Amazon Vine

[fluffy bunny]

Has anyone else been invited to this? Been invited for the UK version. Basically amounts to free stuff for a few reviews here and there (and I've only got 4 or 5 reviews up on amazon from a few years back).

 

[Disenthral]

no, and i also thought this thread was called Amazon Wine and i got excited..:sad:

 

[Libra]

no, and i also thought this thread was called Amazon Wine and i got excited..:sad:

Don't feel bad, I misread "books" for another word...:whistling:

 

[BeerWench13]

Amazon wine sounds yummy.

 

[Isabell]

They spelled program wrong!

 

[Litany]

No they didn't.

 

[Stewart]

Has anyone else been invited to this? Been invited for the UK version. Basically amounts to free stuff for a few reviews here and there (and I've only got 4 or 5 reviews up on amazon from a few years back)

Amazon UK were a bit rubbish with me, probably because they couldn't be bothered to actually read my reviews, since they are lengthier than most. Amazon US, however, were happy to post them up, until they changed the criteria to the fact that I had to have at least one purchase from them before they would accept my reviews.

But I've moved on from Amazon reviews. Apart from the fact the company is a bastard for the way it treats publishers, continually pressing for discounts that eat into potential royalties for authors, as well as other things like sueing over 1-Click purchasing and that all POD books be printed through their BookSurge.

I don't bother with Amazon anymore (preferring The Book Depository), where possible. It's probably one of the few places you can run to now, what with Amazon buying AbeBooks.

I keep my reviews pretty much to my blog now, which is as good a place as any to have them. As a result of doing this I get plenty of offers of review copies from many different publishers with the option to call in books from their catalogues that may interest me. (I get a lot of emails from annoying self-publishers wanting reviews, too, but just ignore them.)

 

[fluffy bunny]

But I've moved on from Amazon reviews. Apart from the fact the company is a bastard for the way it treats publishers, continually pressing for discounts that eat into potential royalties for authors, as well as other things like sueing over 1-Click purchasing and that all POD books be printed through their BookSurge.

Now you're making me feel guilty :sad: I do use amazon a lot as it's easier for me to get hold of US published books and cds that way without spending loads on P+P and availbility in store isn't quite so much of an issue.

If I wander into a bookshop and start thumbing through books, I'm more than likely to come out with a number of books that I'd never heard of before (eg Faber's Crimson Petal and White hooked me with that opening chapter which is yet to be beaten IMHO). There's a place for both online and traditional stores even if amazon is pulling the evil megacorporation card and eating its competion which can't be great for individual publishers and ultimately the consumer.

Had a look though the amazon vine list for this month anyway - there's nothing there I'm remotely interested in.