SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion
General Topics
>
Goodreads: missing british edition books
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Christian
(new)
Jan 31, 2012 07:37PM
Has anyone else noticed that Goodreads has been missing all cover image and book information on british edition novels the past few days? all stats are broken due to the gaps. did someone forget to pay the bill?
reply
|
flag
I forgot to mention that the indie press is also getting the snub.
I had a message on my author's page about Goodreads not being allowed to retrieve book information and images from Amazon anymore - though I have no idea if that's restricted to just UK editions. It allowed me to enter the data from another source, though.
I had not heard about the Amazon deal. thats too bad as i liked to track my stats. I buy lots of stuff from Subterranean Press but havent found a way to log their data yet.
Apparently, Goodreads objected to the conditions that came with sharing amazon data and so pulled the plug. If the book was available from other sources (Smashwords and the like) then they were looking to take the data from there. That's not always possible. I've managed to get most of mine back up and running, but there's one more image that I need to get posted.
Right - the clause Goodreads specifically objected to was if you used Amazon's API to retrieve data, you had to then remain exclusive to Amazon for everything else. Goodreads wants to be neutral, so they couldn't abide by that.
Eric wrote: "Right - the clause Goodreads specifically objected to was if you used Amazon's API to retrieve data, you had to then remain exclusive to Amazon for everything else. Goodreads wants to be neutral, s..."Sounds like Amazon is once again trying to play "Monopoly". They were well on their way when the iPad came out and spoiled their fun with eBooks. Now, they're trying it with their lending program (the owner has to be exclusive with Amazon for at least a 3-month gig to collect his share of the fees charged to the customers) and now the attempt to monopolize Goodreads. I'm glad the GR people rejected their ploy.
Crud like this could do a lot to make Smashwords or B&N the new champion on the block. I'm sure a lot of business comes to Amazon from GR and this could cost them dearly. After all, Smashwords publishes all formats INCLUDING Kindle and SOME day may actually get their site sorted out enough so you can actually find what you seek there (especially if you use Fireworks for a browser -- right now Smashwords sucks inside of Fireworks 'cause they're using leading-edge code that is aimed at Explorer).
I've bitched at the owner of Smashwords, but I still don't get a search box when using Fireworks.
