Open invitation to Amazon reps to read and participate here.

[TimothyEllis]

This came up in another thread, so I thought I'd formalize it.

Dear Amazon,

You may or may not be reading here, but you are welcome to do so openly.

Any Amazon rep is welcome to register, and participate in discussions.

We would welcome having someone officially here who can address issues as they come up, or at least we get an acknowledgment Amazon knows the issue, and has listened to what's being said and suggested. Or can tell us it's not an issue for Amazon.

There is nothing secret here, but a lot of the discussion is not done in public, so bots trawling the forum won't pick up most of what may concern Amazon.

Real people working in the books sections of Amazon are most welcome.

Forum Admin.

[ilamont]

I don't think Amazon reps will acknowledge browsing this forum or get them to participate in discussions. Getting them to issue an official statement about anything is extremely difficult, even for media outlets and publishing organizations. Execs in the Amazon book business rarely participate as speakers or panelists in events, either.

The best way of getting information (I have found) involves passing along info gleaned from Amazon CSRs or account reps. That's how the Createspace migration was confirmed (via KB). Sometimes you will see Amazon taking action in response to outrage on forums/social media, such as the Audible bonuses that unexpectedly came out within days of the ridiculously low Audible payouts being revealed and discussed, also on KB.

Maybe that's an opportunity for a new thread or subforum on WS ... "What Amazon told me" or something similar. Crowdsourced policy shifts, data points relating to delayed POD orders, emailed statements about X or Y or Z, etc. We could also highlight facts revealed on Amazon forums or social media (I regularly check out Amazon Seller forums for this very reason). 

[Marti Talbott]

I think they sign a non-disclosure agreement when they're hired.

[Maggie Ann]

They may have already found us, but I doubt they'll respond openly to anything we say or ask.

But, thanks for inviting them in case they haven't found us. Any way we have of getting a message to them, even indirectly by forum posts, has got to be a good thing.

[Simon Haynes]

It would be nice to know they're reading, but as others have said you can bet reponses would have to go through a corporate filter of some kind. So, highly unlikely.

But hey, wouldn't it be nice if AMS showed 'borrows' in a separate column on the advertising dashboard?

[TimothyEllis]

But hey, wouldn't it be nice if AMS showed 'borrows' in a separate column on the advertising dashboard?

Borrows on the sales charts is what I'd like.

But yes, I've not understood why they cant link an ad click to a borrow, and then to the reads for it.

[Shoe]

But yes, I've not understood why they cant link an ad click to a borrow, and then to the reads for it.

It would show the effectiveness of AMS for KU which, if positive, you would think they would want us to know. Or, it might reveal the majority of KU downloads don't result in read-thru (and thus pay for the ad expense). If I was getting loads of downloads via AMS, but my KENP sucked, I might think again about using AMS. I would resist the idea that my books sucked, which would explain the poor KENP.

[TimothyEllis]

But yes, I've not understood why they cant link an ad click to a borrow, and then to the reads for it.

It would show the effectiveness of AMS for KU which, if positive, you would think they would want us to know. Or, it might reveal the majority of KU downloads don't result in read-thru (and thus pay for the ad expense). If I was getting loads of downloads via AMS, but my KENP sucked, I might think again about using AMS. I would resist the idea that my books sucked, which would explain the poor KENP.

I've never understood why we dont have decent KU stats.

If we knew the how many people stopped reading a book in each 10% segment, we could figure out why, and either do something about it, or learn how not to do it again.

If say 50% of borrows, didn't read past 30%, we know the book sux.

But if 75% of borrows all bail at the 75% mark, and we know we put something around there which might upset people, at least we'd know we shouldn't have done it, and maybe can change it. And certainly not do it again.

While these stats might be a shock, they are the sort of thing which could be very useful for those trying to better all the time.

It's something we don't get out of sales. If most KU readers didn't get beyond 10%, we'd know something in the sample is hurting the book really badly. And fixing that might improve sales a lot. Or fix the lack of ad conversion.

Given how long KU2 has been out now, the lack of stats is just a mystery. Or, it says something Amazon don't want to get out.

[Shoe]

If say 50% of borrows, didn't read past 30%, we know the book sux.

I suspect my ratio may even be worse, but I also believe KU encourages a lot of sampling. If I buy a book, I'm more likely to power-thru, whereas bailing from a less than gripping KU download is easy. What I lose in KENP is possibly offset by improved rankings from the download itself.

But I take your point. Knowing where they bail could be instructive.

[Simon Haynes]

I'd just be happy with a stat showing the number of borrows. I'm aware that AMS was set up to sell other products (and paperbacks), and seems to have been retrofitted to ebooks and KU, so I'm not holding my breath.

I assume that 95% or more of people who borrow one of my books read through to the end. (I mean, assuming they've looked at the cover, read the blurb and skimmed the first chapter or two using read inside... what else do they expect to find in the novel that would stop them reading?)

But I'm the sort of person who will read a book to the bitter end 95% of the time, so that's my bias showing through.

[TimothyEllis]

I assume that 95% or more of people who borrow one of my books read through to the end. (I mean, assuming they've looked at the cover, read the blurb and skimmed the first chapter or two using read inside... what else do they expect to find in the novel that would stop them reading?)

But I'm the sort of person who will read a book to the bitter end 95% of the time, so that's my bias showing through.

As far as I can see, most people who get started on my books, do finish them. But knowing how many drop out early would be useful.

Knowing the number of borrows would give us a reality check on the read ratio.

There are reasons why I do bin a book part way through. Too many MC doing stupid plot mechanism will do it. Too much I saw that coming a mile away twists, especially those where you absolutely know what just happened is going to be undone. Strong MC's having to pull rabbits out of the arses to win too many times. Anything where "because plot" is the answer, and the author went with 'easiest possible plot'.

Often this happens in book 2 or 3, where the author forgets what was set up in book 1, and just does stupid for convenience.

I'm very intolerant of stupid doing stupid these days.

[twicebitten]

I've never understood why we dont have decent KU stats.

If we knew the how many people stopped reading a book in each 10% segment, we could figure out why, and either do something about it, or learn how not to do it again.

Given how long KU2 has been out now, the lack of stats is just a mystery. Or, it says something Amazon don't want to get out.

Back in the day, when I sold enough I was on their list of people they asked for opinions (not at the teleconference level, just at the email level), I begged for this. It seems so simple, and I could address it right away. But I doubt it'll ever happen.

[Bill Hiatt]

And here's another example of Amazon slitting its own throat.

My inclination, based admittedly only on my stats, is to think that AMS ads would look better if we had some stats related to KU, even if it was just borrows attributable to it. In the early days of AMS, starting ads quadrupled my pages read. Stopping ads returned them to their previous level. The correlation isn't as strong now, but starting a new group of ads did seem to make a difference in KU reads, which had been stalled for two weeks and then started coming in again.

So why is Amazon not giving stats that would make AMS look better? Sheer carelessness, I think.

I also believe we should now what our KU borrows are in general. We all know Amazon has that information. It's used in rankings, after all. Sitting on it does not benefit Amazon in any way. Amazon's been asked for it numerous times by many people, so it knows there's a demand. Yet we are still without it.