Blogging on Amazon.Com

[pbray]

Amazon.com has created a program where authors can post messages to their readers that will be available on the detailed book info pages.

Here's the announcement: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/15700651/102-3390299-4410511.

If you click on "Learn More" link you'll be prompted to send your info in to Amazon.Com and once they confirm you are who you say you are, they'll invite you into the program.

If you take a look at Tobias Buckell's latest title and scroll down you can see an example http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765312271/.

Any thoughts on whether or not this is a good thing to do?

Edited on 1/10/2006 to add: Now enrolled in the program, verified as the "real" Patricia Bray, and my first post should appear on my book pages in the near future.

Comments

[jenniferechols.livejournal.com]

You rock! Thanks for posting this!

How could it not be a good thing to do?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

I did it but I'm still waiting for them to "authorize" me to post to my titles.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I swear that you used to be able to something like this years ago. I filled out a form with, among other things, a reference name (my editor, in my case) and posted an essay about the book in question. You could also fill out an Amazon "interview" that was posted on a separate page. Sometime in 2000/2001, Amazon phased out this sort of author input. Now it's back.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I think I will probably sign up, especially when the page for the next Jani book goes up. But some authors are taking issue with what they see as an Amazon rights grab of anything posted on the site, and are linking to anything that they don't want Amazon to own instead of posting it directly on the site.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I remember the original Amazon.com interviews back in the late 1990s. For the longest time I had one up from 1997 when my first book was published, and it was impossible to update it with new info.

I've gone ahead and submitted the request to create the Amazon.com blog. I think I'll mainly use it to point people to my website and to this blog, which is the one I'll be updating.

Blogging on Amazon.Com

[(Anonymous)]

Seems like a good way for authors to let folks know about their web sites. Free publicity is always good. What could it hurt?

Re: Blogging on Amazon.Com

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Two downsides-- first that Amazon.com wants to own all the content I post, irrevocably. Anything I post becomes their intellectual property, so I'll mainly be using the Amazon.com blog to point to places where I do own the content, such as my website and this blog.

Another downside is that my Amazon.com customer information is now linked to my public persona as an author. As soon as my blog goes public, my wishlist, customer reviews, etc. all become visible as belonging to "Patricia Bray" author, versus belonging to one of the dozens of other Patricia Bray's they have as customers.

I'll need to go in and tinker with my wishlist so that it is friends only, and see if there is anything else that I need to delete or make visible only to pre-screened friends.

It's really a question of how much information on myself do I want out there with my books? There's a reason why houses don't have glass walls, and mail doesn't come in clear plastic envelopes. As a born & raised New Englander, I firmly believe that there are some things that are nobody's business but my own.