by Anne R. Allen
Last week a few readers clued me in on the loss of Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. That was the thing that allowed readers to browse the first few chapters of a book before plunking down their money.
The feature allowed readers shopping for books on Amazon have the same opportunity to browse as people shopping in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.
But Amazon has replaced that “Look Inside” with a “read sample” button on ebook buy pages. Okay. Smaller. A little harder to find — definitely less reader-friendly — but it’s still there.
But for paper books? Many have no “read sample.” You’re on your own. If you want to browse, go to the Barnes and Noble website. Or your local bookstore.
Amazon’s reasons are unfathomable. Why destroy something customers love and drive them to a rival site? Is it because rising paper costs make paper books unprofitable?
A lot of you are probably scoffing now, saying, “Old news. This the tech world. The last update of my computer wiped out all the features I use regularly, and now everything prints out in wingdings.”
Yeah, I know: the motto of tech is “If it ain’t broke, break it. And blame the customer.”
But how did this happen?
Tyrant-worshiping Trolls
Once upon a time, tech companies valued their customers. Amazon had genuinely good service. So I Googled around to see if I could figure out what’s going on with the “Look Inside.” Maybe Amazon had planned lovely new changes, but they were glitchy.
I found a forum of Kindle users who had some information: Amazon started rolling out the change last May, and it has emerged slowly.
But I also found comments that had me wishing I had a supply of Xanax.
“Why should Amazon discuss their retail operations or policies with you? It’s not your concern.”
“My dog is my business; Amazon’s retail operations are not, nor yours. TBH, I find it hard to believe you became sad, stressed and soiled yourself simply because Amazon made minor changes to its retail page, but…whatever”
Imagine caring how your readers are treated!! How dare you! Why would you care if Bezos makes your readers unhappy and drives them away?
And the trollish nastiness went on. Even in different discussions on the subject. They all said, basically:
“Customers have no right to complain. How you’re treated is none of your business. Shut up and obey the tech overlords.”
I’m not making this up.
I don’t know if these shocking remarks are coming from actual writers and readers on KDP, Reddit, and the Kindle boards, or whether they’re Chinese or Russian trolls simply pooping out piles of authoritarian propaganda.
Maybe it’s members of that “Wagner Group” that staged the mutiny against Putin. Now that their sadistic leader got airplane-crashed, they’re probably out of work. 😊
In any case, these are rabid authoritarians who believe we should all bow down to the overlords.
It’s tech. It’s the future!
More Reader-Unfriendliness: Resistance is Futile
When I came back to the blog, I discovered a new comment. This was from a new writer answering my question about what terrible advice they’d been given as newbies. She had been in a writing forum full of trust-fund babies and MFA types who told her that punctuation was totally over, and she shouldn’t capitalize “I” because it’s “hostile and triggering.” Apparently simply having a personal identity is offensive.
And she’d been told a whole lot of other stinking piles of hooey.
What they all had in common was the dictum, “The reader doesn’t matter.” And of course, “Erase the self and submit to your tech overlords.”
“It’s the future!” they said. “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”
Okay, they didn’t say that. The Borg said that — on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Borg were a race of robot aliens who had a hive mind. They had once been sentient beings who gave up their personal identities to become cyborgs.
Don’t Question Authority?
This “Borg” indoctrination isn’t brand new. I’ve seen it elsewhere on social media. I remember a thread on our local “Next Door” site with some very understandable complaints about drones hovering outside windows taking photos without consent. Commenters worried about their own privacy and that of their children. They didn’t want photos of their kids in the shower posted on some porn site.
But one woman objected to the objections. She came in with guns blazing. Her message was — “Okay, Boomer: this is how it is now. Anybody with a drone has a right to take pictures of you or your kid in your bathroom or wherever they want. So what if they put it on a porn site? That’s their decision, and none of your concern.”
It’s tech. It’s the future!”
I should admit I am old. Very old. So old I grew up at a time when we questioned authority, “conformist” was an insult, and we marched for peace and civil rights — rights not just for ourselves, but for others. Caring for others was a good thing. Our parents fought and died to protect the world from an evil tyrant. And we agreed evil tyrants were bad.
So seeing young(ish) people embracing tyranny and expressing rage at concern for others makes me despair.
