Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > Miscellaneous > Feedback

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 08-18-2010, 08:42 AM   #1
Vintage Season
Pulps and dime novels...
Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Vintage Season's Avatar
 
Posts: 343
Karma: 1952003
Join Date: Jan 2009
Device: Kobo Aura/Kobo Aura One LE/iPad Air
Author Self-Promotions: a suggestion for your consideration...

This idea sprang from the ongoing Can self-promotion go to far? thread in the General Discussion area...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage Season View Post
All right, here is an idea:

What if every new thread in Author Self-Promotions also allowed the author to include a single thumbnail cover image for their book, to be put into random rotation in a forum header strip (showcasing perhaps half a dozen titles at a time), so that if someone saw an interesting cover, they could click on that cover and be taken to the relevant link?

A few caveats would have to be enforced:
  • There would be a simple way for users who didn't want to see the header strip to turn it off, from within the User CP.
  • The rotation would be random, but thorough. No repetition would occur until every thumbnail in the random queue had been displayed, at which point the queue would be re-randomized and the process would begin afresh.
  • An author could only start one thread per title. (This would also encourage authors to start a new thread if they had a new title.)
  • Any author determined to be gratuitously bumping his/her own thread would not only lose the image and link for the title(s) they bumped, but be banned from adding any future thumbnails for the banner rotation, until and unless they could satisfy the moderators that the bumping pattern was a non-aggressive newbie mistake, never to be repeated on these forums.

- M.
I should probably note that I merely threw this out as a hypothetical solution, without any deeper analysis of the probable effort its implementation would entail. Feel free to discuss, ridicule or shred the idea... or to put it into practice, if enough people seem to think it is a good one, and there is a practical way to do so.

- M.
Vintage Season is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-18-2010, 11:09 AM   #2
jinlo
aka coco jinlo
jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jinlo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
jinlo's Avatar
 
Posts: 415
Karma: 500002
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: NJ-USA
Device: Just purchased Sony 505, but alas, it is for the wife
I'm not advocating a position for or against this proposal. If it's put into service, I will probably utilize it. I do, however, wish to point out the potential future conflicts with such a promotional tool.

What are you going to do when a certain book cover creates complaints from any of the members of this forum? Are you going to institute standards for content?

I certainly appreciate the opportunity to be able to turn off such a tool if it becomes obnoxious, but I don't think that's going to be enough when more and more authors discover it and begin to submit their covers to gain attention. Eventually, there's going to be one that creates debate. In case you're forgetting, removal of a cover from a post already caused a certain amount of controversy.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74302

If you're going to move forward with a project like this, you should be prepared to deal with these kind of issues.
jinlo is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 08-18-2010, 12:11 PM   #3
Vintage Season
Pulps and dime novels...
Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Vintage Season's Avatar
 
Posts: 343
Karma: 1952003
Join Date: Jan 2009
Device: Kobo Aura/Kobo Aura One LE/iPad Air
Interesting point. Perhaps this could be addressed with something along the lines of Smashwords' "Prude Filter" to determine what content each set of users (opt-in versus opt-out) see, and have it activated by default?

- M.
Vintage Season is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2010, 03:27 PM   #4
meromana
Zealot
meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.meromana can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.
 
meromana's Avatar
 
Posts: 129
Karma: 11430
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: NC, USA
Device: my laptop
The idea of the "random rotation" is a good one, I think. They use a similar concept on the PatronQuo website, except they're using snippets that rotate on the first page, regardless of popularity, thereby giving everyone an equal shot of being seen. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people would jump on it immediately, and too many might make it useless, but it's definitely an idea worth considering.

--Maria
meromana is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-22-2010, 03:13 AM   #5
neilmarr
neilmarr
neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
neilmarr's Avatar
 
Posts: 7,216
Karma: 6000059
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Monaco-Menton, France
Device: sony
Hya Jinlo. I think the 'prude factor' is one of those bridges mods and members could cross if and when we meet it. Some covers are embarrasssingly poor, but few are in what might be considered bad taste or otherwise shocking. Cheers. Neil
neilmarr is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 08-22-2010, 10:21 PM   #6
jaxx6166
Wizard
jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jaxx6166 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
jaxx6166's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,222
Karma: 769316
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Eternal summer
Device: 350, iPad, PW
I like the concept but fear its future implications. If it's a scroller atop the forum, it would have to be specific to that one in particular.

