Amazon Connect program not an author blog hosting experiment |
The new Amazon Connect program aims to increase the connection between author and readers by providing an Amazon hosted ‘blog’. Ok, that’s what Clickz is calling it, but that doesn’t seem to be what Amazon is actually using for a description, so hopefully folks will actually look at this program before mislabling what it seems to be trying to do for the author / reader relationship.
Unfortunately, no comments are allowed and no RSS feeds, so this sure cuts down on the reader interaction. I mean, if it’s just a one-way conversation, how useful is that? Still, if I were an author listed on Amazon, I’d still want to use this if only for the following feature: 
The most recent posts from an author’s blog will be featured prominently on an author’s profile page or on a book’s description page, along with a link to the author’s full blog. In addition, users will see new posts from authors of books they’ve purchased on their Amazon home page.
Complaint for Kevin Newcomb from Clickz: why no link to Amazon Connect program? Why make readers poke around to find the Connect program links? This is becoming a real pet peeve of mine.
Anyway, I was curious to see an example and logging into the Amazon Connect outside section provides sample page links. Amazon Connect requires IE, Firefox or Mozilla and doesn’t work with Opera, bummer.
Didn’t notice the word “blog” being used anywhere in the teaser documentation, so perhaps even Amazon isn’t calling these blogs? Instead they refer to what the author writes as “messages” numerous times. You can look around at what I saw without actually having to be an author with a book at Amazon.
The Amazon pitch focuses on this program being a way to communicate with your readers, increase readership and build a (better?) reader community. I see this as a way for authors to drive traffic to their own blogs/websites, where they are not crippled by having no RSS feed or allowing comments, but I couldn’t really tell if external links will be allowed in the author messages. If those are stripped out, then this really is a roach motel.
This seems more like a place for book-related announcements than anything else: “I’ll be doing a book signing at ___ on this day/date ___ … ”
Could be worthwhile for authors listed on Amazon to get involved, but “blogging” this is definitely not. At least not from my perspective.
While on the Amazon subject, I’m looking forward to Stephen King’s forthcoming novel: Cell ($17.79 subject to change, affiliate) which is due to be released next month. The teaser?
Civilization doesn’t end with a bang or a whimper. It ends with a call on your cell phone. What happens on the afternoon of October 1 came to be known as the Pulse, a signal sent though every operating cell phone that turns its user into something…well, something less than human. Savage, murderous, unthinking-and on a wanton rampage.
Haven’t read a King horror novel in a long time, but this one sounds intriguing and uncharacteristically short for King (a mere 384 pages). I wish this was being released as an eBook so I could read on my Tablet PC as that’s something I would like to try doing, but I guess the old-fashioned hardcover will have to do.
I wonder if Stephen King will have an Amazon Connect author page?
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ON AMAZON HOSTING AUTHOR BLOGS
TIES THAT BIND It looks like Amazon will be hosting a blog-like for Authors, they’re calling the Amazon Connect Program, as reported by the ClickZ Network. As author Kevin Newcomb explains:Adding to its user-generated content, Amazon.com has launched …
Trackback by *michael parekh on IT* — December 29, 2005 @ 12:29 pm PST
[…] Update: TDavid says that Amazon’s new program isn’t a true blog pointing program, but rather something else. He gives details on his blog (no comments and no RSS feeds are allowed, for instance, sigh). […]
Pingback by Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Amazon hooks in Naked Conversations? — December 29, 2005 @ 3:11 pm PST
I think I can barely see the word “Plog” in that image, which is an old idea that Amazon came out with about 1.5 years ago. Plog stood for Product Log, and was a way for Amazon to post information about a product…it didn’t come from the author. I think they even trademarked the term plog.
It could be Amazon trying to do for authors what Myspace did for bands…which would be interesting, but this doesn’t seem like the right approach.
Comment by Greg Gershman — December 29, 2005 @ 5:10 pm PST
Amazon Offers Authors Some Blog Features
At ClickZ News Kevin Newcomb reports that “Amazon.com has launched a program to allow authors to blog on the Amazon.com site.” “This is a very smart move by Amazon. By asking authors to blog, Amazon is encouraging a dialogue with…
Trackback by IP Democracy — December 29, 2005 @ 8:57 pm PST
No RSS feed = this will die a terrible, lonely death. Amazon needs to realize that even fans will visit the author page infrequently. Creating a file that is updated when the author updates is just -common sense-.
