Re: Re: Amazon.com's "Search Inside the Book"

From: Keith Tabor <ket354[_at_]yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2003 16:25:54 -0500

• Dodi Schultz <SCHULTZ[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
  >
  > Keith Tabor writes, in reply to my questioning the
  > great benefit of this
  > gimmick to authors,
  >
  > >> The works aren't really available in a way that
  > will diminish sales.
  > >> The works are searchable and more likely to be
  > seen by people
  > >> looking for advice on a topic. The works are
  > more likely to be
  > >> bought.
  >
  > None of that is necessarily true,
  

None of it is necessarily false. It is all speculative and the sysstem is likely changing as we speak.

> Keith, if the
> specific information
> readers seek can be obtained for free. That trial
> run by the Authors Guild
> found at least 100 consecutive pages easily
> obtainable.

Easily obtainable in a usable format that most readers are willing to use in order to avoid the cost of buying a text or inconvenience of going to a library?

> At the moment, the
> print and save functions have been disabled on those
> inside looks, but the
> text's still there on the screen. A reader might
> well be particularly, or
> even solely, interested in the contents of only two
> or three chapters.

A reader might, in fact several readers might. But, have you lost a sale? Were those buyers? That reader may have gone to another source. Overall, the work may see more sales, even if the Amazon system can be used as a stand alone research tool. The research use does not exlcude the possibility of increased sales.

> (We
> are of course talking about nonfiction here.)

I was talking about books, you can limit your arguments to just non-fiction though. My arguments apply to to both, country and western.

>
> >> And most importantly, even if you disagree with
> all of the above,
> >> Amazon only makes money if a work is sold.
> Therefore, if there is
> >> not an increase in sales overall, the system
> will be taken down
> >> because Amazon won't let this be a loss leader
> for long.
>
> I certainly hope you're right. And I can't quite see
> how this *would* lead
> to some kind of overall increase in sales

Say I'm looking for a book on wireless networks in the home. I'm thinking about 802.11g, not a or b, so I would only want a book that deals with this latest protocol. I can search and review chapters to see which book is written in a style I like, as if I were in a book store. Then I hit "buy". All while eating my lunch at my desk. Without this feature I just look up articles on the web and print them out. No consistancy, but probably a lot of the same info.

> --unless
> you're figuring that,
> since sign-up is required, it will simply bring the
> operation a new flock
> of potential buying customers. Maybe....

I rarely buy books without flipping to the middle and reading a page. It lets me know if I want to spend time with the author or not. In my case, the time invested in a book is almost as important as the money.

>
> --DS
>

I think this system will change a lot in the next 6 months. If I were an author I would try to influence that change.

keith

PS. does anyone think I can bill Amazon for my time on this?

---

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