Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Author searches not structured as "lastname, firstname" don't work on exact matches... which means you can get a swarm of results from other authors with the same first or last name as the one you want. While that's sometimes useful, especially if you're not sure of spelling, *exact* matches should be displayed first, and then other variants on the name/spelling.
Author search for "Isaac Asimov" turned up: - Handbook of Medical Image Processing and Analysis by Bankman, Isaac
- Immunology of Human Reproduction by Manyonda, Isaac T.
- The Scope of Governing: An Introduction to the Study of Politics by Isaac, D. Balbus
And several other books, long before it listed I, Robot.
Search for "Asimov, Isaac" had much better results; the top line were Foundation & Robots books, before it started showing me books by other authors whose first names were Isaac.
If the search engine works notably better with "lastname, firstname" instead of "firstname lastname," it needs work. Possibly, it just needs a line of text suggesting that author's last name should be listed first. But fixing the actual search algorithm would be better.
(Also, about pricing: Z.A. Maxfield's "ePistols at Dawn," which is on my "to buy soon" list, costs fifty cents *more* at MyEZRead than at other sites. Suggested retail is $5.49, and your store has it for $5.99--as PDF only, possibly DRM'd PDF only. I expect to be buying it from Fictionwise when I decide to throw money at it; I'll get access to it in several formats *and* for less money. Tell your marketing people that trying to end all the prices in .99 is a silly decision when other stores are not rounding up.)
I hope I don't come across as complaining too much. I want Astak readers to be a lot more popular--they're what I most often recommend to people who are interested in ebook readers--and I'd like the store to succeed, even if I turn out not to be the target customer. I expect new sites to have some bugs to work out, and hope that feedback lets them get fixed faster. |
Dear Elfwreck:
You are not complaining... you are helping.
At present, the correct way on our site to do an author search is to type the full name of the author like this: "Clive Cussler" or "Isacc Asimov". Your point is well taken and I should have told everyone about this.
The search engine does not recognize commas. Just enter the name straight as: first name and then last name with a space in between. You can also search by just the last name "Asimov" but many authors have the same last name and typing first and last will help prevent bringing up pages of authors.
ePistols at Dawn: let me look up what that is costing us and see if we can price that at $5.39. I do not know until I try. I agree with you that rounding to "something.99" is a way to loose business. I cannot always have the lowest price; but we do intend to be that way 90% of the time. Wholesalers charge us a price and then we mark up the minimum we can and make pennies. Let me check it out. Check our store in a few days please and I may be able to make you happy.