My generation is guilty of a lot of things. Sacrificing their values to corporate greed is certainly one of them. But I don’t know one Boomer who enjoys being bullied.
Yet here we have these tech addicts of the future saying bullying is good. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
Do We Need to Obey the Non-Potty-Trained?
There’s also the problem of our tech overlords themselves. They’re not the sort of people who generate trust.
As Walter Isaacson says in his new book on Elon Musk: “Sometimes great innovators are risk-seeking man-children who resist potty training…They can be reckless, cringeworthy, sometimes even toxic.”
“Elmo’s” antics remind me of another, older Star Trek episode. The one about Trelane, “The Squire of Gothos.” Trelane is a cruel, deluded alien tyrant who tortures the Enterprise crew. But they’re rescued when Trelane’s Mommy calls him for dinner. Turns out he’s just a naughty little kid.
We’ve watched Elmo X-out Twitter to turn it into a cesspool of hate, lies, and sickening propaganda. Much to his surprise, income is down. Turns out advertisers aren’t all that fond of bullies. Who knew?
And, it turns out, most of the Silicon Valley cringeworthies are following suit. They’re firing much of their workforce and forcing the survivors to work horrific hours while swearing eternal loyalty to their dear leaders.
In Slate this week, David Portnoy writes “What Silicon Valley’s finest have done is take cues from Elon Musk to no longer profess to give a crap about the rabble underneath them, whether employees or users.”
They don’t give a crap about employees or users: the direction Amazon seems to be taking.
And maybe they’re sending trolls around to book discussion groups to tell writers and readers that resistance is futile and they will be assimilated.
What Can Readers and Writers Do?
Sometimes I despair. I wonder if maybe the world did end in the year 2000 as predicted by the Mayans. We are the death-rattle of the talking-ape experiment — walking corpses expiring in the dying embers of humanity.
But then I pick myself up and dust myself off and count blessings. I live in a town with a wonderful independent bookstore. And there’s another great indie store only a few miles away.
One thing we can do to resist the oppressors is to buy and sell our books through independent bookstores. I know it’s not easy. As writers, we can’t simply quit Amazon. That’s giving up 70% of our income.
Only my latest book, Catfishing in America is available in paper to order from Ingram through an independent bookstore. (They all are available at B&N.)
I have to admit I embraced Amazon 12 years ago and jumped right into the ebook world. I adore my Kindle.
But the Zon seems to have joined the tech companies who distain customers. We have to fight back somehow. I wish Ruth and I were techy enough to sell our books from this site.
Of course the enemy is not just Amazon, or AI, or creepy trolls who think it’s none of our business if somebody chooses to hurt us.
The enemy is complacency. It’s forgetting that you are a human being with the same right to exist as any other. That it’s okay to care. And create art. Yes, create! If you didn’t read Jim Denney’s post from last week, do. It will inspire you to fight the robots with your creativity. Even if it’s only for a handful of locals instead of the world.
The enemy is letting yourself be assimilated — and not resisting.
Resistance is not futile.
I hope.
***
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) September 17, 2023
What about you, scriveners? Do you think resistance is futile? Have we already been assimilated? Do you know people who like being bullied? Is customer satisfaction no longer important? Do you believe what corporations do to you is none of your business?
BOOK OF THE WEEK
THE LADY OF THE LAKEWOOD DINER
A comedy that pokes fun at the myth of a Golden Age, making parallels between the Grail legend and the self-mythologizing of the Baby Boomer Generation.
Someone has shot aging bad-girl rocker Morgan Le Fay and threatens to finish the job. Is it fans of her legendary dead rock-god husband, Merlin? Or is the secret buried in her childhood hometown of Avalon, Maine?
Morgan’s childhood best friend Dodie, the no-nonsense owner of a dilapidated diner, may be the only one who knows the dark secret that can save Morgan’s life. And both women may find that love really is better the second time around. Think Beaches meets Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
“A page turning, easily readable, arrestingly honest novel which will keep you laughing at yourself. Who doesn’t remember crashing on a mattress at a friend’s apartment with the stereo blasting Iron Butterfly and no idea where you’ll stay the next night? A cultural masterpiece for the discerning reader.“…Kathleen Keena, author of Adolescent Depression, Outside/In
All Amazons Kobo Barnes & Noble
plus AppleBooks and GooglePlay
***
Featured image: Picard as Locutus, Wikipedia
Maybe you’re right and maybe resistance *is* futile. OTOH, resistance sure feels good! No drugs, no booze, just a healthy dose of brains, wit and self-confidence. Yay!!!
