Quote:
Originally Posted by davidwfleming
ATTENTION ALL READERS AND WRITERS! What are your impressions of my Amazon Author page? Would it entice you to purchase an eBook? Any turn-offs?
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Well first thing is about Author pages generally is that I mainly click on them as a way of finding out a list of books by an author. I'm not sure I'd happen upon it for an author I didn't already know. I'm more like to find a new author through a specific book recommendation (whether that's through a friend, a site like goodreads, "people who bought X also bought Y" etc).
That said, the main thing I want from your page is to know what your books are about. All I get by default is the titles, cover and the price. Is there any way to get a one-line summary in there?
So I click on the "more details" buttons. For "Growing Up Wired" I get a summary that starts "He decides to move into the fraternity house..." He? Who he? OK, so I can figure out it's a story about a student. Then interspersed in the text is the word (SPOILER) and what looks like a key plot detail. Clearly this summary ("Provided by Shelfari") is formatted for another system. But I'm not reading it on Shelfari I'm reading it on your Author page.
"Not from Concentrate" summary is bizzarre. It looks like a random list of tag words. Again presumably from another site where it makes sense in context. If I could be bothered I could probably glean something from it but I'm more likely to move past it.
"Modern Manhood" doesn't have a summary but quotes a customer review (did you choose that review or did it pick one for you?) which is useful as the reviewer has thoughtfully given us a one-liner description. Also worth noting is that this is a short piece. Nothing wrong with that but it's nice to know when a "book" is a pamphlet/essay/short story rather than a longer form. This is only apparent when the "more details" is expanded.
"With and Without Class" doesn't have a summary or a review. The only "more details" I get is the length (useful, see above) and its sales rank and I really couldn't care less about that. At the very best, even if I was influenced by a book being popular in its niche then I'd still want to know what it's about.
I don't know how much control you have over these things - especially whether you can get at least some of the "more details" info displayed by default but it's worth trying to find out.
HTH