Friday, 6 June 2014

The Digital Reader

The Digital Reader


Amazon’s Reputation Untarnished by Hachette Contract Dispute

Posted: 06 Jun 2014 10:51 AM PDT

4245550588_9e56b4e8db_o[1]The book world might be in a fury over the 8 month old Amazon Hachette contract dispute but it looks like most consumers don’t care.

A new report from YouGov BrandIndex shows that Amazon’s reputation has only been minimally affected by the ongoing fight. This research firm, which last year ranked Amazon the best-perceived brand in the US, says that:

Amazon's corporate-leading consumer perception is proving resilient so far in the face of its showdown with Hachette Book Group.

How bulletproof has Amazon's consumer perception been? Despite stories about its warehouse worker conditions dating back several years, YouGov BrandIndex data ranked Amazon as the best perceived brand in the U.S. last year, ahead of Ford, Subway, The History Channel, and Lowe's.

Although the dispute with Hachette has received considerable attention, Amazon's perception changes — as measured by YouGov BrandIndex's Buzz scores — over the past few weeks can best be described as "minute" and word of mouth scores have remained steady.

YouGov BrandIndex uses two measures to score a brand’s reputation, buzz and word of mouth. The first measures whether what a consumer has heard about a brand in the previous 2 weeks, and whether the consumer described it is positive or negative, while the second tracks whether the consumer mentions the brand themselves.

All respondents are adults age 18 and over and live in three countries: the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, and YouGov BrandIndex reports that the buzz in all 3 countries has remained fairly steady. There have been ups and downs, but not a general negative reaction to the negative press coverage.

And that comes as a deep surprise to this blogger. Hachette and their friends in the media have been running a very thorough media campaign against Amazon, and I expected that it would have greater effect. Instead, consumers are either seeing through the media blitz, or they don’t see the situation in the same light as industry insiders.

Instead, it turns out that all the coverage is just preaching to the choir.

Geekwire

image by public.resource.org

The post Amazon’s Reputation Untarnished by Hachette Contract Dispute appeared first on The Digital Reader.

Colbert on Amazon-Hachette, Konrath on Colbert

Posted: 06 Jun 2014 09:36 AM PDT

Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert weighed in on the Amazon Hachette contract dispute earlier this week, and with his usual droll wit he both managed to confuse the issue and make Amazon look the bully.

It’s quite fun to watch, and for your added enjoyment I suggest that you go read JA Konrath’s response to Colbert. I would not normally ridicule someone like this, but Konrath is apparently someone who takes himself so seriously that he didn’t get that Colbert was simply joking around and not taking the issue seriously.

Colbert is a comedian, and his routines are not intended to be serious. Konrath missing that point, and getting pissed over Colbert’s jokes, is somewhat entertaining.

The post Colbert on Amazon-Hachette, Konrath on Colbert appeared first on The Digital Reader.

The Morning Coffee – 6 June 2014

Posted: 05 Jun 2014 09:20 PM PDT

This friday’s reads include the real reason Reading Rainboaw shuttered (link), an analysis of Author Solutions (link), and more.

  • ABA Thanks Amazon (PW)
  • Bait-and-Switch for Self-Published Authors (Writer Beware®: The Blog)
  • The Case Against Author Solutions, Part 1: The Numbers (David Gaughran)
  • LeVar Burton: Criticism Of Reading Rainbow Is ‘Bullsh*t’ (ThinkProgress)
  • The war on Amazon is Big Publishing’s 1% moment. What about other writers? (theguardian.com)
  • You can't break copyright by looking at something online, Europe's top court rules (GigaOm)

The post The Morning Coffee – 6 June 2014 appeared first on The Digital Reader.

Get 12 eBooks With a 6-Month Subscription to Entitle for $40

Posted: 05 Jun 2014 07:35 PM PDT

entitleLooking for a reason to give Entitle’s book club style subscription plan a try? Check out this deal.

Entitle is running a sale for the next week on Stacksocial. They’re offering a 6 month subscription for the low price of $39.99. This is good for 12 books at a price of about $20 off the regular subscription price.

Entitle has a catalog of around 150,000 titles, including best sellers from several major publishers. They offer a subscription plan similar to Audible, and it costs $9.99 for 2 book credits. The ebooks can be read in Entitle’s ebook apps for Android or iOS, or they can be downloaded to your computer and transferred to an Epub compatible ereader of your choice.

Stacksocial

The post Get 12 eBooks With a 6-Month Subscription to Entitle for $40 appeared first on The Digital Reader.

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