specific author, I hate that I have to scroll through random stuff to get what I was looking for. Especially when it’s the first few listings!
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Wow, I never noticed the sponsored notice before. Yes, it is crummy. Thanks for helping me understand.
I wonder if my AMS ads are doing that to other authors. Not fair, not fair at all. I only have one on AMS and it isn't racking up any impressions yet. Besides, I can't normally find mine anyway and I don't have hours to look for them.
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It’s kinda crummy from a customer perspective. When I search for a specific author, I hate that I have to scroll through random stuff to get what I was looking for. Especially when it’s the first few listings!
I noticed this not too long ago too. Went looking for a specific author's books, and up came a bunch of unrelated books.
Amazon's becoming a big junk store. Anymore, I only go to Amazon as a last resort.
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Happens all the time. I see it especially with authors who have a lot of books. For instance, I just looked at Barbara Delinsky's listing, and on page 3, five titles are by other authors, three of them published (as Delinsky is) by a big publisher. The other two are in KU.
I noticed when I followed your link that page 1 was all your books but page 2 had five books not by you and none of them said Sponsored.
I find this surprising because usually an author's titles are interrupted by Sponsored ads all over the place. Top, in between, bottom, what have you. My own two little pages have no such interruptions, but the very last listing is a public domain title that someone has copied from Project Gutenberg and has the audacity to be selling.
I'll be interested to hear Amazon's response, because it seems to me that showing other people's books when your name is searched is standard operating procedure.
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That's what I told them. I thought Amazon's first concern is for the reader experience. Also, is it okay for me to put Steven King's name in my book's keywords? I haven't heard back, but I'll let you know if I do.
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From KDP's keywords guidelines (https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201298500):
Anything misrepresentative like the name of an author not associated with your book. This kind of information can create a confusing customer experience. Kindle Direct Publishing has a zero tolerance policy for metadata that is meant to advertise, promote, or mislead
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I wonder if my AMS ads are doing that to other authors.
Possibly, but it’s not the kind of thing you can switch off. Personally, as a reader, I don’t have any problems with some sponsored listings a bit further down the page. It’s just a bit jarring when I search specifically for Author X and they blast me with Author Y up front.
Oh well. 🙂
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Hopefully, readers will start complaining. That usually gets Amazon's attention.
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Well, you taught me something. I didn't know you could find keywords that way. :)
I think this is routine with sponsored ads. At least, I'm used to seeing it. Readers should see your author name and not get confused but, many times, we forget how savvy we are with these book pages versus general readers. It'd be nice if the ad wasn't right up at the top on a search. It is misleading.