Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens!!!

Did you know?  Did you know that Charles Dickens turns 200 today?  Well, he would have if he'd lived...  Have you read a good Dickens tale lately?  Here's more news on my favorite author's birthday.

Amazon Launching a "Real" Store

The rumors are true - Amazon has announced that it is launching a retail store, in the Seattle area, to test the waters.  I've had people tell me that Barnes&Noble is doomed but I'm not so sure (well, they may be doomed anyway but I don't think this store launch is the dooming mechanism).  Amazon's advantage has always been that they didn't have a real retail presence, didn't pay state taxes, didn't have retail overhead, etc.  I remember when Walden Books tried to go the small, "boutique" route.  It tanked.  Granted, it was a different time, they had different stock and couldn't compete with Amazon.  But running a retail business is not the same as running an internet business.  Who knows, maybe B&N will create an app so shoppers can price compare in Amazon's store!  What do you think?  Oh, and here's the article with more details about the new Amazon store.

Feathered Quill Book Reviews is pleased to offer our readers the chance to win a FREE book. Once a month, we will award a brand new book to one lucky reader. Simply submit your email address below and you will be entered into our monthly contest. There is absolutely no cost to you - no cost for the book, no cost for shipping, nope, nada, nothing. Note: We NEVER sell our email addresses and in fact, delete them all after each contest.

February - This month our offering is a copy of The Persian Room Presents: An Oral History of New York’s Most Magical Night Spot by Patty Farmer. Simply fill out the simple form below and you'll be entered to win!

This Month's Book Giveaway

We will contact the winner on or about the first of the following month to confirm his/her mailing address. Again, we will NOT keep this address on file.

Entry rules are simple: Open to those with US shipping addresses only. One entry per person, per month. Individuals are welcome to enter the contest each month. If you do win, please wait three months before entering again. That's it. Good luck!   CLICK HERE TO GO TO CONTEST PAGE

Barnes and Noble - What's Up???

With all the hubbub about Amazon, you might think that some of us reviewers are rooting for Barnes&Noble to succeed and give them a run for their money.  And we are - sorta.  You see, we're hopeful that B&N will welcome reviewers to their site, and help us, and them, build a readership.  And they are - sorta.

B&N has never been very friendly to small press/self-published books/authors.  Amazon jumped on that boat early on and grabbed that market.  For self-published authors, all one has to do is join "Amazon Advantage" and bingo, you can start selling your book on Amazon.  B&N?  Not so simple.  Books had to be submitted to a self-publishing review section, where the book would be critiqued and, if you could prove that sales would be good, they might decide to carry your title.  More than likely, a self-pub author was left waiting and waiting and waiting for a reply.  Not sure why they did this other than, perhaps they didn't have a warehouse large enough to hold all those self-published books.  And/or, maybe they miscalculated the sales from these books.  Amazon certainly made a nice little profit off of them.

Amazon has left B&N in the dust in so many marketing areas that you have to wonder, what's up?  Does B&N not have a marketing department?  Or a lackluster website development team?  Take their "widgets."  You know, the images anyone can add to their website that leads directly to that product's buy page on Amazon, or B&N.  Again, Amazon jumped on this early and quickly and made it easy for people to use.  B&N?  Well, they have widgets but how many websites do you visit that use them?  I haven't seen any.

Recently, I was posting reviews to B&N and two of them wouldn't go through.  (Yet another klunky, poorly developed website service - can we say "formatting, please"???!!!  How about some paragraph formatting!!!  But I digress....)  Anyway, both gave error messages, saying the content violated their terms (guessing inappropriate language, although there was nothing in the reviews that was "inappropriate."  One was for a children's book!).  Problem #1 - it doesn't tell you what the problem is/what we did to violate their terms.  Problem #2 - there is no way to edit/remove/delete/re-post the review.  It's there, with a message telling me to fix it and then it can be posted but there's no way to fix it.  Really, B&N?  Really?   Hmmmm.... can't figure that one out.  The other?  A suspense novel - maybe the mention of a tv show in that review violated their terms.  I don't have a clue.

So on January 23rd I tried to get through to somebody at B&N to fix this problem.  I used their real-time customer support "chatroom" where you type back and forth.  Within a few back and forths, it was obvious that "Mandy" was in India.  Oh, joy, here we go.  What should have been a brief, few minute conversation took over 20 minutes.  I was put on hold several times, and it took "Mandy" ten minutes just to understand what my problem was.  Twenty minutes later, I was told that my problem was due to a "technical problem" that they were working on.  Geeze, thanks for wasting 20 minutes of my time! 

As of today, the "technical problem" has not been resolved.  I can't get into those reviews to re-post/fix, I've had other reviews go ker-blingy too and I'm frustrated.  Come on, B&N, I'm rooting for you but if these problems continue, you'll lose my support.

Books-A-Million Joins B&N

Yea!  Yes, I'm happy.  Companies are standing up to Amazon and their ridiculous assumption that brick and mortar stores will carry Amazon imprint's books.  Books-A-Million just announced that, like Barnes & Noble, they will not carry Amazon Publishing titles.  Good for you!

Amazon and B&N Duke It Out

If you've been following the slow, or not so slow, takeover by Amazon of the publishing world, then you already know that Amazon is now a "publisher," with several genres covered under its imprint AmazonEncore.  While they can sell books published under their imprint on their site, they've discovered that distribution through traditional channels has been a challenge.  It seems that, gee, book stores that have closed at an alarming rate in large part because of Amazon, don't want to carry their books (with a few exceptions here and there).  Now Barnes&Noble has announced that they, too, won't be carrying these books.  I say, "good for your B&N!"  Some people seem surprised and think this is a bad decision, but I say it's good.  We need at least one competitor to Amazon, one that can hold their own.  Amazon has held the advantage for too long and has been pushing too many people/companies around.  While I'm not sure if B&N will survive (see tomorrow's post on their blunders), I am hopeful.

Oh, and did you hear that Arizona has just filed a "10-k" tax report requesting that Amazon pay $53 million in back taxes?  Add this to the Texas battle for sales tax. There have been several such as Amazon vs. New York in which, the judge decided in NY's favor.  Meanwhile, other states are so eager for Amazon's business, that when Amazon announces plans to build a huge warehouse in their state, the legislators agree to terms not to charge sales tax.  Really?  And how is that fair to other businesses???

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.  Glad I'm watching for the sidelines!  What's your opinion?

Designing Your Own Book?

Here's a great article for self-publishers to help them understand the technicalities of book design and font usage/typeface fonts:  BOOK DESIGN