Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

Prior to the internet, I went to the local hobby shop, looked over the books and bought what interested me. I was in one hobby shop/hobby game store where I was one of four people, including employees, when that fourth person came in, picked up a book, complained loudly to no one in particular and put it back. He then picked up something else, paid for it and left. That is the natural order of things.

I think it should be kept in mind that on the internet, the few can appear to be the many. After nearly four decades in book publishing, I know that the few are the few, not the many.

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

I think the whole Amazon reviews section is slowly dying (I don't know why) - there are far fewer reviews than there used to be.

It seems that to try and encourage people to give a grading, Amazon have recently introduced that you can leave an anonymous star rating without having to provide a written review.

I have noticed several seemingly 5-star books been downgraded because people (presumably trolls) have anonymously left a one-star grading without giving a reason.

If people give a one-star or five-star grading, they should have to explain their grading.

(Similarly, it must be a couple of years ago now since Amazon removed the thumbs up/thumbs down on reader reviews and you can only now like a review).

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

The rating system on amazon.com has broken down. When anonymous persons can take potshots at each other as opposed to giving a book a proper review, then I suggest amazon use actual reviews posted by actual people on credible sites or from other sources, like newspapers or magazines.

The reviews are now, in too many cases, more like a discussion forum.

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

Some years ago I got a one-star review for one of my P-47 books. It was titled: "Seller knows of deception but does nothing!" and read: "Just to warn everyone the cover shown is Vol.III, which is out of print. I have complained to the book seller of the deception, but to no avail. I guess it's easier to lie and cheat."
Boy, was I furious :)

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

I was looking for the English language edition of a book about Argentinian aircraft. On amazon.com, the cover photo clearly shows that it is the English language edition, but in the title, it states French edition.

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

I smiled...

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

Which implies you prefer captions with few words like "An aircraft over England."...

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

..once you hand the material over JJ anything can happen to it. I've just written my first two books..due out soon. My editor/publisher stuck rigidly to the word-count he'd imposed and cut ruthlessly. However once the designer had finished I was able to put quite a bit of the 'cut' material back into the captions where there was plenty of room...

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

Neil, was the editor limited by page count and "standard" design? If only the former, slight design changes can increase the space for text greatly.

Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers
 

I would suggest you don't talk crap about something you obviously know nothing about - i.e. my books.


https://i.imgur.com/UephOR4.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/MVj6Rmn.jpg


Buy the books and read my captions. Until then, DON'T make any kind of judgement call about the content and captions in my works. We can do without idiots like you making such comments...