Quote:
Originally Posted by cromag
But, how do you really feel about this, Hitch?  |
Oh, well, y'know...I think everyone should try it at least once. Go through the cost of setting up a digital cart, applying DRM (if that's desired--please, please, let's all not get into pro- anti-DRM discussions here, thanks), working the kinks out, integrating the cart into the site, and then find out what happens after people click the "buy now!" button. After all, misery loves company, so, I'd like those who try it to post back here and tell me how GREAT it's all going.
I have a thread (more grist for your enjoyment mill, Cro!) that is 89 emails long. EIGHTY-NINE, from a client that couldn't get his book open. (I've told this story here before, I know.). This is
ONE example--and not the worst!--from over 2,000 clients. And he's NOT atypical.
He was a Mac user with a gmail account. The emails included endless accusations about how my files were corrupt, mind you, because Apple told him so. This is why I had no choice but to finally do all the tech-support--above and beyond what we ALREADY DO--myself, because I couldn't have him smearing the company name, saying we'd delivered corrupt or unusable files.
This was after I explained that dragging-dropping a download link, to create a SHORTCUT, to the desktop, isn't downloading a file. And so on and so forth. He finally called Apple, which promptly told him that the file was corrupt, because those geniuses, in their PAID TECH SUPPORT, MIND YOU, couldn't figure out that he wasn't downloading the file correctly, which entailed the hair-raising high-tech capabilities of SAVING IT TO HIS COMPUTER. From a LINK. And then using the RIGHT program to open it. Because Apple, of course, can't conceive of the idea that you might have to open a program (Kindle previewer) and then drag and drop the file ONTO IT. Therefore, as the client repeatedly didn't read the step-by-step instructions that we send not once, not twice, but THREE times, to every single client, Apple decided "Hey, the file's corrupt!"
And of course, as the mighty APPLE said it, it must be true, no?
I finally had to pull out my MacMini paperweight, boot it up, wait 2 hours for the dropboxes to synch, and make a series of screenshots, using my personal gmail account, (so that what I was shooting as screenshots would match what he was seeing, EXACTLY), which I then further explicated using SnagIt, with arrows, boxes, etc.: "click here." "Go there." And so on. Two hours of screen caps, marking up screen caps, and the like. This is IN ADDITION TO the 89 emails, you understand.
I sent those, and, surprise! His files weren't corrupted any longer, as if I waved my magic wand over them. (He still thinks I did something to them to "fix them," you understand?).
So, sure: heck, you go right on ahead, folks, and you sell your books from your own website. Have a blast. As I said previously, every client I had that tried it, including lawfirms with support staff, secretaries, doctor's offices, ditto,
all decided inside of six months that the percentage that Amazon takes is MORE THAN FAIR, because at Amazon,
they handle all this crap for you. Got a buyer that doesn't know PDF from ePUB? Downloads some unheard-of mobi reader, to read their Kindle books? Amazon handles it. Got a client that doesn't know USB from UBS Financial? Amazon handles it. Got one that can't find the Downloads folder (I get this not less than 3x weekly),
Amazon handles it.
In fact, one of my lawyer clients declared, afterwards, that Amazon doesn't charge ENOUGH--this same guy thought that they were thieves, before his little experiment in online sales and tech support.
I'm not a shill for Amazon.
But don't say you weren't warned.