Ruth–If you scroll to the end, you’ll see I said “resistance is not futile”–I hope.” We still have hope. And it’s worth the fight, as you say.
Another excellent read. Thank you!!
Bobbi–Thanks!
I recently noticed that feature was gone from a book I was looking at. Most of my books come from iTunes anyway, so I’ll just browse there.
Alex–For people with Apple devices, iTunes is a good alternative for ebooks. Not for paper, alas.
Thanks for that rant, Anne! I noticed the look inside feature was gone this week too, found the read a sample and got to it. But geez – all those comments. Independent thinkers unite!
Beth–Thanks. The comments were what made me despair. People want tyranny? Who knew?
I guess Loki was right. Some people do want ti be told what to do.
Beth 🙁
It now says READ SAMPLE underneath the cover, seems to be the same thing just called something else.
DB–Yes. I said that in the first part of the post. But it’s harder to find, and it doesn’t exist for paper books. “But Amazon has replaced that “Look Inside” with a “read sample” button on ebook buy pages. Okay. Smaller. A little harder to find — definitely less reader-friendly — but it’s still there. But for paper books? Many have no “read sample.” You’re on your own. If you want to browse, go to the Barnes and Noble website. Or your local bookstore.”
Great post, as usual. I also found the moving of the “Look inside” feature reduced to the smaller “Read Sample” annoying. You are correct that the mantra these days is “if it ain’t broke, break it.”
The ZON should also allow the upload of 3 or 4 chapters for pre-order books to allow perspective customers to take a gander. The full manuscript download on release day would overwrite anything previously sent. Right now, there is no way to read a sample. It seems a missed opportunity to me.
In my previous life I worked as a software QA analyst. Not only was I expected to find bugs but also find “non user friendly” changes. I think the problem these days is that there is no QA from the user standpoint. Developers should never, ever, ever QA their own work at the final stage before public release.
Case in point. My Kindle for PC used to be easy to use, now I have to jump through hoops to download and remove books. Seems every site is making changes that are harder for users. Search functions don’t work, what used to take a single click, now takes 3 or 4. An online game I play made UI changes nobody asked for then had to patch what they broke.
I often wonder if devs are making changes simply to justify making a paycheck. Not their fault. I blame the company powers that be.
Brenda–Thank you!! So great to hear from somebody in the tech industry. I’m glad you’ve observed what I have: everything takes 4 clicks instead of one. And they know customers don’t like it. Amazon cornered the market partly because of the “one click” buy button.
It is telling that they’ve eliminate quality assurance for user-friendliness.
I think you’ve hit on at least one of the problems right here: “I often wonder if devs are making changes simply to justify making a paycheck.”
Exactly what I am finding. Maybe the great Zon does not hate us after all. I do agree about Musk and much of his ilk, but I despair a bit less than Anne.
It is right below the cover, so I don’t think it is difficult to find, Anne. It seems pretty obvious to me. It is there on my print versions as well. That does not mean it is there on a print versions. It is definitely confusing what they are doing.
JR–If you’re expecting the regular “Look Inside” up there above the cover art, you’re going to be confused by the small “read sample” underneath. It’s unkind and uncalled for. It says, “your convenience is not a priority for us.” For no apparent reason. It’s an example of the distain for customers that US tech has acquired in the age of Musk–as the Slate article says.
A sad and excellent telling Anne. Yes, tech was a novelty when it showed up in the late 90s, and like everything else, people find a way to ruin everything. I also notice on Amazon dot com when I look at an author’s page for books, they are merely squares with the book’s title and no info unless you click on the book. I find this annoying. As a Canadian when I go to books on dot ca, it’s still the old lineup of books where you can see the stars and reviews and blurb about the book without having to click each book like on dot com, to read about and go back to author page to click and go to another page to read again. The Zon clearly couldn’t give a damn. 🙁
DG–I didn’t know that Canadians still get the old book line-up. That’s another new Amazon US “feature” that discourages book sales. Not only does it make you click on each book, but they mix wildly unsuitable books by other authors in the results and don’t let you see all books by one author. If Bezos hates customers so much, why not shut his store down? He has enough money and we can survive fine if the world doesn’t depend on Amazon for books.
