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Have you ever returned a book?
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Never returned one, myself. Hearing others talk about the returned eBooks really gets under my skin. What motivates a person to return an electronic file? I hope I'm adding to your post and not going far off topic.
I have returned one e-book, bought it and couldn't get it to open on my kindle so returned it. There are some options to tick for returns and I think one of them is technical or file read problems.
J. wrote: "Never returned one, myself. Hearing others talk about the returned eBooks really gets under my skin. What motivates a person to return an electronic file? I hope I'm adding to your post and not goi..."
No, you're absolutely fine. Either print or efile, it amounts to the same thing. I feel like there must be at least a handful of really valid reasons this happens...I just don't get it!
No, you're absolutely fine. Either print or efile, it amounts to the same thing. I feel like there must be at least a handful of really valid reasons this happens...I just don't get it!
A.W. wrote: "I have returned one e-book, bought it and couldn't get it to open on my kindle so returned it. There are some options to tick for returns and I think one of them is technical or file read problems."
And there it is. That never occurred to me, as I've never experienced any issues firsthand. Thanks for sharing!
And there it is. That never occurred to me, as I've never experienced any issues firsthand. Thanks for sharing!
I usually just give books I didn't like away :)
I never returned a physical book, however I returned an ebook I bought by accident. I had many pages opened checking books and I finally decided to buy the book I wanted but clicked 'buy with one click' on the wrong page. I returned the book within the next few minutes. I'm being careful what I click now. I felt so bad after I did that.
The two times I've published a book..in the first two days I get a return. My friend says it might be someone who reads fast and simply returns it after reading it...
Oh I see. I didn't know we were talking about ebooks. I thought it was books in general.
I've come across that too Arabella. Like you see a sale and then as quick as you get the sale someone returns it..rather odd but everyones different.I've never returned a book because of distaste. If anything, I'll trade it into my local bookstore for credit on another book to buy in the store.
Oh I forgot. My husband returned a 150$ (printed) book once. He ordered it by mail. It was some kind of Microsoft course thing. He wanted a book to learn by himself and take the exam afterwards. What he got was a book that served as an exam for an online course. Questions without answers= not too great to study. There was no mention of the online course in the description.
Vanessa wrote: "Oh I see. I didn't know we were talking about ebooks. I thought it was books in general."
I was referring to books in general. The ebook return examples make sense, but I know printed books also get returned.
I was referring to books in general. The ebook return examples make sense, but I know printed books also get returned.
I'm like Elle. There are books I've disliked and just couldn't finish (rather didn't want to waste my time finishing) but I've never returned one.
Richard Brawer
www.silklegacy.com
Richard Brawer
www.silklegacy.com
No. I have given them away or sold them as used, but I guess I figure that I buy a book to read it, which in the end, whether I liked it or not, I have done.
Yeah, I've had some ebooks returned on Amazon - all of $.99 - $1.99! Can you believe that?If they were due to technical problems I'd be okay and fix them but Amazon never gives any feedback as to why they were returned and it doesn't happen often enough to indicate a format problem.
But it's irritating as hell.
Someone returned one of mine, but I feel very certain that it was bought by accident. I got two sales that seemed to be nearly simultaneous, and then within minutes of that, a single return. I have to think someone fat-fingered something by accident. It happens.
I myself haven't returned books, but I have returned things like phone aps that either didn't run or that didn't run well. So I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt.
I've only returned one ebook I bought because it was obvious that the "author" had used a spinner on material collected from other sources. For those who don't know what a spinner is, it is software that re-writes content (to avoid copyright and duplicate content issues) by replacing words and phrases with supposedly synonymous words and phrases. While spun content can be just fine, most of the time it comes out as word salad and is basically unreadable, as was the case with the book I returned.
Fletcher wrote: "I've only returned one ebook I bought because it was obvious that the "author" had used a spinner on material collected from other sources. For those who don't know what a spinner is, it is softwa..."
I've never heard of that, and I'm a little disturbed to know such things exist. Are these books novels?
I've never heard of that, and I'm a little disturbed to know such things exist. Are these books novels?
Usually you'll see it in non-fiction books. Spinners are very popular with online marketers because it allows them to produce unique content by basically stealing other people's content. With the boom in people selling ebooks about everything from health topics to gardening, to dog training, there's bound to be a few people who take short cuts. Amazon is cracking down on this stuff now though.
Fletcher wrote: "Usually you'll see it in non-fiction books. Spinners are very popular with online marketers because it allows them to produce unique content by basically stealing other people's content. With the..."
I'm glad to hear it! Thanks for the answers!
I'm glad to hear it! Thanks for the answers!
