As Glenn notes, today is the last full day before Christmas at Amazon for two-day shipping. Just as a reminder: shopping on Amazon via links offered by affiliates is an easy way to support those affiliates* (ahem), and it won’t cost you anything extra.
Moe Lane
*This is also true for affiliates who are ideologically opposed to me; lurkers, take note, and remember the sites that you actually like (instead of simply bitterly resent).
If you were planning to order something on Amazon.com
Moving on: charities! Child’s Play, The Salvation Army, Toys for Tots: feel free to add worthy other examples in comments.
Moe Lane
*This applies to lurkers, btw: from what I can tell the Left-sphere has precisely zero in the way of support networks and is about to be disproportionately hit with the Mighty Karmic Hammer of Maximum Obamacare Fun. This would merely make me chuckle, except that even liberals have kids who won’t understand why there’s no Christmas this year.
I suppose that it was inevitable; they’re normally pretty good about this stuff, but apparently not today. Short version: when I signed up for my Amazon Prime membership they charged the wrong card. OK. They neglected to send me a warning that my free trial was about to expire. Well, that’s not required of them – a good idea, but not required. Here’s the thing, though: when I called them about switching the initial charge from my debit account to the credit card (which I did, about five minutes after getting the overdraft notice from my bank*) they told me that they could and would do that, easily. Well, it turns out that they don’t do that… which I only found out when I called to check why it hadn’t been done.
This is usually the point where I start shouting, but fortunately for the customer service rep I’m sick this morning, which means that I’m taking extra care with my temper. Continue reading Amazon.com’s vaunted customer service apparently lied to me.
…at first to get Andrew’s book up there (his family could probably use the sales), but then more generally.
(pause)
Not much to add to that, really. Continue reading I’ve updated the Amazon store…
I noticed that AoSHQ has gotten itself an Amazon Associates store, so I thought that I should blatantly steal the idea and have one, too: and here it is. Note that I have a Friends of the Site tab (idea likewise blatantly stolen from AoSHQ): if you’re a regular reader/commenter and you’ve got a book that you’re selling via Amazon.com, by all means suck up for a link (I obviously need to put more stuff up on there). If I can figure out a way to get the MoeLane Amazon store to embed on a page here without it looking awful, I will do so.
Anyway, here’s some Pink Floyd.
Start thinking about pricing your books so that they’re competitive with the paperback versions, not the hardcovers. Give you an example: I’m trying my best to get back to The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. The hardcover goes for eighteen bucks and the paperback nine and a half… and the Kindle version is eleven. I’m discovering that I’m more likely to finish nonfiction books on my Kindle than otherwise – don’t ask me why – but pegging the price as a discount on the hardcover is maybe affecting my cheapskate instincts. Which is why the darn book is on of the piles scattered about the house.
Obviously, a new book is a new book; but if you’re bringing out softcover reprints, maybe linking the new Kindle price to that will help with sales? – Or not. This thought just occurred to me.
Moe Lane
PS: Downloaded and read Confessions of a D-List Supervillain this morning. Overall: well worth the three bucks. Started strong, good character development of the hero/protagonist, action and plot maintained up until the last ‘chapters,’ which unfortunately did come across as slightly rushed (the book was originally a novella, and it still slightly shows). The book probably could have used another two chapters or so of development, but It Did Not Suck. Of course, I admit to having a certain weakness for books that have chapter headings like “Like I Need Another Reason to Invade Branson, Missouri” and get away with it…
Which is, of course, the Online Left. The short version: NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco innocently tweeted the fact that he had grabbed Glenn Beck’s new book Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure, presumably to read on a flight. As the Blaze link shows, some of Ochocinco’s fans aren’t all that happy about it. Which doesn’t seem to have stopped Ochocinco from reading the book.
I note this not because it’s significant now, but because it might be interesting later. Judging from the guy’s Twitter feed, Ochocinco seems like the kind of person who isn’t shy about expressing his opinions; and right now it looks like all the shouting is just encouraging Ochocinco to finish the book (which he is reasonably enough finding interesting, even if he doesn’t actually agree with all of it). Assuming that he likes Beck’s book, or even finds it interesting, Ochocinco may talk about this later in a more public forum*, and in the process probably say something about Glenn Beck that will not be semantically equivalent to “Glenn Beck is the spawn of Satan.”
That’s when the fun will really start.
Moe Lane
Continue reading #rsrh @ochocinco discovers the Right’s secret recruitment weapon.
Unless people actually wanted to hear me complain about my Amazon.com
And now, one of the better motivational speeches in recent cinematic history.
It’s amazing what can happen when two Amazon.com vendors enter into what is effectively an automatic price raising war with each other. The short version: one vendor was automatically setting the sales price of a book that he was offering to be 99.8% of a second vendor’s price… and the second vendor was automatically setting his sales price to be 127% of the first vendor’s price*. The number got up to almost 24 million before anybody noticed.
Interesting thing, the used book retail industry. Especially when you mix it with the Internet.
Moe Lane
PS: This is the book:
*The guess by the author of the linked post is that the second vendor didn’t actually have the book, but could get their hands on it if somebody actually ordered it; and as having a good feedback record is a plus in this business, somebody might actually order from them even if they’re selling it at a higher price.
