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Tag Archives: book recommendations
Amazon permits video book reviews
It had to happen sooner or later: Amazon is allowing customers to upload video book reviews. So far I’ve been able to find three video reviews for toys and gadgets (apparently all submitted by Amazon employees) but none for books. It will be interesting to see how closely Amazon polices copyright violations, which have been [...]
Are Amazon's book recommendations getting spammy?
I’m a big fan of Amazon’s book recommendations. For years, I’ve relied on them because they’re the collective judgment of people like me — people who have bought similar books. So when Amazon asks me to consider a new book, I listen. In fact, I buy most of my new books this way. And believe [...]
Amazon's book recommendation misfires
I buy lots of books Amazon recommends, even though some of the suggestions are wacky. For example, last year I got a recommendation for a book about hysterectomies. Here’s another nutty one I just got this morning: We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Antique Trader Book Collector’s Price Guide by Richard Russell [...]
Plugging your book into social-networking sites
Here’s a follow-up recent posts about tags, MySpace, and Amazon’s Web 2.0 features like book recommendations and Search Inside the Book. Everyone knows these fancy features help people discover your book on Amazon. But these features can help people find your book outside Amazon, too. Here’s an example from my experience: A few months ago [...]
Q&A: Where is my book recommended on Amazon?
QUESTION: On the Amazon page where my novel is for sale, there are several other recommended books displayed under the heading, “Customers who bought this item also bought.” How is this list determined, and how can I find the other places on Amazon where my book appears? ANSWER: The list is often called the “Also-Bought” [...]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Amazon recommendations, Amazon Sales Rank, collaborative filtering 1 Comment
Automated book recommendations: Effectiveness by genre, price
Online recommendations are more effective for certain types of books, according to a 2006 academic study, “The Dynamics of Viral Marketing.” Recommendations for fiction books were usually the least effective, with only about 2 percent resulting in a purchase. Recommendations for nonfiction books dealing with personal and leisure pursuits were more effective, resulting in purchases [...]
Online word of mouth and how Amazon recommendations sell books
In 1988 a first-time author, British mountaineer Joe Simpson, wrote of his disastrous climbing accident in the Peruvian Andes. His book, Touching the Void, got good reviews, but wasn’t too popular outside England. It sold modestly and then, like most books, began fading into obscurity. A decade later, another climbing book was penned by Jon [...]
Amazon's book recommendations increasingly plagued by brain farts