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Arnold Kling has a Ph.D. in economics from MIT; founded homefair.com, one of the very first commercial websites, in 1994; separated from Homefair in January 2000 after it was sold to Homestore; is author of Under the Radar: Starting Your Internet Business without Venture Capital, and is an essayist. Send comments to us at econ@corante.com

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January 20, 2004

Self-publishing

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Posted by Arnold

Andy Kessler has a good article on self-publishing. I am going that route with my economics book. I found an editor on linked-in, and printed out a draft at Kinko's. It is much more efficient. I couldn't believe that when I ordered a 315-page print job on the web, it was done faster than I could get to the store to pick it up.

But Kessler is also the author who got Amazon to delete my negative review of his book. It's a lousy book, nothing but name-dropping and turgid prose. Like him, it has no intellectual content or conscience.

Now that I know that the Amazon review process is corrupt and that a ruthless SOB of an author can get a review deleted if he does not like it, I no longer write reviews for Amazon. I asked them to take off all my existing reviews, but the terms of service are that the reviews are the property of Amazon. I wish neither Kessler nor Amazon well in the future.

Comments (5) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: economics of content


COMMENTS

1. Foolish Jordan on January 20, 2004 08:41 AM writes...

I'm confused. Am I supposed to read his article with an open mind because it's a good one about self-publishing, or am I supposed to read it scornfully because he has "no intellectual content or conscience"?

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2. Bill Seitz on January 20, 2004 03:46 PM writes...

I'd like to hear more about the removing-review process. How do you know they did it because he asked? Do you have a copy of the complaint that he made? Did he send it to you, or did they? Did they notify you that they were removing it? Did they notify you in advance, with some process of discussion, or after the fact? It would be interesting to hear about the details...

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3. Arnold Kling on January 20, 2004 07:48 PM writes...

He sent me an email in which he not only threatened to have the interview taken down, but to have Amazon take away my "top 1000 reviewer" ranking. They did not do the latter. They did not give me any notification or say in the matter whatsoever.

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4. Bill Brown on January 21, 2004 12:33 PM writes...

That is an interesting article. Coupled with advances in bookbinding, it could herald a new era in publishing. Where have I heard that before?

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5. t-shirt-man on April 6, 2004 04:55 AM writes...

just want to thank you :) Am dayli looking through your site

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