Monday 2 April 2012

Disappointed - But I Should Have Checked First

As mentioned in the post about my birthday party, one of the wonderful presents I got was a Kindle. My sister has one, too, and she created a shared account for it on Amazon, where I have created a wish list to which both of us can add books we want to download eventually.
One of the first books I put on my wish list was "Michelle Obama - A Life", and one of my friends was so kind and gave this to me as part of his birthday present.
A few days after my birthday, I used the gift code and downloaded it - without looking at the product information properly. And that was my mistake, which lead me to be quite disappointed:

"Michelle Obama - A Life" is not a book. It is an extended article of about 17 pages (Kindle pages, that is!), a summary of her biography, with very little new information, even for me, who, here in Germany, has not seen or read that much about Mrs. Obama in the news on TV or in papers and magazines.

There is no single author; the Amazon product information says "By the Editors of New Word City", whoever they are. The "book" is not an unpleasant read, and the information in it seems to be well researched and accurate, but it simply was too short when I had expected a full biography - I had finished it in less than an hour, when I had really settled down with it for a long, comfortable read in my armchair.

At 3.53 $, I think it is a bit expensive for just one article; you can buy a whole magazine for less than that.

But, as I said, it is my own fault - I simply didn't check the product details properly. Being new to the whole eBook and Kindle "scene", I have certainly learnt a lesson!

And I still want to read a "proper" biography about Michelle Obama. There are several available for Kindle, but now I am a bit unsure as to which one to choose. Any ideas?

19 comments:

  1. Hello Meike:
    What a huge disappointment. Particularly as, in our view, MO is such a splendid person and it would have been so good to have the complete work which, of course, you thought you were getting. However, you must not allow this to put you off downloading other titles from your list.

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,
      Oh, I will! All I need to do is decide on one of the various biograhpies about this interesting lady.

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  2. I've come across a lot of things on Amazon that are simply 'how to do it' books of a couple of pages, obviously designed to catch the unwary. I can't think of an example off hand but they go something like -
    TOSHIBA TV REMOTE CONTROL V777. £9.99 which when compared to other TOSHIBA TV REMOTE CONTROL V777s looks like a bargain. Until you see it's simply a guide to how to use the control!
    It's a sad world.

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    1. A bit like ebay, where people have been known to sell merely the empty box of an item and not the item itself. Of course they stated that clearly in the item listing, but bidders weren't reading that properly. Well, this was the first and last time something like that happened to me!

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  3. There are a lot of "books" on the ebook sites which are just compendiums of other people's work. Authors are continually fighting the sites to have them removed. They do get removed but shortly thereafter pop up in another place or under another name.

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    1. Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment, Rosemary! Yes, such compendiums, unless they are truly authorized, are unfair towards both readers and authors.

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  4. How disappointing. I'm glad you told us.

    Amazon has definitely become a mixed blessing. There was a big article in the Seattle Times newspaper today about Amazon, and how they are trying to put pressure on book publishers to give them ever larger discounts (discounts of up to double what the publishers used to have to pay) for the books Amazon agrees buy and carry on line -- with the very considerable threat that if the publishers don't comply, then Amazon will just stop carrying their books, in any form, hard copy or Kindle.

    This is enough to put a lot of smaller specialist niche publishers out of business. Some of them have tried to get the process stopped but can't even get a real person on the phone to discuss the problem. All Amazon's ultimatums are delivered by email without an individual sender's name. A very underhanded and discourteous way to handle the problem. When the paper tried to talk someone at Amazon about it, Amazon refused to talk to them. Now that's power. And its misuse.

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    1. All the big companies seem to be in that haughty place these days; they show no consideration at all for their suppliers nor for their customers. RJ told me about a case where Amazon re-sold an used HDD as new, and there were still the former owner's data on it - customer-related correspondence from an insurance company! Of course, it was the former owner's responsibility to make sure no readable data left their house on a discarded HDD, but Amazon should not have sold it as new. The German computer magazine who told the story said that Amazon's "apology" was just a very short, very foppish statement, a mere shoulder-shrug as in "so what?".

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  5. Sorry about that, I can see that you must have been very disappointed. It's certainly a rip-off and it obviously pays to read the small pint before ordering anything.

    Sorry, i can't recommend a book about Mrs. Obama; although we have the two books written by Barack Obama in the house, i haven't picked up either yet.

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    1. Friko, I have read "The Audacity of Hope" and posted a review here on my blog; I can really recommend it!

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  6. How disappointing! As you imply, this is how we learn, of course, but the price does seem high. And personally I think it's a bit of a nerve putting it on sale at Amazon at all, perhaps these people are just chancers.

    Michelle Obama is an interesting woman. I've never heard of a particularly recommended biography. I suspect this may have to come when she is out of the public eye. It would be hard to get people who knew her to talk honestly about her right now, and many papers must be secret.

    But can you wait that long? :) Anyway I hope you find something good to read on your new Kindle soon.

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    1. Jenny, I am also undecided about which biography to choose because some were written as far back as 2008, while there is one from 2010 or 2011 as well. Of course the newer one seems to be more interesting, while on the other hand, as you say, it would be hard to get a true impression of her while her husband is still in office.
      The "Editors of New Word City" have, it seems, written a great many such biographies; there is one about almost every famous American I can think of on Amazon, and they are all similarly priced and probably people know what to expect when they buy them.

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  7. I learned a while ago to investigate the reviews of products on Amazon. Some can be a rant but there are usually good ones which point out the major pitfalls if there are any.

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    1. True, the reviews can be helpful; on the other hand, I tend to form my own opinion first, then write my own review and see what others had to say about the same book. The "17 pages" was clearly stated in the product details - I was just not looking at those properly :-(

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  8. Nooo!!!! This is not your fault! It's reasonable to expect more for the same price as you would pay for a paperback!
    I'm with Jenny Woolf - I expect the best biographies will appear after the Obamas leave office.
    Which is hopefully not in the next couple of years...

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    1. Well, it certainly is my fault that I did not check product details properly :-)
      What could also turn out an interesting read: a comparison between a biography written before, and one after leaving office.

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  9. Apropos Amazon reviews, they can be very useful. But do check what reviewers have said about other books, too, to see if you share their views, and also if the reviews are well-written. I know that sounds odd, but a well-written review means the writer is at least literate, and that's the first thing the two of you have in common! I use the reviews a lot, and write them for the Amazon Vine programme (this is actually quite hard, especially, as today, I had to try to be kind about a book I'd hated!). I find that if I seem to have the same views of a reviewer, I will probably enjoy a book they have rated highly.

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    1. My Mum writes a lot of reviews on Amazon, and is regularly sent pre-publishing copies of books to review for them. So far, I have not paid much attention to reviews in general, but I think I'd be put off if the review was badly written - not off the book, but my opinion of the reviewer would not be the best. If someone can't even be bothered to write properly when they criticize someone else's work, then they should not criticize them at all.
      But why shouldn't you write an honest review, Frances? If I don't like a book, I say so, same as I say it when I really do like it.

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    2. I agree absolutely Francis. Reviews have to be read with caution. With books I am more concerned with the practicalities on Kindle. Some books have not been adapted at all well - particularly some of the earlier ones. It's quite interesting comparing some of the different editions of the same work and their suitability for the Kindle format. I've found reviews on other things have to be read with caution too but I have managed to avoid pitfalls with some things by reading reviews which have pointed them out.

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