Hatrack River Forum: Amazon's "Search Book" and sample feature...

This is topic Amazon's "Search Book" and sample feature... in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :

I know we hashed this out when it first surfaced several months ago...but I must have forgotten and missed it. [Wink]

I know that the "samples" that Amazon posts of the books that they sell aren't really detrimental to the sales of that particular book because usually they don't put the whole book online. But what about introductions and other copyrighted works in full that just happen to fit inside the allotted "sample" pages? I just went to the HG Wells book for which OSC wrote the introduction. His ENTIRE introduction is included in the sample pages that Amazon offers for browsing purposes.

Shouldn't there be something wrong with that? I know there might be people that would have been more likely to purchase the book based on his introduction, but now, we can just read it and copy it, save it and be done with it. In the explanation page, Amazon says

quote:
With Search Inside the Book, customers can also browse sample pages and do additional searches inside a particular book to confirm that the title is just what they're looking for. All of this helps publishers and authors like you sell more books.

This may be true, but how does it work for people like OSC, who's whole articles and prefaces are available without purchasing the book?

Does this really make any difference? Am I missing the boat on this?

[ June 11, 2004, 12:09 AM: Message edited by: Narnia ]

Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :

*Puzzles*

*Remembers how reading prefaces was a required hell in English Lit classes*

*Decides it's a safe bet that most folks STILL won't read it, even if it is free*

*Ponders becoming an English lit teacher just to impose that same hell on future students and chuckles*

Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :

[ROFL]

Where have you been lately? I've missed you!! [Kiss]

Posted by RRR (Member # 6601) on :

People can go to bookstores and read whole books if they want to. ::shrug:: I don't see this as being any different.

Posted by Richard Berg (Member # 133) on :

Unless they've changed things, the samples come up as rather rough images. I.e., you'd need pretty good OCR software to get anything useful out of them.

Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :

They've changed things. They're very clear, large, and easy to read.

Posted by Lalo (Member # 3772) on :

Do you know people who buy books for their prefaces or introductions?

I really can't see this denting too many sales.

Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :

I know, but I just wonder if it bugs the authors of those prefaces and introductions. Ya know?