Anne, I have to give credit, that was a full-on rant! After years of being more like Camilla Randall, always seeing both sides, that was refreshing! You deserved to let off steam and I don’t much disagree with anything you said.
I’m not sure it’s quite as bad as all that, but there has definitely been a souring of behavior, reaction, etc. Only today, reading this, did I start to wonder if we’re being groomed for authoritarian “leadership” (which in this country looks more like an oxymoron).
At least the audio sample is still there on ACX!
Will–Yes, it’s a rant. Built up over weeks of abuse and craziness. It’s the grooming for authoritarianism that really gets to me. I’m seeing it in so many places now. I even heard an acquaintance say this stuff in person. “Just shut up and obey. Tech owns us.” Grrrr.
But yes, the audio sample is still there! But shhhh. If they find out we like it, they’ll take it away.
Welcome to the Wokeforce, Anne – the result of the long Marxist march through the universities. Fortunately, I don’t think it’ll stick – having faith that common sense is hardwired into most people.
So that explains what happened to the Look Inside feature. I thought it was just me forgetting how to play Zon. That new little button is real easy to miss. I did an experiment and pulled up one of my books for a test Read Sample. It looks like the 10 percent giveaway is now down around 5. I suppose that saves on electronic character costs.
Anyway, Happy Sunday to you and to Ruth. Keep on resisting 🙂
Garry–I see much more Mussolini in this than Marx. After all, Marx wasn’t a fascist, although most of his disciples are.
Yup. That’s what happened to the Look Inside. I’m sure most people reacted the way you did–“I must have done something wrong.” I did not know they’ve reduced the 10% to 5%. More mischief. These people are diabolical.
So much has changed since I retired in 2013. Even with an IT background I feel I’m always running with scissors trying to keep up. Thing is most development is geared toward Apps and younger, tech savvy people. What I find odd is that some gaming companies have a test server where players can test changes and provide feedback before the changes go live. None of the retail or social media sites do this and we users log in and wonder what the hell happened. The least they could do is have a cross section of non IT people on their QA staff, if they have a QA department at all.
Amazon is sending some readers to competitors who still offer a preview feature: Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo.
Maybe this will bite the Zon in the butt. At least I (with a capital “I”) hope so. I always used the “Look Inside” feature, even with free books.
Kathy–Me too! I was a devout reader of Look Inside, freebie or no. I want to see if this is a professional, carefully edited book that’s worth my time. I’ve discovered some wonderful new writers this way.
As usual, I’m learning about the latest thing happening in the industry through your blog, Anne! And that’s me, with 17 books out there. I was talking to another writer this week, and she was saying, “Remember how 20 years ago, you and I were talking about how the industry is going to hell in a handbasket, and how things couldn’t get much worse for authors? Well, weren’t we optimistic!”
Melodie–Yes, we were optimistic. And I was, un-sarcastically. I was a real believer in the “Kindle Revolution” and the advent of the ebook. I thought tech was our friend. Haha. 🙂
Egg-zak-ly what I’ve been thinking lo these many moons (“I often wonder if devs are making changes simply to justify making a paycheck.”) Not that I’m a conspiracy theorist, BUT is there a tie-in of some kind between high-tech universities and hi-tech corporations wherein corpos give money to programs, which provide a steady stream of developer-employees who then feel they need to produce “improvements” which turn out to be “un-provements”, but who cares? because their system is working. Or am I off the deep end here? What I know is each new-and-improved version of the Apple operating system adds unwanted complications and leaves me scratching my brain.
—Wm. Randolph Wurst
Mr. Wurst–I should not be surprised to hear there’s a tie-in to academia here. I guess “un-provements” must be profitable in some way, or they wouldn’t keep breaking things for no apparent reason. A head-scratcher indeed.
