Kindle users give 1 star rating to book with delayed ebook release

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by RobbieClarken

I wonder if books not released as ebooks will become the next target? It seems to me that authors/publishers who choose not to release books as ebooks at all are guilty of a greater disservice to readers than those who just delay the ebook release by a month. But then this campaign is based more on emotion than logic.

Of course, what the publishers wishing to delay the ebook release will do is just not inform Amazon that there will be an ebook version so there won't be the option to pre-order it.

Sure, some will be, no doubt.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by Pushka

They invest their life into writing books, it takes years to write a quality product, and then to have their efforts undermined by a campaign like this is soul destroying.

I don't see how it is 'undermining' the author and destroying his soul to post a review which says one wanted to buy the book and could not. Any author who genuinely cannot tell the difference between a one-star actual critique of their actual book and a one-star review of the sort people have been posting needs a thicker skin, imho. And if the one-star rating really concerns him or her, they need to get on the phone with their agent, stat, and tell them why the reviews are happening.

Change won't happen unless somebody notices there is a problem. Writing letters didn't make them notice. This will.

One of the best experiences I had in my short-lived career as a professional journalist many years ago was an editor who taught me the importance of treating this like a *business.* If you want to 'make money' then you need to keep your feelings out of it and give the people what they want to buy. Selling and marketing is part of the job too, if you're treating it like a 'job' and not a hobby

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Pushka

Authors have VERY little control over how their book is distributed.

Nuts. Authors have complete control over their book's distribution. That's what the entire contract is about. If they signed a contract which failed to have the correct clauses, then the only way to get things to change is to cause commercial pressure on the publishers via informing the public and getting the authors to wise up in the future.

You're proving precisely why this sort of action is necessary.

(And no, most books are *not* contracted *that* far in advance...)

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Pushka

My husband is an author and on his publishing contract, consented to digital publication and overseas publication. Neither has happened yet although his books are on Amazon but not kindle. Do non raters here have any idea how your non ratings will impact on the Author? Obviously not. Why spend your life (because writing takes away your normal life) writing a book and have people who simply cant wait for a bit set out to destroy your hard work. Why bother. I think we are developing into a mob who think it is all about me me me and want things now now now at all costs.

Originally Posted by Pushka

That is such a silly little post, however the others make good points. As Harmon rightly says, while my husband is a best selling author in his category, his genre is the not kind that the 'people must have it now or their life isn't worth living' would buy. So, Blue Tyson, this was not a post about MY husband and ME at all! And nor has he received any 1star reports.

BUT as the partner of the author I have a little more background to what it is like to live with an author, deal with the business of having a book edited and published, negotiate on distribution, and see what the audience think of what has become 'their baby'. Authors genuinely CARE about how people enjoy their books and to see the 1star reviews would be personally devastating. They invest their life into writing books, it takes years to write a quality product, and then to have their efforts undermined by a campaign like this is soul destroying. That is why many of you have reported that the author will write back to you, but the publisher couldnt give a rats.

So any of you know how hard it is to get a book published? Contracts are signed months ahead, and if a series is negotiated, years ahead. And these would all have been negotiated well before the ebook became such an important thing. Authors have VERY little control over how their book is distributed.

I understand your concerns but you are aiming at (and hurting) the wrong target.

try to think of this as a "civil disobediencce" campaign. harken back to the 6os if you will. your husband and all the other authors are not necessarily the targets, they are the means to a way. if this works correctly your husband and many many other authors should benefit.

Originally Posted by RobbieClarken

I wonder if books not released as ebooks will become the next target? It seems to me that authors/publishers who choose not to release books as ebooks at all are guilty of a greater disservice to readers than those who just delay the ebook release by a month. But then this campaign is based more on emotion than logic.

Of course, what the publishers wishing to delay the ebook release will do is just not inform Amazon that there will be an ebook version so there won't be the option to pre-order it.

good point. there are the JK Rowlings of the industry. I think the best way to handle them is boycott that author entirely, and even better yet, if you are willing to take a walk on the darkside, do so, and then email the author letting them know, that not only did they lose out on a legitimate sale, you are reading the works anyway!

