Reviews of Amazon self-published Kindle books - minor rant.

[hoopdriver]

I believe this is something Amazon is aware of and are actively doing something about. (But I will check.) As an author I have found the ebook revolution massively empowering and know it is already beginning to shake up the relationship between authors and mainstream publishers with regards to contracts. For myself, I have independently been able to upload WW2 action novels that my agent failed to garner mainstream interest in, and I am beginning to generate sales (and good reviews) on Kindle. I have returned to writing SF and am currently writing a book which will take advantage of the digital form and will use this as a selling point when completed.
The world of books has been reenergised and will obviously attract the good, the bad and downright pig-ugly unreadable tosh (along with dubious business practices), but the positives I take from this development far outweigh the negative.
Keep reading, keep learning.

Good points. Although as an author myself I have yet to try out the empowering new possibilities offered up by the likes of Kindle. Intriguing though...

 

[tyred]

I can see the advantages of having a Kindle but I can go to a car boot sale and buy a box of novels for maybe a £1. Until such times I can do that with a kindle, I will stick with the 20th C pre-Biblical technology of the written word.

 

[hoopdriver]

I can see the advantages of having a Kindle but I can go to a car boot sale and buy a box of novels for maybe a £1. Until such times I can do that with a kindle, I will stick with the 20th C pre-Biblical technology of the written word.

If yo like the classics, and I happen to, you can buy virtual boxes of them for free on Kindle - and don't have to find spac for them on crowded shelves

 

[ASC1951]

If I drop my book in the bath/pool it's a few quid. If the OH drops her kindle in it's quite a few more, and the batteries don't run out on mine.

Yebbut. Your OH would still be able to get in the bath - if you assembled as many books as she could get on her Kindle, you wouldn't be able to get in the bathroom; possibly not even up the stairs.

 

[Over The Hill]

Yebbut. Your OH would still be able to get in the bath - if you assembled as many books as she could get on her Kindle, you wouldn't be able to get in the bathroom; possibly not even up the stairs.

How long do you spend in the bath?
I dont think I have ever run out of reading with one book in the bath.

 

[Rezillo]

My wife had a Kindle a year before me, and I gave all the reasons in the posts above for why I neither wanted nor needed one. I was then given one for Christmas and my views changed almost overnight. How could I have been so blind to the advantages?

It's mainy the convenience, comfort and readability (?) that did it for me. Modern paperbacks (and hardbacks) often have small or irregular print on poor quality paper but not on a Kindle/e-reader. Crisp clear text and a font size of your choice plus the ease of reading, one handed, a flat surface that doesn't curve away into a stiff spine. I've bought more books than I have for years using the cheap offers on Amazon and there's loads of free material elsewhere, including antiquarian stuff I would never had had a chance of buying as a paper book.

Then I bought an Android tablet and found out I could have all my existing Amazon-bought books on that (and my phone) automatically for no extra charge. Each gadget wirelessly synching its "last read" position so whatever you read it on, you don't lose where you are. Looking around me there is about 120ft of book shelving, not to mention the piles of books stacked up in other rooms, so not having loads more to add to all this is a help. Plus the weight of books not needed on holiday is at least one more bottle of booze to bring back on the plane.

I became a convert

 

[Jon George]

but at least with a real book you can open it at a random page and read a paragraph, which is usually more than enough to tell whether the thing is worth buying or not.

On behalf of all serious authors and writers, I fall to my knees, clasp my hands, and beg you not to do this. Please, pretty please, start at the beginning where all the talent will show. If you don’t find yourself intrigued enough to turn the page, then the author has failed and you can move on. Don’t flip to page forty and discover the protagonist’s dark secret before you are meant to and spoil the read.

I would like to add if anyone here is seriously tempted to self-publish an ebook, then please be professorial and pay for an editor to go through it and correct your inevitable mistakes. Publishing houses generally have a number of editors who perform different types of work on a manuscript and yet even they can let the occasional howler through. I guarantee that if you go for the cheap short-cut you will quickly establish yourself as a writer to avoid.

