UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
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eBook Quality Issues Dashboard
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The Amazon equivalent of a letter from the widow of General Sonny Abacha?
Jim wrote: "Anybody else got this email?Hello,
As a valued KDP publisher, we're including you in an invite-only release of our new eBook Quality Issues Dashboard. Starting today, this dashboard is the way ..."
I've never heard of someone reporting a quality issue for my only book on Amazon - I assume that means no one has?
It never occurred to me to report the many issues I've found in ebooks - I think of a book as a done deal, not something that will be fixed, probably because 1) print books didn't use to have many issues, and 2) if they had a typo, there was no expectation that it would or could be fixed, and even if it were, the reader wasn't going to get an updated copy.
ebooks are a whole new ball game: they can be fixed, and, on Amazon, readers can be offered a new version.
I wonder if it will lead to an improvement in the many quality issues of ebooks.
Someone else on Goodreads (can't remember who) has received such an email.I wonder if it is anything to do with the new Sales Dashboard they are rolling out?
I've stuck with the old one for now.
Sorry, meant to say I checked my email when I saw you post this a couple of days ago Jim then forgot to come back and say that I hadn't had that email. Too many distractions ;-)
I report formatting issues and typos all the time and if they're especially egregious, I write a review stating that while the book might be good, I couldn't enjoy it because of the constant typos and grammatical errors I ran across while reading it.
Pam wrote: "Sorry, meant to say I checked my email when I saw you post this a couple of days ago Jim then forgot to come back and say that I hadn't had that email. Too many distractions ;-)"I googled it and others have received it but nobody is admitting having had books picked up by the dashboard
I've got another Tallis collection to publish soon so it might come into play then, as an enhanced spelling checker etc
Considering that I've picked up typos in books published by the big publishing companies, I think it's a bit much making independent authors the subject of this. Unless a book it really badly suffering from grammar/spelling errors I don't care that much. The odd typo here and there doesn't bother me too much.
I received the same message. A bit scary as I am a first time kdp indie author and only just published on that day! I thought I must have made some grave errors. On the other hand, I get it, if there are issues, I would want to be told kindly.
What appears to be forgotten at times by reviewers is that there are those errors and typos which are in need of correction and there are also those which are included in a text because that text is being related by a narrator. How many of us talk in a perfectly correct grammar all the time? Answer, none. Yet one gets pedantic reviewers saying "as a grammar teacher, I would have given a higher rating but for the number of grammatical errors"! Oh dear. Reviewing a book is not the same as marking English homework.
I have received the e-Mail, but cannot find the Dashboard itself anywhere.1) Has anyone ever seen it?
2) Is it only accessible if Amazon deem there to be 'Quality Issues'?
3) At the risk of putting off all you people who are on the verge of buying my book, I am disclosing that I am aware of a typo in the version currently available for purchase from Amazon; "Gutbuckets" when it should be "Gutbucket's". I would have thought that Artificially Intelligent software would be able to detect this quite easily, but Amazon didn't spot it during the upload process, and I have heard nothing from them since. So I ask, can anyone give an example of a quality issue that Amazon have raised?
I've heard nothing since, and seen no dashboard
Jim wrote: "I've heard nothing since, and seen no dashboard"So it seems to be an entirely virtual quality issues dashboard.
Whilst I was uploading a version that corrected the afore-mentioned typo, I chanced upon an 'X-Ray' menu option. I clicked on it, and it informed me that 'X-Ray was not enabled'. Since the rubric implied that I would get a further chance to review 'X-Ray', I clicked on it again. It told me it would be some time ... and it has been. Not a dicky bird since. So I wondered, can anyone tell me what 'X-Ray' in relation to a Kindle e-Book actually is? Or is this another entirely virtual KDP feature?
David wrote: "... Not a dicky bird since. ..."Apologies KDP, I was too impatient. An e-Mail has turned up telling me to 'Launch X-Ray'. Which I can't, because the typo-corrected e-Book is still meandering through Amazon's flood-plain. I look forward to finding out what iX-Ray is in due course.
David wrote: "David wrote: "... Not a dicky bird since. ..."Apologies KDP, I was too impatient. An e-Mail has turned up telling me to 'Launch X-Ray'. Which I can't, because the typo-corrected e-Book is still m..."
Just loved " e-Book is still meandering through Amazon's flood-plain" - first time I've heard that one. Guess "meandering through" beats being "stuck up the creek without ...." you know.
I received the email a few days ago. Being a bit concerned I looked it up and found this Kindle help page about it - https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GWCUU33VBJHFSRYN.It looks as if you get emails to tell you there is a problem and you login as normal to KDP and there will be a message to say there is a problem and you click a link to go to the Quality page which has various tabs you have to work through to get the issue resolved. I checked my dashboard and there is no sign of such a link so maybe this first message is just informational.
Pam wrote: "I ... found this Kindle help page about it - https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/top......"I followed the link and found this helpful advice:
"Preventing and fixing typos
... The search function of Kindle Previewer can helpf (sic) locate all instances of a repeated typo ..."
Amazon leading by example ... not.
I have now had a look at the X-Ray output. It just looks like someone at Amazon is playing with Artificial Intelligence software, and has come up with the idea of encouraging authors to construct a glossary for the characters, places and technical terms. Does anyone have a view on whether or not they welcome such material?
David wrote: "I have now had a look at the X-Ray output. It just looks like someone at Amazon is playing with Artificial Intelligence software, and has come up with the idea of encouraging authors to construct a..."I have such extensive stored data of my own that the only thing I could use would be an automatic list of what made it into the final version. If I have to do any work at all to use such a tool, I wouldn't use it.
I'm with Alicia on this oneI have a gazetteer and some names are in my spellchecker but part of the job of the writer is to introduce the names to people in a way that works
And to keep track of that.And to remind readers as minimally as possible if a character has been off-stage for a while.
And, for the love of everything, not to depend on a spellchecker.
Alicia wrote: "I have such extensive stored data of my own that the only thing I could use would be an automatic list of what made it into the final version."I guess this is what it would give you. However, the items are not presented in alphabetical order, but (I assume) in the order the software has identified them, so copying and pasting from your system into Amazon's would be stupidly tedious.
Any order, without the option to change it to what the user needs, is not very helpful.
David wrote: "I have now had a look at the X-Ray output. It just looks like someone at Amazon is playing with Artificial Intelligence software, and has come up with the idea of encouraging authors to construct a..."Sounds as if it would be a lot of work. If I want to check anything in a book I refer back to the final edited version stored on my computer. The 'Find' function can track mentions of people and places.
Hello,
As a valued KDP publisher, we're including you in an invite-only release of our new eBook Quality Issues Dashboard. Starting today, this dashboard is the way we'll communicate alerts about your eBooks' quality issues.
What’s new :
• If you have quality issues to review, you'll see a yellow bar with a link to the Dashboard at the top of your KDP Bookshelf.
• On your Dashboard, you can see all issues for all your titles and fix them.
• For any new suppression or quality warnings, we'll send you an alert email as soon as possible.
• Every Monday you'll receive a weekly notification email for any open quality issues, and will no longer have to manage individual emails for each eBook.
What’s not changing for you :
• The information we provide to understand and locate quality issues.
• The options to resolve each issue.
• You can still contact KDP Customer Support for any questions or to follow-up on an open issue.
To learn more about the eBook Quality Dashboard, check our Help page: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/GWC...
Best,
Kindle Direct Publishing