But, if implemented will probably create even more gypsies than we already have now. And that could even lead to Alex implementing some sort of paid advertising by authors.
jaxx6166 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-22-2010, 11:19 PM   #7
Vintage Season
Pulps and dime novels...
Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Vintage Season ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Vintage Season's Avatar
 
Posts: 343
Karma: 1952003
Join Date: Jan 2009
Device: Kobo Aura/Kobo Aura One LE/iPad Air
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxx6166 View Post
I like the concept but fear its future implications. If it's a scroller atop the forum, it would have to be specific to that one in particular.
If you mean specific to the Author Self-Promotions forum (so that it didn't appear everywhere else), then yes. In my own mind I think that was already a given, but I just double-checked, and I hadn't explicitly stated that in the suggestion. Good catch!

Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxx6166 View Post
But, if implemented will probably create even more gypsies than we already have now. And that could even lead to Alex implementing some sort of paid advertising by authors.
I honestly hope not, although it is a valid concern. Paid advertising would defeat the purpose of a random-yet-thorough rotation, so I would hate to see things go that way.

- M.
Vintage Season is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2010, 05:14 AM   #8
GeoffC
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
GeoffC's Avatar
 
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
One thought strikes me, prospective readers would be judging the book by cover alone. Whilst some, I'm sure do, is it enough I wonder?

I accept your concern about paid advertising, but it may reduce the fly-by-nighters who join as members only to get a free advert - but I'm sure at this time it's likely a non-starter.

It's a shame the thread hasn't interested comments from the forum administrators, though it's been a while since I noted Alex and Zelda around....
GeoffC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2010, 05:29 AM   #9
neilmarr
neilmarr
neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.neilmarr ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
neilmarr's Avatar
 
Posts: 7,216
Karma: 6000059
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Monaco-Menton, France
Device: sony
Aye, I agree, Geoff. The other side of the coin, though, is that an amateurish cover (in terms of presentation rather than subject matter) is a fair hint as to the quality of what's inside the package.

From a purely author-centric sales POV, better no cover at all than some of the embarrassing nonsense I've seen.

Awful cover work is too vivid a red flag to me to want to look any further. My loss? Maybe at times. But why risk precious recreational reading time with so much else on offer with covers that suggest care and a reasonable professionalism inside?

Cheers. Neil
neilmarr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2010, 05:46 AM   #10
dreams
It's about the umbrella
dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dreams ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
dreams's Avatar
 
Posts: 25,112
Karma: 56250158
Join Date: Jan 2009
Device: Sony 505| K Fire | KK 3G+Wi-Fi | iPhone 3Gs |Vista 32-bit Hm Prem w/FF
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffC View Post
<snip>

It's a shame the thread hasn't interested comments from the forum administrators, though it's been a while since I noted Alex and Zelda around....
We are here and reading this thread's comments, suggestions, and concerns.

It is under team discussion, and we'll let you know as soon as we come to a decision.

dreams
Moderating Team
dreams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2010, 06:08 AM   #11
GeoffC
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GeoffC ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
GeoffC's Avatar
 
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
I never doubted for one minute that the thread was totally ignored .... but at least my comment brought you out of the woodwork !!!

Is it not bed time for you yet !!!!
GeoffC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-02-2010, 12:51 PM   #12
Worldwalker
Curmudgeon
Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 3,085
Karma: 722357
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: PRS-505
I think the book/cover connection is fairly tenuous. I've seen (and bought) some very good books with dubious covers at best, and there are some wonderful covers out there, some of them on bookstore shelves, enclosing books I'd be ashamed to put my name on. But that's for the reader to decide. I'm more concerned about additional load on MR, as the user population and presumably the author population both grow.
Worldwalker is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Get to Know-an Author with Noahan Author Interview series! NoahMGillman Self-Promotions by Authors and Publishers 22 12-19-2010 09:45 PM
The 50 best author vs. author put-downs of all time Madam Broshkina Lounge 4 05-03-2010 05:13 AM
Any suggestion to switch the Title and Author fields? evertonhs Calibre 1 10-31-2009 11:04 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:17 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.