Improvements to Amazon Samples

[whitearrow]

Just got an email from them:

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Dear Kindle Customer,

We are pleased to let you know about some improvements that we made to Kindle book samples:

- Samples that you download from the Kindle book store will now be saved in the cloud so that you can access and read them on any supported Amazon device or Kindle reading app.

- You can delete your samples from the cloud on any supported devices or Kindle reading apps, or from Manage Your Content and Devices. (http://www.amazon.com/mycd ).

Amazon devices and free Kindle reading apps that support these sample improvements are: Fire HDX, Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Fire HD (2nd Generation), Kindle Voyage, Kindle Paperwhite (2nd Generation), Kindle (7th Generation), Fire phone, Kindle for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch version 4.5 or greater, and Kindle for Android version 4.7 or greater.

To learn more about these improvements, visit our help page:
https://www.amazon.com/help/kindle/samples

Thank you for choosing Kindle.

Sincerely,
Amazon Kindle Support

[Jessica Lares]

Cool!

I wish it knew what samples I looked at previously. Trying to find this one guide I took a peek at years ago still.

[Phogg]

Disappointing Really.

I wanted them to improve their samples so that even the short ones skip the cover page, copyright page, foreword and table of contents. That way we might see a tiny bit of the actual book.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Disappointing Really.

I wanted them to improve their samples so that even the short ones skip the cover page, copyright page, foreword and table of contents. That way we might see a tiny bit of the actual book.

Good point!

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Disappointing Really.

I wanted them to improve their samples so that even the short ones skip the cover page, copyright page, foreword and table of contents. That way we might see a tiny bit of the actual book.

To be fair to Amazon, Overdrive has the same problem. By the time you get through all the front matter, the sample is done!

[rollei]

Agree. Sometimes you get the preface/prologue only. Sometimes chapter 1 only. The ideal case would be a preview of 2 chapters. That would help to make the mind up.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by rollei

Agree. Sometimes you get the preface/prologue only. Sometimes chapter 1 only. The ideal case would be a preview of 2 chapters. That would help to make the mind up.

Agreed - that's the best solution.

[Jessica Lares]

I agree that they have to figure out how to automatically find the first chapter and then make it the sample. I would still want the table of contents too.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by Phogg

I wanted them to improve their samples so that even the short ones skip the cover page, copyright page, foreword and table of contents. That way we might see a tiny bit of the actual book.

I couldn't agree more. I had a rant about this earlier in the year (see https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=234327). Not everyone agreed. In fact, several people said they never bother with samples. But for me, letting us see more of the actual book would be much more useful than being able access samples from the cloud.

Mike

[HarryT]

The uploader determines what percentage of a book is available as a sample, so it's their responsibility, not Amazon's, to ensure that the percentage they choose allows a reasonable sample of the "book proper" to be seen.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The uploader determines what percentage of a book is available as a sample, so it's their responsibility, not Amazon's, to ensure that the percentage they choose allows a reasonable sample of the "book proper" to be seen.

Amazon is known for its precise marketing algorithms. Surely they could devise one that would automatically jump to chapter one.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon is known for its precise marketing algorithms. Surely they could devise one that would automatically jump to chapter one.

I'm sure they could do that, but personally I want to see things like the table of contents in the sample, so that I can see what's in the whole book. Obviously this doesn't really matter for a novel, but there are many books for which it's very useful to see.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm sure they could do that, but personally I want to see things like the table of contents in the sample, so that I can see what's in the whole book. Obviously this doesn't really matter for a novel, but there are many books for which it's very useful to see.

It could start there. The point is, Amazon could easily fix this issue.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It could start there. The point is, Amazon could easily fix this issue.

I do appreciate what you're saying, monkey, but I think my point still stands, which is that Amazon provide the capability for the uploader to use whatever sample size they wish to, so if a sample is inadequate, that's the fault of the uploader, not of Amazon.

[Purple Lady]

I've found that different stores have different sample lengths. Google usually has longer samples.