Article: Is Amazon taking Author Advertising too far?

Good article. I agree that the current placements of sponsored content isn't helpful. I'm annoyed by those ads as a buyer, and I distrust the program as an author. Amazon is kicking itself in the face.

I couldn't reproduce what is described. I typed my pen name and got only my books, typed in a title and got only things with that title or similar titles.

And to think, I'm annoyed at all the 'buy with one click' books that flood my Kindle when I turn it on.

I've noticed the same thing. It seems to have started only recently. Time was, if I used an author's name to search for his/her books, I got exactly what I was looking for. Now I get a goodly number of other authors, whose names may or may not begin with the same letter. Often I must go to the next page to find the works of the writer whose books I want to purchase.

Same. If I type in "J.R. Ward" and the title of one her latest release, rather than being taken to that book, I'm shown three sponsored ads, and have to scroll down to find the book I'm actually looking for. It's darn annoying as a customer, and as an author, I, too noticed back in February my sales and KU page reads fell off.

veinglory said:

I couldn't reproduce what is described. I typed my pen name and got only my books, typed in a title and got only things with that title or similar titles.

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The same happens on my side for your name. We've confirmed not all the results are filled with ads.

The search terms and method appears to make a difference. Here's an example of how this is working.

Desired results: If I type in "george rr martin" in a search for "All" while I'm logged out of Amazon, I see his books. If I stay logged out but look for his name, I see different results that focus on his books.

Spammy results: When I'm logged in, what I first see for "george rr martin" are sponsored ads (shown below). After that, the results are a mix of the entered authors books and more sponsored ads.



I've been skimming through more ads lately than I want to deal with. The most annoying moments are when I think I see what I'm looking for and click on the result before realizing its a different, unwanted book that showed up in my author search. Those extra clicks create a feeling of being tricked, a negative association with the sponsored books (as they're getting in my way), and frustration at the extra effort to find a specific work. A problem specific to those of us in areas with scarce high-speed internet is that page loads that have nothing to thing to do with what I'd wanted use up my limited "unlimited" monthly data for no good reason.

Not that I have anything to publish yet, but this caught my eye. I tried putting in random authors into Amazon both as an 'All' and 'Books'. What I got was exactly what I wanted. I don't see any ads or books 'like' what I wanted. So I was just wondering if it is different here in the UK as far as advertising books or if the ad blockers on our computers affect what I see. So are all of you in the US? Do you have ad blockers engaged or not? I would hate to find my book buried if I decided to go through Amazon so I just wondered why some of you see things I don't. Very confusing, but interesting. I can see why it would make you crazy

It's possible people are getting different results because that's Amazon test marketing different strategies.

MaeZe said:

And to think, I'm annoyed at all the 'buy with one click' books that flood my Kindle when I turn it on.

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those are almost all Amazon imprint books.

aspirit said:

Good article. I agree that the current placements of sponsored content isn't helpful. I'm annoyed by those ads as a buyer, and I distrust the program as an author. Amazon is kicking itself in the face.

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I agree as an author. As someone who has read their quarterly reports to stockholders, I see what they are doing. Business in the US is about short-term gains, what the quarterly report shows was done, how that impacts the market share price, and so on. They told stockholders about increasing this kind of advertising back before it happened. Authors aren't the only ones getting soaked. I don't like it and don't use it, and I don't even trust the reporting. I believe that in the long run, the harm to reader experience will backfire. But business in America often isn't about long-term strategies. It's about "what have you done for me today?" So it won't go away anytime soon. And unless Apple or Barnes steps forward to make a strong move against their market share in ebooks, it'll continue long past the time readers have given up in disgust.

YES, they are taking it too far and it's getting worse. Luckily, I sell my books wide so even though Amazon is my best selling platform, it's not my only platform. I can't imagine being in KU now. From what I hear hardly anyone in the program is making money but scammers, content mills or authors who can afford to spend thousands on Amazon ads. Yes, some authors are spending THOUSANDS on these ads. It would make your eyes pop to see how much money authors are spending just for visibility on Amazon.

It's a double-edge sword because now it seems like if you aren't running Amazon ads your book isn't seen. Authors are competing with ads which drives the spend for the ads up so many authors spend a lot but don't make much in return. I use maybe one or two Amazon ads and I bid low. I use Bookbub ads for my wide books but Amazon is a mess now.

I feel sorry for newbies because many of them don't have the money to spend on what it takes to "buy" visibility on the Zon these days and they also don't have an audience so it's is going to be extremely tough for new authors to sell on Amazon as time goes on. I see new authors "crying" everyday about how their book is bombing and they can't get eyes on it no matter what they do. Hence, that congested sea we call Amazon.

Amazon has and will always find a way to make money. Now, they'v found a way to do it by charging authors. Yes, I do use ads minimally but I don't like how the money authors make on Amazon now goes right back into Amazon's pockets. I don't spend tons of the ads but for those who do, wow. I can imagine how they feel because many do not even break even.

I've been speculating for years that one day Amazon will charge authors to submit to KDP. I would not be shocked if they did. Who is to stop them? They can do what they want and has proven it unfortunately. Amazon goes after the money like every company but most of their endeavors seem to hurt authors more than help. They don't need us anymore. When they started KDP, they needed authors to boost them to the status they are at now as a bookseller. Now that it's happened, they don't need us.

So for all those who always praised Amazon and thought they were an author's "friend"...yeah.

From now on you are going to have to have some money to be seen. It's the new world. Pay-to-play, baby. Organic visibility is gone. Even trade pubs are buying Amazon ads to get through the crowd. On top of that, I see many trade published authors upset that their pubs won't buy ads on Amazon because they know without them, their books aren't getting seen.

Amazon has made it where you gotta buy ads or suffer.

veinglory said:

I couldn't reproduce what is described. I typed my pen name and got only my books, typed in a title and got only things with that title or similar titles.

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I just tried it with my name and had the same results as you - for now. I've been frustrated by Amazon when shopping for other authors' books, so I bet it's only a matter of time. (Though, I also got some random ads for kitchen appliances called "the Sonya". )

However, I have a good surname for visibility. It always comes up alongside Seamus Heaney's.

cool pop said:

From now on you are going to have to have some money to be seen. It's the new world. Pay-to-play, baby. Organic visibility is gone. Even trade pubs are buying Amazon ads to get through the crowd. On top of that, I see many trade published authors upset that their pubs won't buy ads on Amazon because they know without them, their books aren't getting seen.

Amazon has made it where you gotta buy ads or suffer.

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This has been on my mind a lot recently. It's disturbing, and true.

I searched for a book on Amazon yesterday, a book they emailed me an ad for, and the book didn't come up in the search. Instead, a bunch of titles that didn't necessarily have similar names appeared, and I never did find what I was looking for. They have a place for input on how they are doing. I told them what I thought about recent searches. I hope you will complain to them, too.