Author Topic: New Forum & News Updates  (Read 1804551 times)

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8370 on: November 24, 2021, 06:26:26 PM »
I wrote a little script that is going to hit those links 10000 times.
10 secs between hits.
using something called "curl" that isn't really a browser, but when I look at the html returned, it looks like amazon returns the same thing as a browser gets.

it's possible they check that it's a real browser that hits the links. If so, I'll cobble that up later.

funny inside joke.
when you look at the text in the html they return (which normally you never see because the text are instructions about how to render what you see and you don't see everything necessarily...)

there's a little rubber ducky text picture, saying (MEOW)
a little easter egg from whatever person at Amazon was doing part of the web page work.
i.e. it looks like this:

<script>window.ue && ue.count && ue.count('CSMLibrarySize', 54535)</script>
</div></body></html>
<!--       _
       .__(.)< (MEOW)
        \___)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-->
<!-- sp:eh:iFQjF2awHaDSL1X/ZiJ1wzoAmHw7MnqlHXXugs+dHXcFELalY7CvB6tyT6gQvkkH/iVUiJH11hi0a8PJkQJZzDKzlzJXArcpnf9y/gEzoTCeoLEEzaq0AOpkG44= -->


and for conspiracy buffs, right above that, a couple lines. theres this weird "dot in a pyramid" character (in comments so it actually is just there for someone's idea of fun

it makes it look like some weird Masonic or Rosicrucian symbol :)
Here. must be a expanded character set....it renders correctly here

/* â—¬ */
</script>

maybe that's the writer's idea of two eyes and a nose..the "/*" and "*/" are normally comment delimiters and make the characters in between not get executed as "code"

« Last Edit: November 24, 2021, 06:51:08 PM by snowmman »
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8371 on: November 24, 2021, 06:38:38 PM »
Bruce
I notice I get the 3rd edition of your book by searching within Amazon.com for
"DB Cooper and the FBI" ..oh wait it's the kindle not the book.

But if use Google, google returns a link to amazon that's the old edition.
I wonder how Google adjusts to point to the new link at amazon? Maybe amazon does something that Google adjusts to?

if so, there may more of a lag to see Google adjust. Dunno.

As of right now, if I search inside Amazon for
DB Cooper Bruce Smith
with no quotes
I see both the 2nd and 3rd editions. The 3rd edition seems to be a link to the Kindle only.

The 2nd edition is right above the 3rd, in terms of choices
the dates clearly distinguish
Mar 26, 2016
Nov 10, 2021

Although never of the titles mention the edition

the 2nd edition doesn't have Kindle link, the 3rd does (in the search results)

Also: the 2nd edition doesn't have a price in that search result. The 3rd does.

Oh I see, the 3rd edition lin
« Last Edit: November 24, 2021, 06:42:43 PM by snowmman »
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8372 on: November 24, 2021, 06:44:48 PM »
okay, searching within Amazon for
db cooper and the fbi

I see the book now

it's the fourth book under the kindle edition of your book (other books ahead of your 3rd edition)

So the 2nd edition book, is ahead of the 3rd edition book in the search results.

but they're both there. (if you know to scroll/look for the newer one)
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8373 on: November 24, 2021, 06:47:02 PM »
Okay now searching within Amazon for

db cooper and the fbi

I see the kindle edition of the 3rd edition
and I only see the 3rd edition of your book in the first page of search results.

I don't see the 2nd edition any more?
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8374 on: November 24, 2021, 06:48:19 PM »
searching within amazon
if I search for
db cooper fbi

(no quotes)

your 3rd edition kindle and book are now the first results.

The "sponsored" paid ad from the actor/PhD is first now, after refreshing.
heh...if I click thru the paid ad, I think the actor/PhD would get charged a little bit each time, by Amazon.
heh!
« Last Edit: November 24, 2021, 06:50:00 PM by snowmman »
 

Offline Robert99

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8375 on: November 24, 2021, 06:59:37 PM »
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A favor; a request to you all

I need some help sorting out the confusion at Amazon concerning my new books. Could you please click on the links below. Thanks.

Apparently, I need click traffic to my actual "author" page and the "sales" page to drive the algorithms Amazon uses to select and place new books. In addition, some publishing houses pay Amazon to put their books at the top of the list, so I'm swimming upstream against two currents.

Plus, Amazon is confused, or allows confusion to exist from folks who use Amazon to sell used copies of my old editions.

Bottom Line, customers are having difficulty finding my new books to even consider purchasing them. So, the two links are below; one is for the author page and the other is the sales page.

Amazon URLs for DB Cooper and the FBI 3rd Edition - paperback and e-book versions.

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AND:
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Big thanks to you all.

Done as you requested.  Let us know if this worked.