In regards to Amazon and other tech overlords that can make your personal life a perpetual hell of things you do not like at all, it’s not customer satisfaction that you need to worry about, but corporate satisfaction. Get in a kerfluffle with a tech overlord and lose permanent access to their products/websites/services.
When Amazon did a wholesale change about book ratings as it applied to erotica, they buried the info deep within a general e-mail about wholesale print/cost changes, leaving people with plummeting book sales until they were able to figure it out from other sources (me, listening to a podcast).
Having been a gov’ment employee for 24+ years, I used to applying workarounds, and this will simply be another product that will require a workaround.
GB–Ain’t that the truth! I hear about writers kicked off Amazon for life every day for small infractions that may or may not have actually happened. Once one of their robots decides you’ve broken a rule, it doesn’t matter if you’re guilty. Just that you’re the chosen victim of the minute. They are now kicking authors off if their covers contain images that are “freely available on the Web.” That’s a new one on me. People who paid for images that are now available on a temporary freebie plan are getting kicked off Amazon for life.
Yes, there are always workarounds. They take 10 clicks instead of one and rob you of your time. Mission accomplished, I guess: remind customers that they are minions.
Not only in the US are people being groomed. All over the world people are being groomed to do as they are told without question.
VM–:-(
Brenda, you expressed my thoughts perfectly. Amen, amen, amen.
The prevailing attitude in retail today is “This would be a great business except for those effing customers.”
Debbie–So true!
While I agree with you about how people don’t protest as they once did, and seem to accept things more readily (unless you are French), I don’t see the big problem. Look inside simply showed the first pages of a book that often comprised dedication, copyright, thanks, index etc before you come to the actual writing. So, I assume the sample misses these things.
As to not being able to use this when buying paper books, why can’t you look at the sample for the ebook, then buy the paper book?
But I agree that the Zon is too powerful; also about ‘if it ain’t broke, break it.’ So many times I’ve used something perfectly well for ages, then they “improve ‘it, so I can’t fathom it out anymore.
VM–The sample shows the same pages as the Look Inside. All those chapter numbers with no titles. If a paper book isn’t available in ebook, you can’t browse. Either way, it’s more work, for no reason.
Yup. “Update” is tech-speak for “Eff it up.”
Anne, you’re singing my song! Rant on, Sister!
BTW, not to go all conspiracy theorist but…your post did not arrive today by the usual RSS feed to my email. I’m a longtime subscriber and receive your posts like clockwork. Why did today’s post not reach me as it normally does? I had to go looking for you. Hmmmm. A teeny-weeny bit of censorship b/c you dared to question the authorities???
Debbie–I just realized I didn’t get the notice the MailChimp mailing went out to subscribers! Thanks for telling me. I’ve written to our webmaster to see if he has a fix. I hate it when they randomly decide not to send it. Happens several times a year. Probably not censorship. Just tech going wrong. But you never know. 🙂
Why is it whenever there’s a feature we like, it’s sure to be 86’d? At least Smashwords still allows you to make a sample available to read online. I hope that won’t change when D2D finishes assimilating them. And if I hear one more person say, “Ok Boomer…” I may not be responsible for my actions.
DD–That’s how it seems to me. “You like it? Then you can’t have it!” seems to be their motto. All the other retailers like Smashwords and Kobo and B&N have a sample, so we certainly can browse online. It’s just annoying that people can’t browse Amazon the way they used to.
I agree about “Okay Boomer.” Such a nasty insult.
Just to echo this — my access to your blog arrives at nearly the exact same time every Sunday — today it was delayed by several hours….
Maria–Yes. It is supposed to go out at noon every Sunday. (It goes live at 10 AM Pacific time) But today the MailChimps were apparently hung over or on strike, so our webmaster had to go in there and send manually at 5 PM. No apparent reason. Just tech going wrong, as usual.
Anne’s post didn’t arrive for me, either! I found it through another blog that shared it.
Liz–As I said to Maria– It is supposed to go out at noon every Sunday. (It goes live at 10 AM Pacific time) But today the MailChimps were apparently hung over or on strike, so our webmaster had to go in there and send manually at 5 PM. No apparent reason. Just tech going wrong, as usual.
What if a lot of authors and readers mount a “We’re not going to take this anymore!” campaign?
