Amazon Launches Galley Program and Self-Publishing
Submitted by mwilliams on Sat, 2007-08-11 16:16.If you’ve a history of writing ‘helpful’ reviews, you can now get advance copies of books from Amazon Vine through their new galley program. Amazon has also announced that its on-demand publishing services will now be free of charge and the self-published works can be printed and sold on the site. Cui bono?
TAGS:
If you had a Wordsy account you could comment on this story. Get an account now!
While I love the idea of getting more ARCs, I'm not even going to bother attempting to sign up for this. The prolific reviewers who are being offered this option are "reading" 10s of times faster than I can. The top reviewers cadre at Amazon are so prolific that most folks believe they aren't actually reading the books. They are also noting that they are looking for "accurate" reviewers, which sounds to me like code for "adequately promotional." I think I'll stick to doing my reviews at my own site.
As for the self-publishing bit, definitely want to read Modern Matriarch's piece that she posted the other day.
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
I am wondering what exactly a 'helpful' review is, myself. Are they talking positive versus negative reviews here? A guess negative reviews wouldn't sell too many books.
It begs the question whether reviews are even helpful at all in terms of deciding whether a book is worthy of your tme. One man's meat is another man's poison, after all. I'm just now reading a book I'm enjoying immensely. My partner, an equally avid reader and a highly intelligent individual, read some of it and trashed it.
I'm off to read Modern Matriarch's piece, thanks.
Depends on who's doing the reviewing. I don't have any idea how much the content of most reviews (particularly those on Amazon) helps or hurts book sales. However, I know for a fact that *who* does the reviewing can make a huge difference sometimes. Just getting a review in the New York Times or a major weekly or the holy grail, Oprah, can really jump a book's sales. Oh, how I wish Oprah had never said a thing about "The Secret."
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
Some speculation from Conversational Reading on the reviewing program:
http://www.conversationalreading.com/2007/08/friday-column-o.html
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
There's likely a good bit of truth to that. The Internet seems to be one vast pool of slave labor. Seriously ticks me off.
There is no thief like a bad book
--Italian Proverb
Which is why I put my reviews up on my own site instead of on Amazon itself. That and control. By putting reviews on Amazon reviewers give Amazon nearly every right controlled by copyright law in the U.S.
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
With ya all the way on that one, Rat. I'm currently trying to get my own space together to have control over my stuff, too. The site I write for now is getting all kinds of revenue from my work, and I'm seeing literally pennies for it. I'm not keen on their copyright policy either. My theory is that if people would stop writing for nothing and stop giving away their rights, writers could actually turn a buck doing what they love and do best, and I suspect the quality of the content would improve as well. Online buyers seem to have an overblown sense of entitlement, IMHO. The whole thing just makes me want to rant.
There is no thief like a bad book
--Italian Proverb