A LETTER TO ANGELA,
Hi Angela-
Your item, “Can Your Book’s “REVIEWS” Get You Sued? Yep!” is excellent.
In my opinion, there are two basic types of “safe” reviewers from an author’s perspective.
One is the “professional reviewer,” usually associated with some publication or other [even if a free-lance] whose work is published by a newspaper, journal, magazine, blog or similar vehicle and the other is the “subject matter” expert reviewer who is qualified and recognized as such by his or her peers in that field or area of expertise.
I suggest that “reviews” or “comments” from a “lay reader” received by an author be retained only for inclusion in his or her private and personal scrapbook of “kudos.”
Cheers,
Harvey Randall, Esq.
COMMENTS ABOUT: AUTHOR ALERT! Can Your Book’s “REVIEWS” Get You Sued? Yep!
Once again, you have provided valuable information. Thank you!
Pamela Allegretto
Bridge of Sighs and Dreams
Nazi-occupied Rome sets the stage for Bridge of Sighs and Dreams, where the lives of two women collide in an arena of deception, greed, and sacrifice.
I must say this is a very informative and highly needed article, particularly in this new world of instant and continuous media exchange. Kudos, Angela Hoy. Excellent information.
jlcms@earthlink.net
As I recall, CreateSpace used to be another very bad POD publisher that Amazon used before buying them. BookSurge Inc. joined with customflix labs and became CreateSpace. Amazon later bought this but they still had a bad reputation for P.O.D. books.
deddmann(at)yahoo(dot)com
In reply to deddmann(at)yahoo(dot)com.
That is correct. CreateSpace used to be BookSurge. After our company, BookLocker.com, sued Amazon/BookSurge (we won), and after years of negative reviews posted online, they changed the name to CreateSpace. However, a name change does not fix a reputation if you continue to upset your customers! We figured Amazon would eventually rename CreateSpace (there are tons of complaints about them posted online as well). And, this week it was announced that CreateSpace will now be called KDP Print. We don’t expect them to clean up their act any time soon. Heck, authors are already complaining about the problems they’re experiencing with KDP Print. Don’t even get me started on higher prices for some books, slower royalty payments, incompatible files that were fine at CreateSpace, and more.
You can read my article about it RIGHT HERE.
Angela Hoy – Publisher of WritersWeekly.com
All of this is nothing new for Amazon.
‘Highlander Imagine – Code Name: Immortal’ has been and currently is being sold that way. I have seen outrageous prices for this book.
‘Highlander Imagine: Beyond Infinity’ is once again being listed as ‘Temporarily out of Stock’.
‘Highlander Imagine: For Love’s Sake’ is the only book in the series which Amazon has consistently kept in their stable, though the price has been all over the place (and at the wrong times!).
Naturally, there has NEVER been an issue with Barnes & Noble. They have sold books faithfully (and at the correct price) from day one. However, compared to Amazon, almost nobody is going to B&N, no matter what you tell them.
Amazon has gone from the size of an ‘ink dot’ to a massive 2000 pound gorilla and it is still growing. The article, ‘How Amazon Can Instantly (Poof!) Make Your Book Sales Disappear!’ was not only a great and informative article, it also illustrated the above point very aptly.
Amazon is now massive across all industries (except heavy machinery) and is pushing the envelope everywhere it can.
WLJ_1998(at)yahoo(dot)com
There is a fix if you get stuck with a creepy third-party sellers. The key is to know someone who sells books, new and used, via Amazon. Supply them copies of your books at wholesale, pricing them new and low enough to either take sales away from that over-pricing retailer or force him to lower his price. Either way, you win.
And if you have more than a couple of titles, checking them every few days for this trickery is a pain, so you might look into CamelCamelCamel.com. It’s intended to let users set trigger prices and will notify them when it hits that price or lower. But if you set a price watch on all your books, you can use its “Your Price Watches” page to display them about twenty a page. That’ll make checking easy. And it also creates a chart of price fluctuations for new and used editions.
–Michael W. Perry, author of My Nights with Leukemia
An author used something she asked us all to write for her blog and I said of course go ahead. She indicated it isn’t quite like that and that we both have to sign a release so we did. When my turn came to receive a blurb we did it legally. Verbally is not sufficient.
It just makes sense to cover your ass-ets!
lgwriter@telus.net