It seems that Bezos keeps his investing activities separate from the business of Amazon.com, so I don’t think we will see an influx of Amazon.com applications leveraging Twitter soon, but I wonder if AWS is not a viable platform for Twitter.

They already use S3 for serving up avatars, so I wonder if moving to EC2 and related services might be part of the plan?

What do you think? is this just a new round of funding for Twitter and Jeff Bezos just happens to be in the mix, or is this the start of something bigger for Twitter?

(Photo credit ETech)

After all, Amazon.com really does it right in so many ways.

Border’s new online storefront will have one benefit that Amazon.com can not offer – retail locations. For me, the killer feature is the convenience of purchasing online, but getting products same day by swinging by a local retail store for pickup.

As Border’s moves to its new face-out shelving strategy, the reduction in inventories may reduce the usefulness of what could be the new site’s best feature.

Many technology publishers have adopted a series strategy, and every book in that series looks more or less the same.  For example in For Dummies Tech, you can pretty much assume every cover looks pretty much like the others – black and yellow.  The series look and feel is very much a part of the overall branding, which hopefully makes the books immediately recognizable to the consumer.   99% of our Wrox titles looks exactly like the others save the Author’s photos.

D’Arcy from Winnipeg  says if publishers were smart we would put tasty treats on the covers of our books.

However, if you look at the bestseller lists at Amazon.com you will see that most of the titles are not part of any series or brand. Today, 13 of Amazon.com Top 25 Computers and Internet titles are not books from any series.  These “one-off” titles have very distinct and unique covers.

What does this say about series publishing?  One might argue that readers buy books on their individual merit regardless of any series affiliation.  But does that mean a really great book – one that would be a bestseller if it were a “one-off” – gets unnoticed if it’s part of a series?  Does a bad experience with a series book turn readers off for good?

What say you?  What role does a book series have in your buying decision?

Photo credit: QuantanaRoo 

Even Bloomsbury has Harry headaches. The huge profits that the novels generate lead the City – in many ways, a stupid organism – to expect the company to make high margins in the Potter-less future. But publishing is publishing: a risky, low-margin business. Harry’s wizardry can alter that law only for the books in which he stars.

However, the series is often only good for its publishers as many booksellers don’t make a dime of the sales of the books.

But booksellers have mixed feelings about Harry. He was one of the factors contributing to the demise of Ottakar’s, which incurred big marketing costs in promoting him before seeing supermarkets and Amazon cream off most of the sales. Waterstone’s, which bought Ottakar’s, has warned that it will not make any money out of The Deathly Hallows. Independent booksellers cannot compete with their loss-leading rivals; a quarter of them have said that they will not stock the book.

Even Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos indicates his company wont be making any money on the forthcoming book, and even Rowling’s publishers admit they are distracted from other parts of their businesses during Potter releases.

Even though the books generate huge sales for all concerned, when you factor in the enormous effort of promotions and marketing and deep-discounts from retailers, Potter fans seem to be the only ones coming out on top.

See also:

Harry Potter: Winning the Battle But Losing the War?

Harry Potter and The Pricing Problem

Yes there is.

Never leave the Competition section for your book proposal blank, nor should you use statements like the ones above to try to enforce the unique nature of your book. The fact is with more than 190,000 books published each year some of them must compete with yours in some way.

You should change the way you think about “competing” titles to also include similar or related books. Ask yourself, “what other books are my intended audience reading today?” These may not always be on the exact topic as yours, but do appeal to the same readers as your book.

For technology authors this is often a challenging way to think, especially when you may be writing on an emerging topic. Be sure to consider the current technology the new technology aims to replace or supplement. What are the leading books in that category?

Here are 5 simple tips for creating a killer Competition section for your book proposal:

1. Start with what you know. Which books in similar or related topics have you read, or know to be top sellers?
2. Take advantage of the tools offered by Amazon.com. If you are searching on your book’s topic, be sure to sort by Bestseller – it is not the default option. Then pay attention to the Customers who bought this item also bought section of the book listing. These are other titles that the audience is reading.
3. Understand the pros and cons of each of the competing titles. Actually reading the books is certainly best, and if you truly are of the audience you are writing for you should have read these books already. Also consider reader reviews to get additional viewpoints on what others found good and bad about these books.
4. Provide a summary of the good and bad points of each of the competing titles – what do they do well and where are they lacking. Including supporting information such as reviews can be helpful. Most importantly, you need to detail how your book fills the gap listed by each competing in a real and measurable way. Avoid general statements about your book such as “provides more detail on topic X” or “more practical” unless you can back those sorts of general statements with real examples.
5. Be sure to include the relevant data on each competing title including full title, ISBN, price, page count, author and publisher. This will make it easier for your publisher to review each of the titles and complete their own research.

(Photo Credit: Jennerally)

But even though big sites adding many social features at a time draws lots of attention, there is one site that is way ahead of everyone else, offering a myriad of social features that eclipses the field, hands down. That site is Amazon.com.

As Brian Oberkirch points out, if you factor the social networking features with the awesomeness that is Amazon Web Services, S3, and their affiliate programs, Amazon should really be stealing the all the press from Google and Yahoo!

For authors, the rich social features at Amazon.com are perfect for getting the word out about your book, and you really need to be a part of the conversation.  Check out my earlier posting on 10 Simple Ways Authors Can Increase Sales at Amazon.com, and get in there and be… social.

