Last week a few readers clued me in on the loss of Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. That was the thing that allowed readers to browse the first few chapters of a book before plunking down their money.
The feature allowed readers shopping for books on Amazon have the same opportunity to browse as people shopping in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.
But Amazon has replaced that “Look Inside” with a “read sample” button on ebook buy pages. Okay. Smaller. A little harder to find — definitely less reader-friendly — but it’s still there.
But for paper books? Many have no “read sample.” You’re on your own. If you want to browse, go to the Barnes and Noble website. Or your local bookstore.
Amazon’s reasons are unfathomable. Why destroy something customers love and drive them to a rival site? Is it because rising paper costs make paper books unprofitable?
A lot of you are probably scoffing now, saying, “Old news. This the tech world. The last update of my computer wiped out all the features I use regularly, and now everything prints out in wingdings.”
Yeah, I know: the motto of tech is “If it ain’t broke, break it. And blame the customer.”
But how did this happen?
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Not very nice of Amazon. We will see how it’s playing out for them. xx Michael
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great rant.
I’ve been noticing the lack of Look Inside and wondered what was going on. I’ve recommended readers to use it for years!
I use it myself to help me avoid the dreaded present tense that has been spreading in recent years like a fungus.
Thanks for pointing out B&N has this feature. I’ll send people there now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm, so that’s what happened to it.
I bet someone got very well paid to come up with that little piece of ‘shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-yet-again, stupidity.
Thankfully alternatives for selling books, including on one’s own website, are starting to pop their heads above the morass.
LikeLiked by 1 person