When I went to my Shelfari landing page last week to update the widget I use on my blog, I saw an ominous notice: Shelfari is shutting down. 
The news won’t be a surprise to those who know that Amazon has owned both Shelfari and Goodreads for the past few years. Goodreads is by far the more popular of the two sites, so it stands to reason that Amazon would consolidate its reader experience (not to mention reader data) there. But a number of readers, authors, and bloggers closed their Goodreads accounts and fled to Shelfari during the Goodreads Bullies incident a few years ago; I can’t imagine they will be thrilled to have their information dumped back onto Goodreads. Continue reading “Goodbye Shelfari, Hello Goodreads”
Tag: Amazon
Will the Real Amazon Bookstore Please Stand Up
Great speculation is abundant in the continuing saga of the Amazon Brick and Mortar Store. A year ago, our Lynne Cantwell wrote about a physical Amazon Store coming to New York City. It was reported back then that they would be the first physical store in Amazon’s arsenal. It turns out that this is not the case. Continue reading “Will the Real Amazon Bookstore Please Stand Up”
Your Neighborhood Amazon Brick & Mortar Store
The news broke late last week: the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is renting retail space in Manhattan. The retailing juggernaut’s first brick-and-mortar store will be located on West 34th Street, across from the Empire State Building, and just a block from Macy’s flagship store on Herald Square.
But Barnes & Noble can rest easy. The word is that the Amazon store won’t stock books. Instead, it’s likely to be mostly warehouse space for returns, in-store pickup, and same-day order fulfillment for impatient New Yorkers. Inventory will probably be limited, according to the Journal, but eventually the store might carry electronic gizmos such as Kindles, Fire smartphones, and Fire TV devices. In any case, the facility ought to be up and running in plenty of time for the Christmas shopping season. Continue reading “Your Neighborhood Amazon Brick & Mortar Store”
What You Need to Know about Amazon Pre-ordering
When Amazon announced that indie authors other than Hugh Howey would be allowed to offer their e-books on pre-order, the timing couldn’t have been better for me to give it a try. I was in the midst of planning my next book release. The description was ready, the categories and keywords chosen, and I’d just sent the final draft of the manuscript out for copyediting. Continue reading “What You Need to Know about Amazon Pre-ordering”