Context Links are a quick and convenient way to add links to your website and monetize your content. Context Links automatically identify and link relevant phrases within your page content to Amazon products, unlocking new ad inventory and saving you the time from having to manually create links. You can add the links to your pages in minutes, and we provide a wealth of options to customize how they are displayed.

They feel like Google’s AdSense in the way they spider your content and look for matching products to advertise, but are more customizable. For instance, I like the preview option that allows for a small product preview on mouseover a la IntelliTXT. In addition you can also customize:

• the number of links on each page
• which portion of the page will be linked
• which Amazon product categories are linked
• the matching of exact product names only
• if preview windows will appear when your site visitors hover over the links, and the style of those windows
• the options of single underline, dashed underline, and double underline link formats to indicate to your site visitors that they are Context Links

I’ll probably be experimenting with this a little bit on this site. For author and editors, here is another way to help promote sales at Amazon.com.

“On the Web, we let strangers tell us who to trust, what to read, and where to go. Which means your good name can be worth real money. And reputation hacking can be big business.”

In my world this is especially true of Amazon.com. Reader reviews can often make or break a book, so it’s important to pay attention to your book’s page and the activity there. I’m not suggesting that authors or publishers purposely try to game the Amazon.com reviewer system. However, there are several ways authors can participate to be sure that their voice is part of the conversation.

10 simple ways authors can help to increase sales at Amazon.com:

1. Add a link to your book at Amazon.com or other online retailer as part of your email signature, forum signatures – anywhere you leave your name.
2. Add a link to your book on your blog or website. Amazon.com offers an affiliate program which pays you when readers you refer purchase your book. Double dipping!
3. Amazon.com allows readers to share their own images, so get the ball rolling by sharing yours. Look for the “Share your own customer images” link under the book’s cover image and start uploading. Wrote a book on building a PC? Upload photos of the build process. Wrote a Florida travel book? Use those photos of your trip to Disney World.
4. There are 2 quick and simple ways you can help people find your book at Amazon.com. First look for the “Help others find this item” section near the bottom of the page and make valid suggestions for search terms or your book. Second, find the “Tag this product” section and add tags that are pertinent to your book.
5. Get involved in the discussion – many titles now include a beta feature called “Customer Discussions.” Be sure to find that link on your book’s page and monitor it so that you can answer any questions readers or potential readers may have. If there is no discussion started on your book – start one!
6. Be a part of Amazon Connect! Did you know that you can have a blog on your Amazon.com product page? It will list your last 3 posts on the page, with a “more” link over to all other posts. It requires your publisher to verify you as the author of your book via email, so be sure to discuss it with them first. You can learn more and sign up at the Amazon Connect website.
7. Write a Listmania! list. Anyone can create a list of up to 40 related items at Amazon.com. Why not create a list that is focused on the topic of your book and includes your book as well as other items? For instance, if you wrote a book on building a PC, you might create a list simply called Building a PC. The list would, of course, contain your book as one of the items, as well as your favorite hard drive, RAM, video card, motherboard and other parts available through Amazon.com. When you mix product lists like this (i.e. not just a list of books) you are effectively cross merchandizing your book into other sections of Amazon.com. In this example, customers looking for the hard drive or video card you selected may encounter your list and be exposed to your book. In fact, with Listmania! you can get pretty granular. In our example you could also build just a list for video cards with advice for particular cards, and include your book as a guide to building PCs that includes more detailed advice.
8. Write a short tutorial – the So You’d LikeTo…Guides. Similar to a Listmania!, these guides allow you to show off a little bit about what you know. They work very similarly to the Listmania! lists in that you can select a variety of products to include, and provide the same advantage of cross-merchandizing, but should be a bit more advice-driven and tutorial in nature. Check out this short example on hacking old Series 1 TiVos for ideas on how you might be able to leverage this feature.
9. Make sure you book is part of the Search Inside the Book program. This is controlled by your publisher and is a program they have to opt into. If they are not a part of the program, you might ask why they are not involved in such an important marketing vehicle at one of the world’s largest online retailers. If they are a part of the program then be sure your book will be included. As part of this program, Amazon.com indexes the books content and provides online customers a change to thumb through your book.
10. Reviews – I saved the best for last. All the items above were really about helping readers find your book, and participating in the conversation with readers once they have. However nothing helps or hurts sales at Amazon.com more than the Reviewer Ranking and reader reviews. So you should just make up some accounts and start posting 5-Star reviews, right? Of course not – but there are some things you can do to help:

• Write a good book. Obvious, I know – but no amount of promotion will help a book that simply does not meet reader expectations.
• Make sure your colleagues and members of your network get a copy of the book. These readers are more likely to help with favorable but honest reviews, but it’s very important to ask for a review at Amazon.com. Otherwise you may get a “thank you” for the book and nothing more.
• Provide your publisher with a list of influencers in your topical space and be sure they get a review copy.
• If you receive an email or a comment on your blog from someone who enjoyed our book or see a review posted online elsewhere – ask them to post that on Amazon.com. I have also seen authors who have asked for permission to repost favorable online reviews (with attribution) at Amazon.com
• Help Amazon.com weed out the illegitimate reviews. If you get a review that is not appropriate – one where it’s obvious the reviewer did not read the book, provided no basis for the review, or left a simple “This sucks” sort of review, ask Amazon.com to take a look. Each review has a “Report this” link next to it that flags the post for review by Amazon. If they feel the review is not valid they may remove it. Use this option sparingly – it’s not for legitimate negative reviews.

I’d be interested to hear from other editors, authors, markets or publishers on the topic. What have you seen help books at Amazon.com?

(Image credit: Guillermo Esteves)