Amazon beefs up its content further with authors’ message posting
Amazon.com Inc. continues to beef up the non-selling content at its web site. Amazon today launched Amazon Connect, a program in which authors can post messages to readers via the Amazon.com home page.
Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, notes that many authors operate their own web sites, but their readers may not visit those sites. Authors post messages to Amazon.com which will then be shown only to customers who have purchased that author`s work or who explicitly sign up to receive that author`s posts.
"We invite authors to communicate with their readers in a way that hasn`t before been possible," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com`s founder and CEO. "Amazon Connect brings the author`s message to the reader instead of waiting for the reader to find the message."
Amazon says that more than 1,000 authors have enrolled in the program, including Marcus Buckingham, Michael Covel, Robert Crais, Nelson DeMille, Anita Diamant, Frank Gallinelli, Caroline Myss, Karen Katz, Elizabeth Kostova, John Lithgow, Elizabeth Pantley, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, Ann Rule, Karma Wilson and Meg Wolitzer. Authors can post as often as they like, and their posts will appear to Amazon.com customers immediately.
Amazon says it will allow messages such “current musings,” information about upcoming projects and reading recommendations. It says it will not allow promotional posts.
In addition to the Amazon.com home page, posts will appear on book detail pages, a blog page and on a special author profile page that features the author`s three most recent posts and entire bibliography.
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