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Nuts. Authors have complete control over their book's distribution. That's what the entire contract is about. If they signed a contract which failed to have the correct clauses, then the only way to get things to change is to cause commercial pressure on the publishers via informing the public and getting the authors to wise up in the future.

You're proving precisely why this sort of action is necessary.

(And no, most books are *not* contracted *that* far in advance...)

I KNOW that you are wrong. You are guessing, you have no idea. You know a lot of best selling authors do you? Contracts are signed MONTHS if not a YEAR before the books are written. Especially in a series. Just because it is what you think is the case, does not make it the reality. You think people write a book and THEN sign the contract? Well, good authors dont, anyway - their contract is a done deal well before pen is put to paper. Then the book is written.

Contracts that are being signed NOW will have this flexibility incorporated into them, then just as blogs, online forums are being built into business models, so will the ebook and its distribution be built into the book contract. But ebooks are a NEW thing to the majority of the population and this is a transition period. But doing stuff like this is simply crap.

Authors like JK Rollings are probably so well entrenched they can risk not putting their books into ebook form - believe it or not, ebookers are in the minority on this planet.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Pushka

I KNOW that you are wrong. You are guessing, you have no idea. You know a lot of best selling authors do you? Contracts are signed MONTHS if not a YEAR before the books are written. Especially in a series. Just because it is what you think is the case, does not make it the reality. You think people write a book and THEN sign the contract? Well, good authors dont, anyway - their contract is a done deal well before pen is put to paper. Then the book is written.

Contracts that are being signed NOW will have this flexibility incorporated into them, then just as blogs, online forums are being built into business models, so will the ebook and its distribution be built into the book contract. But ebooks are a NEW thing to the majority of the population and this is a transition period. But doing stuff like this is simply crap.

Authors like JK Rollings are probably so well entrenched they can risk not putting their books into ebook form - believe it or not, ebookers are in the minority on this planet.

hopefully this is educational to the authors coming up on new contracts and this type of consideration will benefit them.

"ebookers" may be in the minority now, but I do believe that this is a VERY rapidly changing circumstance.

good ol' JK can stay entrenched as long as she likes, but I for one have made my last legal purchase of any of her work until she comes out of the hole in the ground she has dug herself

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

hopefully this is educational to the authors coming up on new contracts and this type of consideration will benefit them.

"ebookers" may be in the minority now, but I do believe that this is a VERY rapidly changing circumstance.

good ol' JK can stay entrenched as long as she likes, but I for one have made my last legal purchase of any of her work until she comes out of the hole in the ground she has dug herself

Yes, I agree with all that, but what is happening with this ratings thing is simply punishing authors for what they could not forsee even a year ago. Publishing might be a business, but it can only come when people have the heart to write a book.

And I think that unless an author deliberately decides not to go ebook (which isnt what we are talking about with this ratings issue), all we are really talking about here, is people being able to wait, what, a month? before the book is released for kindle. Seriously, are people that self indulged they cannot wait a month?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Pushka

Contracts that are being signed NOW will have this flexibility incorporated into them, then just as blogs, online forums are being built into business models, so will the ebook and its distribution be built into the book contract. But ebooks are a NEW thing to the majority of the population and this is a transition period. But doing stuff like this is simply crap.

Commercial ebooks have been around for more than 10 years. Authors and their agents who didn't bother to assert some kind of control over them in their contracts, weren't paying attention to a major upcoming aspect of publishing.

And I'm sorry if they get hurt by the public's attempts to get ebooks sold the way they want to read them. But no author is forced to sign a contract; they choose--and if all the major publishers are demanding control over ebook distribution, authors get to choose between control & publicity.

I don't blame them for choosing publicity & the income that goes with it, but I also don't have much sympathy when they get caught by a campaign that doesn't like the way their chosen publisher does business. (And authors who are "devastated" by Amazon 1-star reviews definitely need a thicker skin. Some people leave 1-star reviews on anything their ex-girlfriend liked.)

