Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion

I imagine most people have noted the new layout of Amazon's product page for books?

It appears they've made the cover thumbnail bigger, removed the link at the button that allowed you to a view a large cover image, and shrunk the space for the blurb. I believe they also moved the author bio's above the reviews.

These would seem to interesting changes if they reflect Amazon's view on what sells: bigger cover image, less blurb, and giving authors more prominence.

Practically speaking, our blurbs had line-feeds in them that meant they almost disappeared in the new layout, so we fixed that. That's a good thing to check, if anyone hasn't.

I do wonder if this mean Amazon thinks people typically click the "read more" link, so hiding more of a blurb doesn't matter, or if they think blurbs aren't key to selling and want to encourage readers to use the "look inside" feature or what? It's a bit interesting that using "look inside" is now the only way to see a large version of the cover.

Apparently they do see some benefit in putting the authors above the review, and I do think that's a positive thing.

Edit: Did they ditch the publication date or is it just me? This is what I'm seeing now (two examples):

Print Length: 293 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1500738514
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Pleiades Web Press; 1 edition (January 5, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

I can't find a date on the first book's page, where there is no publisher listed. Am I missing it?

I think that works better for Amazon, big named authors and pretty/interesting authors.

e.g. "The Casual Vacancy" by "JKRowling (Harry Potter fame)

It may go against us indies,
e.g.

"Robboty Story" by Mr Nobody (is his nose broken?)
lol

Anthony wrote: "It may go against us indies..."

I think there are plenty of indies who are interesting, pretty, and pretty interesting. : )

The Amazon author's page can be quite useful, especially if people follow you there. The new placement might encourage that.

Owen wrote: "I think there are plenty of indies who are interesting, pretty, and pretty interesting. : )
..."

Lol, nice one. I'm away to get working on my best selfie with photoshop.

I will need to work on my author page!

What I find interesting is that I see the page you describe on my phone, but on my tablet, I see the old page. Both are Nexus products running the latest Android version and latest version of Chrome. Neither defaults to the mobile site. I'll have to check on the computer.

What I did notice is that on both, they have removed the quotes by reviewers. This could be good or bad, considering for a while they were quoting one of my bad reviews.

Christina wrote: "What I did notice is that on both, they have removed the quotes by reviewers. This could be good or bad, considering for a while they were quoting one of my bad reviews..."

I didn't notice that, but I'm glad they did. Those could be nonsensical. On two occasion on our books, they quoted a sentence fragment that was basically meaningless, and it looked quite odd. I noticed this elsewhere, too.

Anthony wrote: "Lol, nice one. I'm away to get working on my best selfie with photoshop.

I will need..."

Since they only display the author photos if there is more than one author, there's no mystery why my co-author's page gets at least 10X the visits mine does.

Owen wrote: "Since they only display the author photos if there is more than one author, there's no mystery why my co-author's page gets at least 10X the visits mine does. ..."

Huh? They display all pictures if you have one. Even for single author.

G.G. wrote: "Huh? They display all pictures if you have one. Even for single author..."

Sorry, I wasn't clear. For a single author, they display the photo along with the bio. For two authors, it's only the photos -- no text. (My photo really needs some text along with it! LOL!)

Oh ok! Now it makes more sense. :)

In a twist, on one of our books, the Editorial Reviews section contain both the editorial review and an "About the authors" section with both bios in it.

For our other two books, the Editorial Reviews section shows just the editorial review. Have to look into this...

Owen wrote: " ...there's no mystery why my co-author's page gets at least 10X the visits mine does."

Maybe you should try a black and white photo, or sepia?

;)

LOL! Or a bear skin rug? ;D

Aren't your books selling? Why change something that works perfectly fine? :)

Anthony wrote: "Owen wrote: " ...there's no mystery why my co-author's page gets at least 10X the visits mine does."

Maybe you should try a black and white photo, or sepia?

;)"

If people want to visit Jordan's page instead of mine, I'm all good with that! It all serves the same purpose in the end.

I do wonder what effect sepia would have though. Not sure about a bearskin rug... ; )

GG: Yes, they sell, and no, we don't want to change anything. I just find the juxtaposition of the two photos amusing. : )

Today, I'm seeing the old product-page layout with a couple of tweaks. Seems to be some stirring going on.

Hate the new look. It wreaks havoc on my janky phone

K.P. wrote: "Hate the new look. It wreaks havoc on my janky phone"

Maybe that's why I'm seeing the old look back.