Someone who does business daily with Amazon told me they often make changes to “test” things and could reverse them if the results don’t serve them as expected. She offered this link as a way to send complaints to the Great and Powerful A:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/contact-us/foresight/hubgateway
When on that page, select “help with something else” then “Something Else” then “I need more help”; then select an option or keep selecting “something else” until you get a place to type words.
Ann–Best of luck with that. Sometimes, just sometimes, you can get through to a human being who actually gives a damn. Worth trying.
Well, this is depressing. If the Zon doesn’t like the business of publishing and selling books, then don’t do it anymore. We have other options.
As someone who went through university creative writing programs (undergrad and grad), I find this development even more appalling:
She had been in a writing forum full of trust-fund babies and MFA types who told her that punctuation was totally over, and she shouldn’t capitalize “I” because it’s “hostile and triggering.”
Capitalizing “I” is “hostile and triggering”? To whom?? I say that refusing to capitalize “I” for that reason is presumptuous and pretentious. And condescending.
Liz–“Presumptuous and pretentious. And condescending.” Well said. People like that make me despair for our language and literature. This isn’t the only time I’ve heard that pricey MFA programs are teaching that capitalization is over, and words should be “free of punctuation constraints.” (Insert vomit icon here.)
Hi Anne — I noticed the Look Inside option was gone earlier this summer. My reaction was not polite. I used that little peek to quickly check out books referred to me by my family and friends. I appreciated how easy the process was, as I don’t have a lot of time to pursue fun stuff online. I could find a book, check it out, and buy it in just a few minutes. I buy audible books mostly for my rec reading, as the eyes are whipped with hours of screen time in editing and writing.
I realize, and hear the hint even here of ‘what’s the big deal?’, but I do not have a love affair with my keyboard and do not ‘need’ to confirm my personal power with extra clicks or button pressing. So — force me to push another button or click again, and I will most likely refuse — and may also fail to make a purchase. I’ll miss the fun of buying books that are a bit of an intuitive splurge… based on the first pages.
As far as resistance being futile? Never!!! Too many people sit like frogs in a pot of water slowly coming to a boil, while making fun of the old bullfrogs sitting safely on a cool rock.
Boomer, my ass!!
Maria
Maria–Thank you for not being polite. It’s ridiculous. It was a great Amazon feature and they took it away just to drive away readers and stop book sales. Why? Boomers, time to fight back!
I used the link suggested above, eventually got a chat with an Amazon Customer Service person and told her the problem.
She explained that the Look inside the Book feature is only available for books published with an ISBN.
I told her my books DO have ISBN #s.
She gave me a link for how to set up the Look Inside feature.
I asked if Amazon could restore the feature to all books affected.
She then said, “We can manually add this feature, however it will takes 3-5 business days to process, since we need to do it manually making sure it wont affect with the other features.”
I agreed to that and gave her my book titles.
Will it work? Will Amazon restore Look Inside? Only the Shadow knows.
Ann–How infuriating. They took away look inside and are now lying about it. And if you want things restored to the way they were before they effed it up, it will take OUR hard work. Do let us know if anything happens.
sigh — I need a drink… Hi again, Anne…
Followed the link in the comments. 37 minutes later and 3 different, confused Amazon customer service folks (Diane, Anushka, Lol Mohan), and no one acknowledged the notion of Look Inside, but finally got confirmation that ‘sample’ under the image of the book cover would take me to information about the book I was considering.
Managed to maintain blood pressure — cheeks are hot though… :O))))) lololololol
Maria–Don’t you feel like that guy in the 1970s movie Network who yelled out the window “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” If only they knew how much worse it would get.
Did Bezos buy Mail Chimp? 😉
Debbie–Hahaha! Wouldn’t be surprised.
Yes! Have felt that way many times in past decades… it’s better now because only a select age group know what the heck it means. :O))
Loved this piece, Anne!
Amazon spent 20, 30 years training the public how to “look inside” the book with a single click, then for no apparent reason, changed it. The “Read Sample” button can be found if you look for it, but all too many people will assume that there’s no way to “look inside” anymore. Brilliant.
