Author Posts from Amazon

by Staff, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 2/1/2006

The day before it is set to release results for 2005, Amazon announced another marketing initiative designed to drive traffic to its site. Amazon Connect will let authors post messages directly to their readers via the Amazon.com home page. Authors's posts will be limited to customers who have purchased that author's work in the past, or to those who sign up to receive that author's posts.

Amazon said about 1,000 authors have enrolled in the program. In addition to the Amazon.com home page, posts will appear on book detail pages, a blog page and on a special author profile page that features the author's three most recent posts and entire bibliography. In addition, customers can sign up to receive posts from authors whose books they have not previously purchased on Amazon.