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Amazon Connect 75

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the author-self-defense dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times is reporting that Amazon is now providing the ability for authors to reach out to their fans via blogs in a program called Amazon Connect. So far, Amazon has recruited a group of about a dozen authors, including novelists, writers of child care manuals and experts on subjects as diverse as real estate investing, science, fishing and the lyrics of the Grateful Dead. Now the authors finally have the ability to respond back to comments!
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Amazon Connect More

Amazon Connect

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  • The Amazon page (Score:5, Informative)

    by JonN ( 895435 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:06PM (#14354288) Homepage
    Can be found here [amazon.com] with the little blurb Amazon Connect is a new program currently open to a select group of authors. This program allows authors to post messages directly to their readers on a wide variety of subjects. Currently, messages will appear on the detail page of an author's book as well as on her/his profile page. As part of the program, authors may create a profile page with personalized information.

  • Huh? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Poromenos1 ( 830658 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:09PM (#14354304) Homepage
    What is "book"?

  • Finally news! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JonN ( 895435 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:11PM (#14354322) Homepage
    I can't remember reading an article on /. that had such few Google matches as this one.

    I shall dube thee "news"

  • Grateful Dead (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:12PM (#14354325)
    Amazon has recruited ... authors ... [of] the lyrics of the Grateful Dead

    Fan: Dude
    Author: Duuuude
    Fan: Dude!

  • This idea, this site, and even this language are protected with US and international patents. If you try to use anything close to this idea, we'll skin you alive and dip you in lemon juice. Have a nice day.
    • don't for get rubbing with salt every 30min.. it is the only way to keep the meat moist for the extended cooking time
    • Yeah. Amazon has been so aggressive about enforcing IP...

      Apart from the B&N one-click suit a while back, Amazon seems to be playing the defensive game.

  • Me, I'd rather have... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The ability to connect to Amazon to sell my books. Without the publisher middleman! I'd even promise to be a good author with an Amazon connect blog!!

  • Respond to comments in a good way? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:17PM (#14354361)
    Now the authors finally have the ability to respond back to comments!

    Are they going to sidestep or blatantly ignore valid questions like Peter Dawkins [lazylightning.org] did at a recent talk/book signing that I attended?

    Are these authors going to have control over what posts are kept and which are not?

    Personally, I don't want to see another astroturfing arena show up on Amazon. There are already plenty of "professional" reviewers out there that skew the impression of the books/items they review. I don't need the author to have an avenue to hype his own research while getting to pick and choose which comments to ignore/delete and which to keep and respond to.
    • How about the restrictions that the authors are going to be under, specifically on what they are allowed to respond with. Who will be looking over their material?
      • How about the restrictions that the authors are going to be under, specifically on what they are allowed to respond with. Who will be looking over their material?

        That's their decision when they sign on to this program. I am sure they are told what latitude they will have or will not have.

        The users of Amazon.com shouldn't have to tolerate astroturfing and bullshit. Especially if it's just there to increase book sales for both the author and the reseller.
    • Authors are already commenting on things in Amazon. The most famous (to me at least) is Anne Rice [amazon.com], she of Interview with the Vampire. She even defended her own book and rated the movie based on her book. Amazon took the listing down for a bit but now it's back. (Look under the reviews in The Blood Canticle [amazon.com], her review is from Sep. 6th). To her credit, as weird and emotional as her response was, she offered anyone money back for the book if they didn't like it and I believe she sent all the unwanted books to

    • I have written email to three different scifi writers over the last several years and had brief exchanges with two and was ignored by the third.

      All three were questions about the social/tech interaction in their stories and about the other possible resulting implications.

      I was surprised that they responded at all.

      I think I received the two replies because I was extrapolating on their ideas rather than shooting holes in them.

      This yahoo forum will provide a good conduit for communication with writers, som

  • next up: (Score:3, Insightful)

    by revery ( 456516 ) <charles@NoSpam.cac2.net> on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:19PM (#14354375) Homepage
    next up: Bezos patents weblogs

  • Grammar Nazis who will be merciless with you when they "respond back"!

  • Dear Mr. Robert Jordan (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    By the Light and your hope of salvation, please, end it.

    Thank you.

    • By the Light and your hope of salvation, please, end it.

      And kill Perrin on the way. In fact, kill about 1/3 of your chars to clear up the plot lines. Take a hint from George R.R. Martin and get rid of some chars no matter how beloved they might be.

  • Book comments.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jskline ( 301574 )
    While this whole idea has a lot of utility for a lot of folks, I also see a lot of squabbling and possible other "problems" that can amount from it. In the past there have been incidents of people reading books only to turn round and threaten the author or get the author into a public forum of some type and try to publicly discrace them. Sometimes, people are fickle. You have to account for that.

    I think this might have more use and merit in a university or other school setting as a means for discussion and
    • It depends on the author, I suppose. I've been writing on Slashdot for 7+ years. I think I can handle whatever people would throw at me on Amazon. :)

      - Robin

  • Reminds me of Asimov and Piers Anthony (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Com2Kid ( 142006 ) <com2kidSPAMLESS@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @06:33PM (#14354429) Homepage Journal
    Issac Asimov had, and Piers Anthony still has, very detailed author's notes in their books, something that I have always loved. When reading them, I feel like I am joining up with a larger culture, there is no way I could possibly have attended the Hugo awards in the 1950s*, but from reading Asimov's writings about them, I sure felt like I was there.

