This week in Amazon Fail

[Heradel]

So maybe you started this weekend by deciding to buy the latest Wheel of Time, or you're finally getting around to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom or maybe something by Timothy Zahn from Amazon, only to find they weren't there. This is odd, you would probably think. Amazon seems broken. So you look for something else that Tor has published, and it's not there either. In fact, one sixth of Amazon's book catalog is suddenly not there, because the Amazon was pretty damn stupid.

This is an overview of what happened.

[DKT]

So maybe you started this weekend by deciding to buy the latest Wheel of Time, or you're finally getting around to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom or maybe something by Timothy Zahn from Amazon, only to find they weren't there. This is odd, you would probably think. Amazon seems broken. So you look for something else that Tor has published, and it's not there either. In fact, one sixth of Amazon's book catalog is suddenly not there, because the Amazon was pretty damn stupid.

This is an overview of what happened.

My mind is boggled. WTF were they thinking?

[Heradel]

That no one would notice 1/6th of their inventory disappearing?

[DKT]

stupidstupidstupid.

Scalzi's right. It makes them look like a bunch of pre-adolescents having a temper tantrum. And I like Scott Westerfield's closing comment: "Hey, Amazon. When cutting off publishers, don’t start with the one that has the most science fiction writers. We will blog you dead!"


And it's amazing to me that although they've apparently decided to deal with Macmillan, I still can't find new books from authors I like.

Time to visit the local bookstore, I guess!

[Heradel]

Honestly, the only thing this probably does is this:

#23 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: January 30, 2010, 02:52 AM:
Elise: I, too, dumped the contents of my Amazon shopping cart and wish list. Then I replaced them with an iPad, plus a note saying that Amazon had just convinced me that I don't want to own a Kindle or read Kindle ebooks.

[eytanz]

Honestly, the only thing this probably does is this:

#23 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: January 30, 2010, 02:52 AM:
Elise: I, too, dumped the contents of my Amazon shopping cart and wish list. Then I replaced them with an iPad, plus a note saying that Amazon had just convinced me that I don't want to own a Kindle or read Kindle ebooks.

I have to say this:

1. Amazon's actions were nothing less than moronic. All they did is shoot themselves in the foot, since they managed to both annoy everyone AND quickly cave in, showing themselves to be both callous and spineless.

2. Anyone who thinks Apple will be better for either consumers or writers has not paid any attention to the history of the iTunes store.

3. For the benefit of the consumers and the writers, we need a market where the people selling us the reading devices and the people selling us the books are not the same people. Both Amazon and Apple hold a tight stranglehold over what goes onto their devices; neither is trustworthy.

[Heradel]

Honestly, the only thing this probably does is this:

#23 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: January 30, 2010, 02:52 AM:
Elise: I, too, dumped the contents of my Amazon shopping cart and wish list. Then I replaced them with an iPad, plus a note saying that Amazon had just convinced me that I don't want to own a Kindle or read Kindle ebooks.

I have to say this:

1. Amazon's actions were nothing less than moronic. All they did is shoot themselves in the foot, since they managed to both annoy everyone AND quickly cave in, showing themselves to be both callous and spineless.

2. Anyone who thinks Apple will be better for either consumers or writers has not paid any attention to the history of the iTunes store.

3. For the benefit of the consumers and the writers, we need a market where the people selling us the reading devices and the people selling us the books are not the same people. Both Amazon and Apple hold a tight stranglehold over what goes onto their devices; neither is trustworthy.

Totally in agreement on 1, 3 — on 2 I think Apple will help as a competitor (if we're going to have a bunch of vertically integrated devices, it's far better to have a bunch of them), and iTunes has made moves towards being DRM-free. We actually still don't know if there will be DRM on the iBook store, though it seems likely.

[eytanz]

Oh, I agree that having Apple as a competitor will help. But I'm wary of the "Amazon just made me angry, therefore Apple is better" attitude. If you look at the histories of the companies over the past few years, Amazon has been far more consumer-friendly, and also slightly better for content creators (in the way that being beat to death with a baseball club is slightly better than being flayed alive).

[kibitzer]

Any of you guys have an eReader? I'm very interested in this (having just bought one) and also, of course, the unveiling of the iPad.

[eytanz]

Any of you guys have an eReader? I'm very interested in this (having just bought one) and also, of course, the unveiling of the iPad.

I have a Sony e-reader (last generation, PRS-505).It's ok, but certainly not great. I use it for work - I often want to be able to take articles with me that I know I won't be reading again so I can just upload the pdf onto the e-reader. I would never use it as a primary reading device for pleasure reading, it's too slow and I often read books non-sequentially, jumping back to sections I liked and re-reading them (or, if I'm not really enjoying a book, I often jump forward and start reading it backwards from the end). E-readers force you to read things in the order authors intended you to - while that's fine for audio I find that really limiting for text.

[CryptoMe]

eytanz, I am amazed, perplexed, and entertained by the way you read books How wonderful and varied the human race is.

Myself, I don't understand the point of a dedicated electronic book reader (of any flavour). If I want to read something electronically instead of on paper, I just use my Adobe PDF reader on my laptop. Nowadays, Netbooks are as small as an iPad and you can always get one of those tablet styles where the display flips so it's like an electronic reader. So, I really don't see the point of yet another gadget to carry around.

If someone can tell me what I'm missing, please enlighten me. Thanks in advance.

 

[schmetterling]

I have an AT&T Tilt smartphone, running Windows Mobile 6, and I have Microsoft Reader Mobile, and can set the font size to what's comfortable to read.  Not only that, the controls are set up so I can hold the phone in one hand with my thumb over the "move right" button, which turns the page, and read continuously with very little hand movement.  I have at least 10 novels on my phone at any one time, so I never run out.  Plus anything I can get in text, I can convert to a Reader file with Readerworks, so even if it didn't start out as a Reader file, it can be.  Also, if I close the app (or the phone dies, or I get a call, for that matter), it's automatically bookmarked (Go To: last page opened OR furthest read when starting up again) AND I can make notes that are saved separately, and even visible when I synch my phone and open the book on my laptop.  Who needs a dedicated eReader, indeed?

[kibitzer]

Well, I'll come clean and admit I bought an International Kindle DX when it was announced -- I'm in Australia so I "couldn't" buy a Kindle before.

I specifically wanted a large-screen reader and I particularly wanted the eInk rather than a computer screen. My main use-case is for reading technical (programming) books; they're usually very large, not very portable and quite difficult to read on, say, public transport. Many tech books are available (legitimately!) as PDFs or specific eBook formats so it seemed a great way to collect the ones I really wanted to read and study, and be able to easily carry them ALL around with me at once.

Having had the thing for about a month now, I am certainly not disappointed! It's very close to exactly what I wanted -- the PDF rendering could be better (I believe Sony does a better job with this) but it's adequate and there are work-arounds. I cannot imagine reading these on something as small as a phone, and reading PDFs and such on a computer screen tires my eyes very, very quickly.

Incidentally I have read, and enjoyed, a couple of non-tech books, too.

I'm very, very happy with it -- suits my needs admirably.