Kindle Direct Publishing has given writers an amazing gift, a way to reach a worldwide audience. Anyone who meets Amazon's standards can publish a book or story, and anyone can leave a review to haunt you. Every KDP writer will eventually have to endure the Amazon one star review. They are part of the new publishing landscape. Negative reviews range from illiterate, crazy diatribes, revealing more about the reviewer's state of mind than the book itself, to pointed critiques by shrewd and pissed off readers. Why do people leave one star reviews? It's simple, they're experiencing a strong emotional reaction. Maybe the reviewer doesn't like swear words, or they had to read the book for school or book club, or they just saw the movie and the book's not the same, or the book conflicts with their personal philosophy about life, or they don't think this is what a story should be. Whether the one star review is a raw, visceral slap or a deeply cutting dissection that stings, they can be a shock for writers who took a big emotional risk to release their work in the first place. … [Read more...] about Cringeworthy One Star Reviews of Classic Books
Barbarians at the Gate! Indies vs Big Publishing
The Fall of Rome is still debated. How could such an empire fall? Various theories are floated; taxes were too high, barbarians joined the army, borders became too porous, corruption and incompetence were rampant. But I would argue that these were mitigating factors. Empires always fall for the same reason. They stop adapting. Adaptive Capacity is the technical term for an ecological or social system's response to changing conditions in the environment. A system that cannot adapt, self destructs. Traditional publishing is just such an empire, built over half a millennium (if we go by the invention of the Gutenberg press) the industry has had a long run. Now, e book publishing and print-on-demand technology have changed the landscape. Within a short amount of time, the book market has transformed. Some of the new players are Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Kobo, Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble Nook Press and distributors like Smashwords and BookBaby. Barbarians are at the gate, in the form of indie writers and upstart publishing imprints ( Amazon has … [Read more...] about Barbarians at the Gate! Indies vs Big Publishing
Amazon Prime Air: Will Drones Deliver?
Remember The Jetsons? The cartoon about the future where the Jetson family had a plethora of wacky, futuristic gadgets to make life easier? Well it looks like CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos took that show seriously. Just when you're getting used to an irobot vacuum scooting around the floor, Amazon just revealed the next level of droid services. First Amazon created automated warehouses and now flying drones will deliver packages in under 30 minutes. The drone delivery service is called Amazon Prime Air: … [Read more...] about Amazon Prime Air: Will Drones Deliver?
