Automatic Updates

[patrickt]

I was looking at my Content in the cloud and had a lot of books with "update available". I have checked "automatic book updates" in "Preferences" of MYK.

Whispersync is on on my PW4 Kindles and my Android app for Kindle.

[Quoth]

I have a worse problem. Updated books uploaded and existing customers (unlike Smashwords) can't see them. Amazon has to apparently approve that it's only minor quality issues and no change to the story/plot/characters/names etc.

[jhowell]

Amazon normally does not make minor updates, such as fixing typos, available to existing customers. The option to update is only made available if a substantial problem is fixed, although major publishers are allowed to break this rule. This likely reduces Amazon’s customer support effort (and cost) related to book updates.

(Added: It might not be obvious, but trying to maintain the current reading position, highlights, and annotations when the underlying content has been replaced is a difficult problem and Amazon is not always successful at it.)

[Quoth]

But if it's major update they can regard that (rightly?) as a different version that should have a version increment and new ASIN.

Smashwords allows the customer to re-download the first version they bought, but not earlier versions, or choose ANY later version, which are all dated.

I'd not expect reading position, highlights and annotations to be preserved which why updated versions shouldn't be automatic. If a reader is choosing a later version then presumably they'd restart reading at beginning.

However all the methods of saving highlights/annotations/bookmarks on the Kindle are poor. A last highlight could be a phrase to search for in the new version and at least have the chapter. The "myclippings.txt" is a blunt tool as it has ALL books. That's why I read my Amazon books on a Kobo and only use the Kindles to purchase and to test ebooks I format.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But if it's major update they can regard that (rightly?) as a different version that should have a version increment and new ASIN.

Smashwords allows the customer to re-download the first version they bought, but not earlier versions, or choose ANY later version, which are all dated.

I'd not expect reading position, highlights and annotations to be preserved which why updated versions shouldn't be automatic. If a reader is choosing a later version then presumably they'd restart reading at beginning.

However all the methods of saving highlights/annotations/bookmarks on the Kindle are poor. A last highlight could be a phrase to search for in the new version and at least have the chapter. The "myclippings.txt" is a blunt tool as it has ALL books. That's why I read my Amazon books on a Kobo and only use the Kindles to purchase and to test ebooks I format.

See, that's the difference, though...Amazon *does* save the position, highlights, and annotations if you update a book. Can you imagine the screams if someone were reading a book, and updated, then lost all of the highlights and notes that they had taken? It would cause all sorts of problems.

Shari

[Quoth]

I save my notes if I'm updating.

But the problem is Amazon NOT even showing a later version is available!