    Likewise with Piers Anthony, reading his books I also got to watch as his family grew up, be there when he moved from one house to another, and experience so many other things that drew me closer to the author.

    Really these author's notes were the first sort of "blog", for all intents and purposes the authors are not some sort of famous celebrities (well outside of their circle of fans), and they live pretty typical lives. The only thing different is that they managed to convince their publisher to let stick a journal entry or two in an otherwise fictional book

    Having read so much in Asimov's books about Spider Robinson being a young boy, I still have trouble reconciling the fact that he is in reality an old man!

    *I think it was the 50s Hugos he wrote about, it has been awhile since I read his Hugo Awards series.
  • Finally Authors will get the same feedback that developers get right now. The good and the bad.
  • As an author selling four titles on Amazon, I worry about the downside: one could get easily get baited into arguments, pedantic debates, and troll activity. Other authors might ding themselves by inadvertantly pushing personal agendas and straying away, in an obvious way, from their area of knowledge. It might be the authors that don't respond, or don't even keep a blog there, who weather the occasional bad reviews and continue to sell well. I guess I sound like I'm on a high horse, but I'm certainly no
  • <pedantic>
    What is the difference between "respond" and "respond back"?
    <\pedantic>

  • Mike Jeffress (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JWhiton ( 215050 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @07:37PM (#14354768) Homepage
    Did anyone see the quote from the Reverend Mike Jeffress?
    "It must be that at the root of the current war against Christmas is spiritual warfare in which Satan and his demons are seeking to gain control of the most powerful free nation in the world in order to persecute Jesus Christ and his followers," Mr. Jeffress wrote. "All the more reason why I believe my latest book, 'The Prayer of Jehoshaphat for America: The Power of Repentance in a Time of Crisis,' would make a great Christmas gift this year."

    Satan is among us, so make sure you buy my book so you can find out how to stop him! Usually people aren't so brazen about these kind of cash grabs, but I guess he was inspired by all the hullabaloo lately.

    Makes me wonder what other sorts of author opinions they'd be willing to host. If I write a book about UFO conspiracies, can I count on Amazon to post my latest theory?
  • Finally! We can tell Jack Thompson what we really think! He's sure to change his ways when he finds out what we all really think.

  • They already had this... (Score:3)

    by BTWR ( 540147 ) <americangibor3NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday December 28, 2005 @09:16PM (#14355234) Homepage Journal
    Years ago, when you commented on an item at Amazon, you wrote in the text box and then selected one of the following:

    - "I am a Consumer and I would like to comment on this product"

    - "I am the author and I would like to comment on my product"

    - "I am the manufacturer and I would like to comment on our product"

    A few years ago, it seemed to disapear. I always assumed they got too many fake people pretending to be Stephen King, etc and took the policy away. This new "verifiable" author commenting system is probably better. (And, if it picks up, i'll bet it becomes simply for authors or author's agents to get them enrolled and the program will expand)

  • I'm one of the original dozen beta test authors as you can tell by visiting my:

    Amazon Author's Profile [amazon.com]

    I was initially a skeptic, but having used it, I'm 100% behind the idea. You can see what an author's posting looks like here:

    Untangling Tolkien [amazon.com]

    It's marvelous for an author wanting to promote books (existing or planned), answer critics, or write more detail about a book than Amazon usually posts. You can make a posting like that above to any of the Amazon detail pages for which you're the bo

  • For those who're interested, I've written a detailed description of Amazon Connect and posted it to Wikipedia.

    Wikipedia-Amazon Connect [wikipedia.org]

    Feel free to link to it from your blogs. The idea is a great one, but it's a little confusing until you see actual examples.

    --Mike Perry, Inkling Books, Seattle

    • As far as I can tell, the page for Amazon Connect just links back to the page for Amazon.com

      Try again?

      • As far as I can tell, the page for Amazon Connect just links back to the page for Amazon.com. Try again?

        I suspect this is just some weirdness among Wikipedia reviewers. The entry was active for several hours before some twit put in a redirect to the main Amazon.com link. That's dumb because there's not one word about Amazon Connect there. They might as well redirect it to an entry about the Ebola virus. It would have made more sense not to link Amazon Connect to anything.

        It may be because I linked to

  • Anne Rice had some interaction with her fans a while ago on amazon.com over her then newly released book, Blood Canticle.

    Link Here [amazon.com]

    Anyone know of any other instances when the author posted to amazon.com to defend his/her own work?
  • How pathetic is that.

    "Hey mannn, most Greatful Dead lyrics are actually translittered iambic pentamiturrreee, maannn. With deep allusions to shakespeare mann."

    Woooooshshsh.

    "This is some killer herb maannnnn."

  • To participate in Amazon Connect, you must be using a compatible browser with JavaScript enabled.

    Currently supported browsers include:
    Internet Explorer for Windows, version 5.5 or higher
    Firefox for Windows, Mac OS or Linux, version 1.0 or higher
    Mozilla for Windows, Mac OS or Linux, version 1.6 or higher
  • I'm just waiting for the responses from the artists of CDs with Sony XCP on them. That'll be a fun flamewar to watch. :)

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