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Commercial ebooks have been around for more than 10 years.

Commercial maybe, and in the US, but this is mainstream every day people reading fiction. I was in a professional meeting yesterday (in Australia) from people all around the country and overseas, and the only other person in the room that new anything much about the kindle (or ebook) other than me, was a consultant from New York. So, as I said, apart from possibly the US, ebooks are simply not as prolific or mainstream yet as people would like to think they are.

Think about it, in cafes etc you see people reading magazines and books, but how many times do you see a kindle or other ebook? (And I dont consider typing on a laptop the same thing)

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Some people leave 1-star reviews on anything their ex-girlfriend liked.)

That is an interesting point then. If the rating system is that flawed, why then are people using this as a means to express their anger. Publishers will simply ignore them.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Pushka

Think about it, in cafes etc you see people reading magazines and books, but how many times do you see a kindle or other ebook? (And I dont consider typing on a laptop the same thing).

We went to the Bahamas for Christmas, and I was amazed at the number of kindles I saw by the pool. Probably 10% of the reading public. Authors/publishers ignore this market at their peril.

[Penforhire]

E-books are a growth market. P-books are a shrinking market. Publishers, and the authors who choose them, give us the short end of the stick at their own peril.

[Moejoe]

How about this for a solution: stop purchasing books from these spineless authors who allow their creative works to have DRM and geo-restrictions? Seriously, if you're going to sell out as a writer you shouldn't be selling out for pennies in the pound or cents on the dollar, make it worthwhile at least.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Pushka

Commercial maybe, and in the US, but this is mainstream every day people reading fiction. I was in a professional meeting yesterday (in Australia) from people all around the country and overseas, and the only other person in the room that new anything much about the kindle (or ebook) other than me, was a consultant from New York. So, as I said, apart from possibly the US, ebooks are simply not as prolific or mainstream yet as people would like to think they are.

I don't think they're all that common. I do think that authors should be paying attention to them--commercial ebooks predate ebook-dedicated devices, and have been used on computers and PDAs for years in addition to the dedicated ebook readers.

The Kindle is not Amazon's first experiment with selling ebooks; authors whose books are going to sell at Amazon should know the company's history in regards to digital editions. (Or their agents should; that's what agents are for.)

OTOH, if ebooks are not that important, then authors shouldn't worry about ebook-related reviews on their books.

Think about it, in cafes etc you see people reading magazines and books, but how many times do you see a kindle or other ebook? (And I dont consider typing on a laptop the same thing)

I see another ebook reader on the train to or from work about once a week. But I work in San Francisco; I'm aware that ebook devices are a lot rarer in other places.

That is an interesting point then. If the rating system is that flawed, why then are people using this as a means to express their anger. Publishers will simply ignore them.

A handful of low ratings won't get noticed. A landslide of them might. And it will get talked about (in places like this forum, and book-related blogs), and bring wider attention to the problem. In this case, the problem is that publishers don't like Amazon's policy of discounting bestseller ebooks, even at its own cost--because they don't want the public to get used to the idea of $10 ebooks. Because they don't want to be pressured into lower prices and less profits.

They're not saying, "we can't afford to sell ebooks at that price! They cost too much to make!" --because that's patently untrue. They're just upset that they won't be able to get hardcover prices for something that has no printing costs, no distribution costs, and no (currently legal) resale ability.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Pushka

I KNOW that you are wrong.

Actually, you've just proven me right. Ebooks are not some new phenomena, they've been around for a decade and more, and have steadily increased in importance.

Go away, troll.

(Oh, and please identify who your husband is first, so I can blacklist him, ty)

[charleski]

I hope anyone taking part in this protest is also giving 1-star reviews to books that don't come out in MMPB at release.

If it's wrong to make people wait 3 months for an ebook, surely it's even more evil to make them wait a year for the paperback?