The comments on your 3rd edition hard copy page all refer to your 2nd edition.  I notice that you charge $30 for the 3rd edition but one copy is listed for $39.
 

Offline Dfs346

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8376 on: November 25, 2021, 02:30:25 AM »
Dan Gryder's 50th anniversary jump
 

Offline Dfs346

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8377 on: November 25, 2021, 02:51:37 AM »
"Vanished" with Chris Williamson on D. B. Cooper:
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Offline Bruce A. Smith

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8378 on: November 25, 2021, 02:56:09 AM »
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
A favor; a request to you all

I need some help sorting out the confusion at Amazon concerning my new books. Could you please click on the links below. Thanks.

Apparently, I need click traffic to my actual "author" page and the "sales" page to drive the algorithms Amazon uses to select and place new books. In addition, some publishing houses pay Amazon to put their books at the top of the list, so I'm swimming upstream against two currents.

Plus, Amazon is confused, or allows confusion to exist from folks who use Amazon to sell used copies of my old editions.

Bottom Line, customers are having difficulty finding my new books to even consider purchasing them. So, the two links are below; one is for the author page and the other is the sales page.

Amazon URLs for DB Cooper and the FBI 3rd Edition - paperback and e-book versions.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
AND:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Big thanks to you all.

Done as you requested.  Let us know if this worked.

The comments on your 3rd edition hard copy page all refer to your 2nd edition.  I notice that you charge $30 for the 3rd edition but one copy is listed for $39.

Yea, Robert, I've heard that Amazon has jacked up the price of the book. Last week it was 40 bucks. Now, I guess it's $39. The publisher of the 3rd Edition, Moonshine Cove, says that Amazon does this jacking with new books for about two weeks and then stops. We're waiting to see what happens.

As we can see, dealing with Amazon and trying to sell my books is like swimming upstream.

Thanks for all your support, folks, especially you, Snow -
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8379 on: November 25, 2021, 11:51:32 AM »
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Thanks for all your support, folks, especially you, Snow -

been trying some other things.
interesting that one can apparently jack with the Amazon search algorithm

You're one under Edwards' paid ad if you search "db cooper fbi"
6th if search for "db cooper book"
Under Edwards' again if you search for "db cooper fbi bruce smith"

Oddly, searching for "db cooper bruce smith" shows the 2nd edition book, if the default "Sort By: Featured" is used
if you change the sort to "Sort by: Newest Arrivals" your book is first.

I wonder if your 2nd edition book was "featured" on some amazon book list at some point in time.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2021, 01:12:46 PM by snowmman »
 

Offline Bruce A. Smith

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8380 on: November 25, 2021, 03:26:08 PM »
I keep wondering why the 2nd Edition keeps popping up so much. It's officially "unpublished" at Amazon, but since Amazon first published it via their Kindle Direct Publishing division, I've thought there might be some internal glitch along the lines you've suggested, Snow.
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8381 on: November 25, 2021, 03:27:34 PM »
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I keep wondering why the 2nd Edition keeps popping up so much. It's officially "unpublished" at Amazon, but since Amazon first published it via their Kindle Direct Publishing division, I've thought there might be some internal glitch along the lines you've suggested, Snow.

I just noticed that they're not letting me preview your 3rd edition anymore, when I'm on the 3rd edition page.


they show the 2nd edition preview cause they say the 3rd edition preview isn't available (but do point correctly to how to buy it)

Did you turn off preview on the 3rd edition just recently?
 

Offline snowmman

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8382 on: November 25, 2021, 03:31:02 PM »
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I keep wondering why the 2nd Edition keeps popping up so much. It's officially "unpublished" at Amazon, but since Amazon first published it via their Kindle Direct Publishing division, I've thought there might be some internal glitch along the lines you've suggested, Snow.

If the 2nd edition is in the kdp publishing and you have a kdp author's account, you can login and make it not available anymore.

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but you may not have published it using a kdp author's account?
 

Offline Bruce A. Smith

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8383 on: November 25, 2021, 03:39:19 PM »
I've already unpublished the 2nd Edition at my KDP account, which didn't work, and that triggered my first round of phone calls to KDP and Amazon. I spoke at length with an agent there on the 18th and everything seemed cleaned-up. Two days later, we were back to chaos. I called KDP again on the 21st, and they assured me everything was copasetic, but it ain't.

Forum poster and author Nat Loufoque has been helping me navigate the depths of Amazon and being published by a mainstream-ish publisher. It ain't easy. Sigh.

One day at a time, eh?
 

Offline Bruce A. Smith

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Re: New Forum & News Updates
« Reply #8384 on: November 25, 2021, 03:40:10 PM »
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Did you turn off preview on the 3rd edition just recently?


Not that I'm aware of.