My latest novel, Toys in Babylon, was released last evening on Amazon – nearly seven months after completing the final chapter. Hooray!
The dual listings (Kindle and paperback) left me baffled. There is a wonderful button (“Read Sample”) under the cover photo of every Amazon book listing, enabling prospective buyers to peruse the contents before buying – the same way a bricks-and-mortar bookstore invites customers to leaf through its wares.
Amazon’s Kindle page for Toys in Babylon does just that. Read Sample includes the front matter, back matter, plus chapters one, two and much of three. The paperback’s page, by contrast, includes just front and back matter – not one sentence from the novel itself. Bizarre. And frustrating.
Dear readers, if your search for Toys in Babylon took you to the paperback edition, please click on the link to the Kindle edition. That way, you’ll get to read the first 2½ chapters – all courtesy of Amazon’s seemingly haphazard “Read Sample” algorithm.