 

[Jon George]

Oh and do make time to at least read what you wrote, as technology has a comic way of making you look a bit of a tit: 'professorial' or 'professional'?

I could try to claim that as a deliberate example of easy mistakes, but I generally go with an editor's observation: I am a bit of a tit for missing that.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I adore this thread

 

[Jon George]

People who try to write books are often hoping to make lots of money, not realising that actually there's really no money in it except for a minuscule minority of people. They also have no concept of what grindingly boring hard work it is. I see alleged 'books' where it is clear that the author has simply clanked it out and sent it off, not realising that successful authors go over and over their text ad infinitum (and throughout the long editing process) honing and refining it, and taking on board well-intentioned and well-informed advice, usually from their long-suffering editors. Does anyone realise that the words by, for example, Jeffrey Archer that they read are, shock horror, often not the actual words that he wrote but those of an editor? Publishing a book is often, contrary to popular belief, an exercise in the crushing of ego and the emptying of the wallet.

This paragraph should be carved in stone. That, or sold to Amazon as part of their terms and conditions Kindle authors have to confirm they’ve read before they can upload.

 

[Piemaster]

If I drop my book in the bath/pool it's a few quid. If the OH drops her kindle in it's quite a few more, and the batteries don't run out on mine.

Ziplock bag. Sorted for a few pence.
I suppose I could then read the kindle in the shower too if the urge came to me, which would be a tad awkward with a paper book. Especially turning the pages. It's a low power device, so the powermonkey works well if I need it.

The kindle has been superb for me, working away a lot. I can carry more books than a flight baggage allowance would allow and of course there is the volume they would need.

 

[swee'pea99]

It's not just books... http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviews-plague-consumer-websites?INTCMP=SRCH

Companies paying for fake reviews are keen to cover their tracks and make reviews as believable as possible. For example, a posting by "mutaaly" on Freelancer.com, seeking writers for 180 fake 3-, 4- and 5-star reviews to be put on Reseller Ratings, Trustpilot and Sitejabber, requires them to be drip-fed on to the sites every two days, and states that they should not all be hyper-positive. A small number should be "3 star", most "4 star" and a few "5 star". The post says: "All reviews should be unique and well-crafted so that they look entirely natural. All reviews must be from unique email addresses/Facebook accounts. Reviews should be very different from each other – ie, one might say 'Item was shipped quickly' and another might say 'A+ great service!!' while another (3-star) might say 'I was satisfied with their customer service', etc."

 

[ColinJ]

This paragraph should be carved in stone. That, or sold to Amazon as part of their terms and conditions Kindle authors have to confirm they’ve read before they can upload.

Please could it be carved in letters that are large enough for those of us with dodgy eyesight to read without the aid of reading glasses?

 

[ASC1951]

How long do you spend in the bath?
I dont think I have ever run out of reading with one book in the bath.

Ha! I've never read in the bath. Come to that, I haven't had a bath for ten years - showers are quicker and far more economical. My point was that Amazon claim 3500 book capacity for a Kindle i.e. considerably more than you could fit in your average house.

 

[Over The Hill]

Ha! I've never read in the bath. Come to that, I haven't had a bath for ten years - showers are quicker and far more economical. My point was that Amazon claim 3500 book capacity for a Kindle i.e. considerably more than you could fit in your average house.

I'll get one the next time I want to buy a gadget that does something I dont need it to do!
I have trouble finding six books I want to read. When I have read them I tend to give them away if they are good.
I don't read books again as I know how the story ends.
If I could buy a gadget that would filter the 3500 books down to six I would like then I would be interested.

We once stayed in a B & B in Lyme Regis that was a bookshop. Every wall of every room in the house was stacked with old books (everywhere, landing, stairs, every room floor to ceiling). Was a bit addictive as you just had to pull out old books all the time and read them.