Btw, I checked my paperback and hardcover titles, and the “Read Sample” button does bring up a preview that looks just like the old “look inside” preview. Not as easy to access as simply clicking the book cover, but at least it’s there.
—Jim D.
Jim–Thanks! I usually try to stay positive, but extreme stupidity sometimes pushes me over the edge. 🙂 I just wonder how many sales they lost because people didn’t see the Look Inside and clicked away. It’s true the “read sample” is just the same, although I’m told it’s half the length. Great to know it’s on your hardcovers. A couple I checked didn’t have a sample at all.
You are correct. But don’be so envious yet. They just haven’t got around to changing the Canadian setup. I know from dot com how annoyed I get when I want to look through a writer’s catalogue that it is so scattered and I get frustrated and go over to dot ca. When I enjoy a book I like to look at an author’s other books, and exactly how you described it, hard to know how many books when others are inserted. It’s like we don’t even have our own book page anymore! 🙁
Debby–You’re right. They really took our book pages as well as the easy access Look Inside.
The interior machinations of Amazon are well byong my limited grasp. I think they change thing up just to keep their employees busy, but who knows? Ease of use is definitely not their hallmark regarding either customers or authors.
Eric–It seems to be the way of all tech, as the Slate article says–they can’t be bothered with customers or employees or vendors. All they care about is raw power.
DGKaye mentioned the author catalogue. What’s strange is that if you simply type a name into the search bar, it will bring up a string of other authors books plus some of the books by the author you did the search on.
However, if you are on a page displaying just one of the books, the purchase page I guess with the blurb and all, you can click on the authors name by their picture found below the read sample button, and it will bring up only that author’s work.
A bit convoluted. I suppose by bringing up other books they are counting on an impulse buy much like stores use end cap displays.
Brenda–Yes, I discovered that too. Another example of needing 20 clicks when we used to need only one. Wasting customers’ time seems to loom large on their agenda.
Thank you, Anne, for writing about the demise of the “Look Inside” feature, but something you said stopped me in my tracks. It’s off-topic, so those who wish can disregard it.
As a die-hard Trekker, I had to comment on the following:
” The Borg were a race of robot aliens who had a hive mind. They had once been sentient beings who gave up their personal identities to become cyborgs.”
The Borg were a collective of formerly sentient beings who were assimilated into the hive mind against their will, not by choice. Hence the sentence, “Resistance is futile.” Their lives were taken from them and all their knowledge was added to the hive mind for the benefit of the collective.
I look forward to your blogposts every Monday. Yours is one of two blogs I follow religiously. The other is K.M. Weiland’s of helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com.
Madelin–Thanks for checking in with the real Star Trek skinny. I had remembered that the original Borg chose the collective, and it was only the captured aliens like the Enterprise crew who were forced to join against their will. I’m not sure who the original enslaver could be, if they were 100% unwilling slaves. But the last time I watched TNG was some time ago. It went along better with my narrative that people are choosing to become minions to their tech overlords.
And yes! Katy Weiland’s blog is awesome.
It’s as though they don’t care about books when they are making zillions on everything else. 🙁
I went to Amazon to see my two. I did find the “Read Sample” button below the cover for the paperback. I clicked it and it showed the dedication, the table of contents, and the first Chapter and some of the second .
Fred–Yes. The sample is the same as what we saw with the “Look Inside,” except shorter. The big difference is that the button is at the bottom in a smaller font, and you can’t just click on the cover the way you used to. Some readers click away before they see the new button. An annoying change for no reason.
The “Read Sample” feature isn’t working for my books when I get to them from Amazon.com, but it does work when I get to them from my Bookshelf. Very disappointing.
David–Thanks for letting me know. So this “update” is even glitchier than most. If the sample doesn’t work for the customer, it’s kind of pointless. You can try to get through to them via Author Central, but I don’t know if that works anymore, either.
“As writers, we can’t simply quit Amazon. That’s giving up 70% of our income.” I don’t care I’m not doing to. I’m using Smashwords when my books are done, I’ll figure something out. Amazon sucks!
Meka–Smashwords is a great company. I’ve met Mark Coker several times and I’m always impressed with him.
As writers, we are not Amazon’s customers. We are suppliers, and that changes the relationship. (Of course many of us are Amazon customers as well as suppliers,but the rules of the road are different for each of these roles). As suppliers, Amazon gets to pick and choose among us in all sorts of ways, from category choices to promotional strategies.
