I’m a big fan of Amazon’s book recommendations. I buy at least a couple of new books every month based on an Amazon recommendation. And I know darned well that Amazon’s recommendations sell a ton of the books I’ve authored on book marketing and bookselling.
In the past six months, though, I’ve been getting some truly bizarre recommendations for books from authors I’ve never heard of and topics I never buy.
It’s not just me. Here’s a forwarded e-mail I just received from an Amazon customer who bought one of my bookselling books. If Amazon continues sending out junk like this …
We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Steve Weber have also purchased Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George C. Wallace (Modern South) by Jeffrey Frederick. For this reason, you might like to know that Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George C. Wallace (Modern South) will be released on November 11, 2007. You can pre-order yours by following the link below.
Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George C. Wallace (Modern South)
Jeffrey Frederick
Price:$47.50
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors
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4 Comments
I've received similar incompatible recommendations from Amazon. I've also noticed the BXGY program recommending some weird combinations. For example, the page for Living SMART: Five Essential Skills to Change your Health Habits Forever recommends you also purchase The Kite Runner. Although, I've heard The Kite Runner is a wonderful book, it's certainly not compatible with Living SMART.
Reina
Looks like the results of an insufficiently precise algorithm. Then again, it may have to do with sales volume/ratios. When Amazon sells umpteen zillion books, suppose two people who buy one of your books also buys the unlikely recommendation. Then the software application correlates this into a recommendation. I don't know how many books you sell, but my guess is that the more books sold, the better such correlations are. I think Foner or maybe Shepard have written about this.
I think the wild pairings might be the product of paid promotions. In those cases, pairings are done at least partly by hand, and they have to come up with something, however weird, because they're being paid to!
I also get some very strange reccomendations. Books in genres that do not interest me in the slighest.
Paul