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Author Claims Apple Won't Carry Her ebook Because It Mentions Amazon
martiniturbide writes "Author Holly Lisle tried to publish her guide How To Think Sideways Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Story's Market at Apple's iBooks store. She says it was rejected first by Apple because it had 'live links' to Amazon. After she removed the links, it was rejected again because according to her: 'The problem is the CONTENT. You can't mention Amazon in your lesson.'"
I have bought some eBooks (usability bundle) by Smashing Magazinethat also are available on the Apple iBookstore and Amazon (and other competitors) have been mentioned multiple times in those books.
I'm beginning to question that there is much more to this story and it has been spin doctored to create some free extra publicity by riding on the iHate wave.
The third rule of selling self-help books: make yourself seem like a plucky underdog being trampled on by a huge, faceless corporation.
shut down discussion.
Which is why there needs to be a law against censoring content in a public marketplace by a public company.
So you don't think ebooks on iOS devices are a market?
Or you don't think Apple controls it?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
A quick search of apple inc in books on amazon returns plenty of results. Some are obviously positive and others negative about Apple, and some are probably neutral. The author suggests that Apple doesn't allow mentions of competitors, or at lest Amazon, in their bookstore. So which of the two, if either, is evil?
I can mend the break of day, heal a broken heart, and provide temporary relief to nymphomaniacs.
I know Apple don't control it. So would you if you actually knew what you were talking about. You can put ebooks from any number of ebook stores on any iOS device.
Okay, so if you ARE a plucky underdog being trampled on by a huge, faceless corporation, what the hell are you supposed to do? Just shut up and take it? I'm not saying you're wrong, but that thing you just said, big faceless corporations delight in people believing it because then they can do no wrong. If you're an asshole, that's your fault. If we're an asshole, then it's still your fault.
So I'm genuinely curious, how do you, as a consumer, tell the difference? What do you know about this particular circumstance, this particular author, that we don't know that makes you think that she is being disingenuous?
Again, I'm not saying you're wrong, maybe she is making a fuss just to get publicity. If so, then by all means, let us know why you think so so that we won't waste our time supporting her. It just seems to me that you're saying that anyone who makes a fuss must just be in it for the publicity, and I strongly disagree.
So why, in particular, do you assume that Apple must be consistent in its content filtering? You assume that because Apple has permitted references to Amazon in other cases, they would necessarily have permitted it in this case. It could be that Apple has a policy of filtering out references to Amazon, but does not do so automatically. This book may have been manually reviewed because of the previously-included links to Amazon (another inane Apple policy). We don't know what all of Apple's policies are in this case, but assuming mendacity on the part of this author is completely unwarranted.