I hope this is something planned for the future, because right now this service is effectively worthless to me.
Comment by Evan Erwin — December 30, 2005 @ 10:53 am PST
Amazon Connect: Doch keine Weblogs sondern Plogs
Noch in den letzten Tagen des alten Jahres war an verschiedenen Stellen (z.B. bei golem.de oder in der Netzeitung) zu lesen: „Der weltgrößte Online-Händler Amazon hat auf seiner US-Website erstmals Autoren-Weblogs online gestellt. Ein Dutzend verschie…
Trackback by Das CIO Weblog — January 1, 2006 @ 3:56 am PST
[…] When I first saw Stephen King’s new book Cell it sounded like my kind of horror tale: “There’s a reason Cell Rhymes with Hell” — spooky! […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Buying that first eBook: Cell by Stephen King — February 2, 2006 @ 12:26 am PST
Are Amazon’s Author Blogs Worthwhile?
Writers, take note! Amazon is now offering authors their very own blog network. According to an article over at MediaPost, the announcement was made this week and over a thousand authors have already signed up for their blogs. Up…
Trackback by SmallBizMentor — February 3, 2006 @ 12:46 pm PST
[…] Publishers need to get with the program now or they will be obsoleted. I think the publisher is still relevant, but not trying to hold onto the print world — technology is changing the relevancy and desirability of print. What they can and should be doing is collectively building some great websites with author-to-reader sticky features. Imagine if publishers provided their authors free blogs along the lines of what Amazon has been experimenting with, but to the next level? I mean including full on podcasting, videoblogging and blogging with unlimited picture storage and even letting the authors host on their own domains. This self-fed and massaged traffic then feeds back to the publisher and enables them to leverage the ad income across all authors. The authors promote the mother ship, the mother ship gives back. Mutually beneficial business with tons of marketing possibilities. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » HarperCollins experiments with ad-supported non-fiction book online — February 13, 2006 @ 7:49 pm PST
It’s worse than just not working for people using Opera as their browser; I use Internet Explorer 5.0 and Amazon Connect won’t accept that — it has to be 5.5 or higher. I’ve been trying to find out whether the benefits Amazon Connect provides are worth the hassle for authors with browsers that don’t qualify, and so far I haven’t read anything I find compelling.
Comment by Suzette Haden Elgin — March 24, 2006 @ 2:50 pm PST
[…] So what can Amazon do for me as a customer and offer something the local Borders can’t? A real author written blog complete with comments (which either the author or Amazon should moderate to keep out the spam and crazies) is one marketing tool. I wrote back in December 2005 that the Amazon Connect program wasn’t a blog author program despite some claims otherwise. Readers can sniff out fake marketing and to this Amazon should try to disconnect not connect. I can see that being a legitimate concern over releasing a true blog program across their website for authors and perhaps these were some of Mr. Vogels underlying concerns. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Amazon CTO’s naked conversation over blogging value — March 31, 2006 @ 10:42 am PST
I’m an author with an Amazon plog. Just wanted you to know that you can post comments and the author can post back. After each, shall we say–riff?, there is a box to click on in order to post. The author’s email address is available, too, if you want to keep things private. I’m enjoying the exchanges a lot.
Comment by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith — August 16, 2006 @ 10:14 am PST
I have a self published romantic novel that takes place at the N.J. shore in the 1940’s. A young girl leaves farm life for a more adventurous life at the shore. She lives in a boarding house full of women, gets a job as a waitress, is inexperienced in the advances of a young fisherman, befriends a collie and falls in live with its owner. She finds the meaning of friendship, love and the heartbreak of war.
Comment by alice m. drobney — June 18, 2007 @ 7:31 am PST
Thanks so much for your link to Amazon Connect. As a newly-self-published author, I looked on Amazon for the link to create a blog and couldn’t find it. I’m sure it’s there, but it certainly isn’t something that they are promoting much. Perhaps for some of the reasons that you point out.
Comment by anneemer2 — September 17, 2007 @ 8:03 am PST