03-30-2018, 09:30 PM | #16 |
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Amazon reviews aren't bad but I tend to skip over most of the 5 star reviews. I find the 4-2 star reviews give me a much better idea of what the book is like. My experience with buying books based on 5 star reviews is that too blasted many of the 5 star reviews seems to be written by someone who has never read the book but liked another book the author wrote, was given a free copy and wrote the review before reading the book or, in my darker moments, by a descendant of Eliza.
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03-31-2018, 06:29 AM | #17 | |
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I can remember back in the old days where I had to visit a number of book stores to find the full array of books. The shopping mall stores didn't carry much in any one genre, so I drove long distances to specialty stores. Part of the reason that B&N and Boarders were initially successful is they had room for a much larger selection. I also remember when each book seller had a copy of Books in Print, and would pull it out if you asked for a specific book or author. Maybe you think we should go back to those days. There are two different issues to be addressed. First is finding new authors. That's what you are talking about. That's always been a case of word of mouth. Sites like this site and Goodreads make it easier to find new authors. The second is finding out when specific authors put out new books and make back list available. That is mostly what I'm talking about. My specific frustration is I know what is possible and I know what I want. There are a lot of things that can be done, but aren't because Amazon doesn't see it as in their interest. As I mentioned, Authoralerts was a pretty decent tool for notification until Amazon shut them down. It wasn't perfect, but it got the job done. Heck, if Amazon's author notifications actually worked, that would solve problems. But when you control the market, there is little incentive to innovate and make things work. That's why I think that publishers should put together a consortium to build and maintain a database of available books and make that database available for innovators to access. People like the creators of authoralerts could hook into it. They might need to figure out a different monetization method, but I'm sure people would figure it out. |
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03-31-2018, 07:39 AM | #18 | |||||
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Last edited by DiapDealer; 03-31-2018 at 12:58 PM. |
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03-31-2018, 12:18 PM | #19 |
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You can't figure out what the grandpa stuff is about? Innovation occurs when people say there has to be a better way, not when people say "It's good enough for me, it ought to be good enough for everyone else".
I don't go wading through the dreak looking for new authors. I go wading looking to see if any of my favored authors have anything new. Once you get past a hand full of authors, doing google searches on more than a hundred names gets more than a bit tedious. Gee, I'm sorry I posted something that isn't of interest to you. Well, actually no I'm not, I was just being sarcastic. I think it's perfectly reasonable to point out the inadequacies of what is currently available and to talk about what features I would like to see. If you don't want to change the way you do things, that's fine. There are plenty of times that I find someone else's interest in something a bit boring. I just don't feel a compelling need to say so. |
03-31-2018, 12:21 PM | #20 |
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I use Amazon reviews as a last filter when deciding if I should click the buy button.
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03-31-2018, 01:28 PM | #21 | |
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I have the ability to work within the framework of any system (especially one that doesn't require me to leave my seat). I don't need them to cater to my every whim in order to easily find good books to read, even in this, the age of everything-gets-published (a fact that I love, by the way). You're the one who wants to return to the glory days of only seeing big box publishers when you search for books/authors, but I'm the stagnating, innovation-eschewing grandpa? Whatever. Last edited by DiapDealer; 03-31-2018 at 03:32 PM. |
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03-31-2018, 02:46 PM | #22 | |
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Of course in theory on can use Amazon's search engine for advanced filtering, but then again, Amazon's search engine appears to think that Roger Zelazny and Larry Niven are the same person, or at least when I search for Roger Zelazny, I get Roger Zelazny books along with Larry Niven, Walter Jon Williams and Kathryn Le Vegue books and that's just on the first two pages. But I'm sure you are right, it's absolutely perfect and anyone who wants improvement should be sneered at. |
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03-31-2018, 03:34 PM | #23 |
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Why are you still talking about Amazon?? I'm not.
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04-01-2018, 06:04 AM | #24 | |
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04-01-2018, 07:08 AM | #25 |
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Everything I see points to app-only. That's why I'm having a hard time with the Goodreads comparison.
Last edited by DiapDealer; 04-01-2018 at 08:07 AM. |
04-01-2018, 07:26 AM | #26 |
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Me Too! I never use Good Read. I don't see how listing every book I read benefits ANYONE. If I like a book enough to share it with others, I'll write about it here and cross post the review to that book's Amazon user review page.
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04-01-2018, 07:28 AM | #27 |
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04-01-2018, 07:44 AM | #28 |
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It doesn't do much for me either. I suspect it appeals to the book club types, i.e. those who join a book club to talk about various books.
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04-01-2018, 08:17 AM | #29 |
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Never joined a book club in my life, but I use Goodreads pretty regularly. I don't use it for book discussion at all. It's just an easy way for me to see what people, whose tastes in books are well known to me, are reading. I'm familiar enough with their likes and dislikes to be able to use their ratings/reviews to help make decisions on whether or not I want to give a book/author a shot. I don't waste time with anonymous reviews, or the reviews of people whose tastes I'm not at least passingly familiar with.
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04-01-2018, 10:13 AM | #30 |
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I took a quick look at the app. It doesn't look like they are trying to copy goodreads. Rather more of a bulletin board to post questions and get answers.
From what I saw, I have no idea why it needs an app instead of a website. Last edited by Alohamora; 04-01-2018 at 10:19 AM. |
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