Romance Audiobooks discussion
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Tantor's New Website
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Angie
(new)
Sep 15, 2014 06:52AM
I was looking over their updated website this morning (didn't know it was even ready since my bookmark said they were still updating and it was unavailable), and while it looks nice they took a step back by not including the narrator name anywhere on the main page. You have to click on each book title to find out who the narrator is. Do audiobook publishers still not understand how important the narrator is to an audiobook? That is vital information, as important as the title/author is. Why don't they have that information right there where you can see it immediately?
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Angie - moved to Newsworthy to Audio Fans as I think this is! I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this. I'll then ask a Tantor rep to take a look at it if the consensus is that we would appreciate the narrator's inclusion. I have been looking forward to this new site for months now as I thought their old one rather clumsy to navigate. I'm going over to take a look now.
Thanks, Lea. I wasn't sure where to put it. I hope the rep will take customers' wishes into consideration.
I personally liked the old site better than this new one.
Deanna wrote: "I personally liked the old site better than this new one."Deanna - can you tell us what you liked better about the old site? It would be helpful to know how the new site isn't working for you. Thanks!
I absolutely agree that the narrator's name must be right up there with the author's name. It's vital information, and one shouldn't have to click through to see who it is.
I love the visual aesthetic of the new website. It is clear that they have leaned towards progressive enhancement, which I truly appreciate when I navigate to their website from my iPhone or Galaxy tablet.Reducing the amount of "click-through" needed to add an item to my shopping card is definitely appreciated!
I would highly suggest including the name of the narrator in the pop-up text displayed when hovering over a book cover. I understand the aesthetic necessity to limit the amount of text that is displayed in order to maintain simplicity; however, it is a disservice to customers like myself who:
1. Hate having to search for information
2. Make frequent buying decisions based on narration
3. Don't want to click through numerous links in order to view the name of the narrator
4. Does not give appropriate credit to the narrator who represents the "audio" portion of an audiobook.
I agree that pop-up text on hover is also acceptable if it really can't be fitted onto the page. Just as long as one doesn't have to click through.
Hj wrote: "I absolutely agree that the narrator's name must be right up there with the author's name. It's vital information, and one shouldn't have to click through to see who it is."It's odd that a company specializing in audiobooks would not know how vital narrator info is.
It's the first thing I look for once I'm on the audiobook seller's site. If it's a narrator I don't like, I don't even bother to look further into the book.
I have almost desperately been trying to use the app without success. It is very cooperative if I am trying to access items purchased through Tantor; however, extremely frustrating when trying to search new items. OMG
Thanks, Lea for taking in all this good feedback and thanks to all who have shown support for narrators!
I must say that after working with Tantor's new site for a couple of days, I'm disappointed. I have relied heavily on Tantor's Coming Soon portion in the past and it is just a mess now. I can no longer search by publication date within the romance category. Although it gives me the option, it doesn't list the books by date when I request "By Publication Date". And I combed over the entire Coming Soon section, slowly picking out the romance books, only to discover more of their upcoming titles as I, again, slowly searched through Amazon's upcoming romance audio titles. Color me frustrated. Am I getting something wrong?
Lea's Audiobooks wrote: "I must say that after working with Tantor's new site for a couple of days, I'm disappointed. I have relied heavily on Tantor's Coming Soon portion in the past and it is just a mess now. I can no lo..."I've always searched by publication date as well. There is a little arrow beside the sort by box that will let you choose ascending or descending. Is that the part you were having trouble with? Took me awhile to figure that out. The old site had the publication date on the main page, too, and I really miss that as well.
Angie wrote: "Lea's Audiobooks wrote: "I must say that after working with Tantor's new site for a couple of days, I'm disappointed. I have relied heavily on Tantor's Coming Soon portion in the past and it is jus..."Thank you Angie! That helps quite a bit. However, I find it frustrating that they don't list the date on the main page (like you) and that the narrator's name isn't there either (I think this was mentioned previously - I'm just now experiencing it). It makes searching for upcoming titles much more cumbersome which is disappointing in that previously Tantor was by far the easiest publisher site to search for upcoming titles. When you are planning reviews for eleven reviewers, ease is the key!
Have we heard from a rep yet about the recent changes and if they think they might be able to add the narrator name back to the main page?
Hello everyone!Thank you all so much for your input and we would love for you to continue to post suggestions. We are still refining the new site daily and we will incorporate improvements as quickly as we can.
Cassie
Tantor Media
Sorry Angie that I didn't respond earlier. I have been moving and almost completely unavailable. I contacted Tantor this morning and, as you can see, they were immediately interested in what we had to say.
Thanks for taking our feedback into consideration. Many times the narrator is what makes me buy a book these days since there are so many new authors on audio that I've never heard of before.
Completely understand where you are coming from Angie!We put in a solution that will hopefully meet your needs. Now when you hover over a title on the page and the synopsis pops up it will say "Read by xxxx" before the brief synopsis.
Thanks so much
Cassie