Being an Amazon supplier sucks. But they own the marketplace, so we are stuck.
Eric–As suppliers, we have a right to care how our customers are treated. When Amazon treats our customers badly, we have the right to complain. They probably won’t listen, but we still need to try.
I miss the Look Inside option, especially for children’s books, crafts books, and art books. So I did a web search after finding no way to contact Amazon directly. A sad decision on their part. When Amazon fired up, I thought it was brilliant. Then it went to the dark side. And woe is us, with bricks and mortar stores disappearing rapidly, we often have no choice but to use Amazon way too often.
I miss Kroch’s & Brentano’s, Stuart Brent’s, and even Crown Books.
Denise–Oh, I miss Brentanos! And I used to manage a B. Dalton store in Hartford. But take heart. Indie bookstores are having a renaissance. My local indie store is doing a huge amount of business this season. 🙂
Sending us back to the stores. The book I was going to order from Amazon but did not because I couldn’t look inside is also sold at Barnes and Noble for close to half price, with plenty of time to sit in a stuffed chair and get started.
Skip–The bookstore experience is so much less stressful, isn’t it? Barnes and Noble used to be the bad guys when I worked for B. Dalton, and B&N was putting everybody else out of business with their escalators and Starbucks. But now they’re the underdog. I think it’s good to shop there even if you don’t find the book for half price. But if you do, yippee! One more reason not to shop online.
Anne–love the rant! Agree 100%. What happened to basic human decency? Everyone’s too worried about being “triggered” over something stupid (even this comment). Thank goodness I write thrillers. I don’t know how romance writers keep every reader happy with trigger warnings without spoiling the plot. If taken out of context, anything might be seen as a trigger. It must be exhausting. *Most* readers know when they pick up a thriller they need to check their triggers at the door.
Sue–I find trigger warnings annoying too. Often they contain spoilers. But I hadn’t thought of the fact Romance writers have a tougher time. It would be hard to hold up in court an argument that you bought a thriller and had no idea it would have any “thrills.” Or a you read a mystery and didn’t expect any corpses. But a Romance–that’s supposed to be sweet and lovey, right? Not really, people. If you don’t want to be triggered, go watch some paint dry. Real novels are about people in gnarly situations, not bland characters with no problems.
Thank God for this article, thought I was losing my mind – HATE the “modern”, “customer doesn’t matter” thinking – will look for ways to leave Amazon
Grant–The problem is these huge companies have a virtual monopoly, so they don’t have to pay attention to customers. We need healthy competition for the system to work. But when huge companies pay no taxes, they can get bigger and bigger and nobody can present strong enough competition. Tax the rich!
It’s getting worse. I found your article because I had similar issues with their simple lock screen ad. I submitted an ad for one of my books that languished for a week. I finally ask support for help. They said it had a grammar error and please fix. No problem. Well, except they did not say where the error was located. Given it was like, a sentence, and I had Grammarly look over my shoulder while creating it, should there be a typo, I could not see the error. Back to the support again, to which they said, “Oh, you can’t edit it. You’ll need to create a new ad if you want to do an ad.” I was like, no thanks.
I’m a retired software developer and tech manager/project manager. So, the attitude these guys give really rubs me the wrong way. We built the platforms they use and we never had that sort of attitude with customers, internal or external in any company, software or otherwise.
Sadly, I think the Amazon’s marketplace for independent authors is imploding before our eyes. Fortunately, there is plenty of competition. It will just take more work for us to redistribute.
Recently I subscribed to BookBub, and today I clicked a link in the email for a book that sounds interesting. To my surprise, the link took me to Amazon and the page that displayed included the “Look Inside” option. I opened a second Amazon tab and performed a parallel search for the book, and this time was not given the Look Inside option.
Addendum: It appears that I get “Look Inside” when clicking the BookBub link in my email on a cell phone but not on my PC.
JP–Hmmm. All very mysterious.
JP–That’s fascinating. The Bookbub link must go to a cached version of the Amazon buy pages.
I think it may still be there on desktop but definitely not on handhelds. Can’t check rn though.