An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos

This post might not be a wise move but I never claimed to have a perfect batting average in the wisdom department. David probably shouldn’t tick off Goliath in general. In this case, when it comes to selling books, Amazon is clearly the 800 lb gorilla in book sales. Maybe I shouldn’t write this post.

On the other hand, how do you effect change if you don’t express your dissatisfaction with the status quo? Not by silence. What the hell…I’m going for it.

Why I’m Miffed

The source of my disgruntlement is Amazon, but not as a customer per se. I’m writing as an author and one not happy with its customer service. I’m particularly miffed at the time that it is taking Amazon to post my book videos to the main page of each. The two in question are:

• the second edition of Why New Systems Fail
• my new book, The Next Wave of Technologies

By way of background, Amazon has been allowing authors to post audio or video content on their book pages on a limited basis. For a few examples, see Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price…

Link to original post.

This post might not be a wise move but I never claimed to have a perfect batting average in the wisdom department. David probably shouldn’t tick off Goliath in general. In this case, when it comes to selling books, Amazon is clearly the 800 lb gorilla in book sales. Maybe I shouldn’t write this post.

On the other hand, how do you effect change if you don’t express your dissatisfaction with the status quo? Not by silence. What the hell…I’m going for it.

Why I’m Miffed

The source of my disgruntlement is Amazon, but not as a customer per se. I’m writing as an author and one not happy with its customer service. I’m particularly miffed at the time that it is taking Amazon to post my book videos to the main page of each. The two in question are:

• the second edition of Why New Systems Fail
• my new book, The Next Wave of Technologies

By way of background, Amazon has been allowing authors to post audio or video content on their book pages on a limited basis. For a few examples, see Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price or my friend Scott Berkun’s latest Confessions of a Public Speaker. Both of these have informative multimedia files attached to their book pages, allowing would-be readers to watch or listen to the authors talking about their books. I can’t help but think that each “extra” makes it more likely that visitors will buy each book, something that benefits everyone: the author, the publishers, and ultimately Amazon.

In my case, both of my publishers (Cengage and John Wiley & Sons) are allowed to submit videos for Amazon’s approval and did. I could understand any difficulties if I didn’t have proper publishers, but that’s not the case.

Customer Service at Amazon

Here’s the vexing part of the last few weeks. Amazon has amazing customer service. Take a look at BusinessWeek’s customer service rankings. Amazon is routinely high up on the list. On a personal level, I buy items from Amazon very often and, for books, almost exclusively. I have zero complaints with regard to shipping, its return policy, its selection, and the overall experience. That’s why I keep coming back. I’d argue that customer service and pro-consumer offers such as free shipping have allowed Amazon get to be so big, so powerful.

Possible Reasons for the Delays

Now, I could understand the problems if I had filmed long videos or if they were of questionable quality. However, neither of those arguments holds any water. I didn’t go all Blair Witch on these.

Don’t believe me? Judge for yourself.

• Why New Systems Fail Video
• The Next Wave of Technologies Video

I’ve been gently asking my publishers about the nature of the delays over the last six weeks. I truly believe their responses: they’re doing everything that they can do make this happen. Evidently it’s very hard to talk to a “person” there to expedite things–or at least understand what’s going on.

Questions

This makes me wonder about a few other things:

• Why does it take Amazon more than a few weeks to enable “Search Within Book?”
• Is customer service different for customers and authors?
• Aren’t authors and vendors customers in some sense as well?
• Is this the beginning of a sense of complacency at Amazon?