On the road to Amazon...

[patmat2350]

I made it to Amazon.

As suggested by Lulu, the trip took about 8 weeks from the Lulu publication date. A couple glitches at Amazon, and I'm finding that Amazon is more proactive than Lulu in getting corrections made:

1. Missing product descriptions
2. Mis-use of caps in the titles
3. Amazon confused two similar companion volumes, which fed to them about  a week apart, as an original edition and a revision... which messed up the listings.

I put in tickets to Lulu, still haven't heard a thing back. So I went to Amazon's Author Central:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing
and asked for help there... same day response, though they still have a couple glitches to work out.

I still have some complaints, which I already posted elsewhere here in a whiny voice:

- The high cost of color laser printing forced me to make two volumes... a 208p B&W edition, and a 36p companion color edition... I really didn't want to do that, and still hope that color (or mixed color + B&W) can somehow be made feasible someday.
- The rougher paper and coarse halftoning of the B&W process... I wish we had an option for text-gloss in B&W, and magazine-quality halftoning. The color edition, in comparison, has heavier and glossier paper, and finer half-toning... really quite nice. But unaffordable for a 208p book!

The books are collections of WW2 advertisements featuring the ever popular PT Boats... a subject which received an uncommon amount of attention in the war years, generating an immense amount of copy. See them at my spotlight:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/patmat2350

and on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-For-Navy-Advertisements/dp/1105448754/
http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Boats-For-Navy-Advertisements/dp/1105445879/

[patmat2350]

Another hint:

Knowing that not much would link these two volumes other than senedipitous search results, I mentioned both books in each other's product descriptions ("and look for the companion volume...."). 

I'm not sure if it's easy to edit the product description without submitting a complete revision... but another tool available at Amazon's Author Central is the Editorial Reviews, wherein extra info can be submitted, such as notes "from the Author".

Use the tools to spruce up your Amazon listing!

[Peter May]

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patmat2350 wrote:

- The rougher paper and coarse halftoning of the B&W process... 

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I don't know the paper quality used for colour but there are two qualities used on B&W. When I use 9x6 size paperbacks I get a tinner rougher paper - which I like as it is more like that used n commercial paperbacks. When I use the very slightly larger Royal format I get a smooth, thicker whiter paper which is good for a B&W image.

[patmat2350]

Paper: we've discussed this before in the main forum... But the paper even varies between printing locations. I have copies of my book printed in NY and Oregon... The books' thicknesses are visibly different, and also the gloss on the cover lamination.

Moral of the story: Count on product variability!

[kevinlomas]

I am not sure what you mean about Amazon being more pro-active, unless you put your stuff on to Amazon yourself, and are then able to moan at Amazon if corrections are needed to made.
Are you saying that even though we don't put our stuff on to Amazon ourselves, we can still moan at Amazon to fix things that is often the fault of Lulu?

[patmat2350]

I am saying just what I said... Lulu fed to Amazon, Amazon made a mistake in the listing, I complained to Lulu (because they own the feed), and have heard nothing back on my ticket.

And after that, I went to Amazon through their Author Central site, and got an almost immediate, same-day response. On a Saturday!

So yes, Amazon listens to us authors directly, and acts... while Lulu may still be sifting through their inbox...

And that's the point-- you can have some direct influence on your Amazon listing, working through Amazon's Author Central.