I've never returned an ebook as a reader, but I have had maybe 2 or 3 returns as an author. At least one case seemed to be a 'fat fingers' thing as mentioned above.I have no ill will towards people returning my book. As far as I can tell, I still get the temporary benefit of the boost to my sales rank that a purchase brings, and as for the 25p in royalties I'm missing out on? Meh, what I never had, I won't miss. Particularly when it's 25p that I won't receive until 6 months down the line and even then it'll be taxed heavily.
I have returned printed books though, actually. You might recently have heard in the UK about the third Bridget Jones book containing a chapter of actor David Jason's autobiography due to a printing error. Similarly I've bought books a couple of times only to find some of the sections in the wrong sequence. It's rare but it happens, and when it does, the book is pretty clearly 'faulty goods', as odd as that might seem at first glance.
I'm too lazy to return a physical book but books are part of the consumer market and I feel if a reader truly did not like the book, couldn't get into it, and really wanted their money back because of that, well they work hard for their money to buy the book, so the author should work hard to write a good enough book to be worth the money they want for it. Not that I have ever returned a book myself, but I do feel the unhappy reader has a right to a refund. Just my feeling on this and I have many friends that are authors and think they, after thinking a moment about it, would agree.
Fletcher wrote: "I've only returned one ebook I bought because it was obvious that the "author" had used a spinner on material collected from other sources. For those who don't know what a spinner..."That's just horrifying, isn't it? Glad Amazon's cracking down on it, and glad it's mostly a non-fiction issue, but you have to know, it won't be long before they do this for genre fiction.
Jordan wrote: "That's just horrifying, isn't it? Glad Amazon's cracking down on it, and glad it's mostly a non-fiction issue, but you have to know, it won't be long before they do this for genre fiction."It's bad enough to have your stuff stolen and spun, but my personal worst spinner incident was when someone spun an online article I had written and left my name on it as the author. They were using the spun article as unique content to avoid the duplicate content penalty that search engines use when ranking web pages, so they didn't care about getting credited as the author. I found out about it when I received a scathing email about how a professional (I'm a chiropractor as well as an author) such as myself should learn how to write properly. Grrrr!
It's good to know that Amazon is cracking down on this spinner stuff. I have never heard of that and well I don't like the sound of that. I would think it hard to get away with, with fictional material but it I bought a fictional book and started reading and seeing so many similarities in it as something else I read, I might even report it to Amazon as I returned it.
Andrew! Yes! I had to return a Diana Gabaldon book to Barnes and Noble because literally about 150 pages in...the ink got fainter and fainter until it was unreadable. (Obviously someone forgot to ink the rollers or what have you) So yes...that's one time I returned a printed book. and easily got a replacement)
A.W. wrote: "I have returned one e-book, bought it and couldn't get it to open on my kindle so returned it. There are some options to tick for returns and I think one of them is technical or file read problems."Thanks for that. I had not considered that angle at all.
G.G. wrote: "I never returned a physical book, however I returned an ebook I bought by accident. I had many pages opened checking books and I finally decided to buy the book I wanted but clicked 'buy with one c..."Another angle I had not considered. And I'm learning more and more. Thank you all for your input.
Fletcher wrote: "I've only returned one ebook I bought because it was obvious that the "author" had used a spinner on material collected from other sources. For those who don't know what a spinner is, it is softwa..."Wow. That's terrible. People do this and make money? That's a shame.
My daughter has actually had to returned printed titles in a series before because the pages were put into the book...out of order :O) crazy huh
I think there are sometimes good reasons to return ebooks. It has to be remembered that you don't see much of a Kindle ebook from the sample - you don't have the option of flicking through the later pages as you do with a hard-copy book in a bookshop - and there could be stuff in those later pages that would have stopped you buying the book if you'd picked it up in a shop. For example, some books have long introductions which take up the whole of the sample, so you can't judge the meat of the book until you've actually bought it. This is the case with Tolkien's 'The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun'; the Kindle sample is entirely introduction, and contains none of Tolkien's verse at all. It was only when I'd bought the Kindle ebook that I got to read Tolkien's verse, and discovered (this is just my opinion) that it's very poor; and since that was the only reason I'd been interested in the book, I returned it. If I'd picked the book up in a shop, I would have gone straight to the poetry, read a few stanzas, decided I didn't like it, and put it back.
I've also noticed scanning and proofreading errors, sometimes quite serious, in Kindle books. I think that if you find something like that in the pages that follow the sample, you're perfectly entitled to return the book.
I've also noticed scanning and proofreading errors, sometimes quite serious, in Kindle books. I think that if you find something like that in the pages that follow the sample, you're perfectly entitled to return the book.
Books always felt different, to me, than other consumer goods. I've returned clothing, exchanged housewares, etc. When it comes to a novel I didn't enjoy, I resell (Amazon, Used). If you've returned a book, what motivated you to do so?