I was reading a post over at The Digital Reader today which came down heavily on Barnes and Noble’s support response to a few of the writer’s issues with their products and services.
I personally have never dealt much with Barnes and Noble’s remote customer support. My experience with Barnes and Noble has been limited to the retail stores and the agents therein. As usual, the merit of each agent’s response to my requests has always been evaluated on the basis of the individual encounters and not on the overall experience of a Barnes and Noble retail store. As a result, I can’t really comment on the remote customer service quality in the detail that this particular writer has.
Conversely, I can comment on the customer service at Amazon, because I have been dealing with them for over 10 years and prior to the advent of eBooks and the eReader.
Some companies place a huge emphasis on customer support, and sometimes to the detriment of other aspects of the business. In Amazon’s case, they have spent a great deal of time and effort [ more ]
Today, I had the unexpected opportunity to speak to two indie authors about using social media to build buzz for their latest titles. I realized this morning that I had this conversation before and here I was having it again. It is no surprise that a lot of independent authors want to know how they can use social media to market their eBook[s].
Independent authors need to feel empowered and be knowledgeable when it comes to social media and how to use it. Self-publishing demands that you wear a lot of hats; one of those hats is marketing and one of the best ways of an independent author to brand themselves and market their eBook is with social media. It is relatively inexpensive to use. As a matter of fact most of the time it cost you nothing. What it takes is your time, persistence and due diligence.
We Learn From Nature
We all remember the story of the birds and the bees, right? Take a lesson from the bees. They’re flying from flower to flower and doing what they do best, collecting [ more ]
The real issue with piracy is a hot topic this week, it seems.
Forbes published an article just yesterday which reported that pirating camcorder copies of the hit movie The Avengers which debuted last week didn’t seem to hurt moviegoer numbers any. They maintain that the movie-going experience is one that very few people compromise on for the big ones such as The Avengers.
I had a discussion with classmates and an course facilitator a few weeks ago on the issue that Forbes highlighted too: piracy of movies and music is not just about stealing what is available for purchase, and if The Avengers numbers are anything to go by, piracy of movies has more to do with accessibility than anything else.
There is a difference with eBooks, however. Presumably, accessibility of eBooks is of far less of an issue than platform and price-point. As editor here at Free-eBooks.net, I’ve heard from many a reader who’s primary electronic reader is not either of the big boys – i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, or Kobo. For them, it’s not so [ more ]