Heh, that's cute, Pieper. You're right, though. The Internet (retail, news, everything) has changed the world. Um, speaking of changing the world...hey, forum members, who knew Turkers could be this powerful as a group? I am pleased to announce that as of today, Amazon is calling the book a Hot New Release in a couple of subcategories, including Job Hunting. Here's the page I mean. (Not a referral link, of course.) ETA: Just so you know, this is also proof that Amazon doesn't pick based on total sales but, I guess, on sales compared to release date. I'm still way in the hole on the book---and that's OK by me. I expected to be for at least the first year! But this featuring is really nice. Earlier today it was also in the top 20 in that subcategory, but apparently that changes hourly based on all the other books' numbers...so now it's not, heh. Also, staff and an owner at one of the major Turk transcription companies have noticed the book and are telling the Turking world about it, on their own! I'll hit the highlights and give a screenshot in the next post but will mostly go into detail on my blog, so I don't spam the thread.
Thanks, pieper! It's exciting. I'm happy to have the value of the book be seen. It was my main goal not to write crap, after all! So, whew. I'll post again tonight once I've got the more detailed version on my blog and the screenshot for here. Time for dinner for now. ETA: Oh! Anne, I think we were posting at the same time. Hey, I'm glad you're willing to give it a try. Can't wait to hear what you think! Enjoy the PC Kindle, too---I think Amazon did a great job, especially considering it's free.
As promised, here's some book-related stuff that CastingWords is doing: they're now putting a link to the Turker ebook in new-transcriber welcome emails! (I believe these are the emails you get after they have decided they want to keep you, so no one gets one right away.) I know, you'd think I paid them! But no, they actually just told me they were starting to do it. I was rather amazed. They apparently think the info in it will actually help Turkers turn out better transcripts. Also, one of the company's co-owners posted about the book to the MTurk Facebook group. I had no idea there was one, but I guess I do now. And lol, she even used my referral link for the book in her post. Now, that's support! In case, like me, you aren't on Facebook yet, CastingWords staff sent me the screenshot themselves. Sadly, I couldn't get it uploaded here, although that wasn't for lack of trying! However, it's on my blog post about all this, which also includes quotes from the CW community manager about how he thinks the book can help Turkers. So if you're interested, the link is in my sig. You'll see it as one of the featured posts, in the center of the home page. (Just to keep this thread from getting too spammy about general news on the book, I'm going to post any further bits of it over at my blog and maybe just hit real highlights in my sig. And by the way, I'd like to state that CastingWords and the book have no affiliation.)