Feature Update 7/23/08

Over the past few weeks we've migrated our entire server setup to new web services (Amazon S3 and EC2). In general, you'll find the site to be much faster, although you shouldn't notice too much difference. That is, except for the new features and bug fixes we've made, including:
• You can now find authors who are based in your area right on the front page.
• The front page now loads all at once; sub-front pages are now entirely customized for their genre. Additionally, short descriptions accompany each feature on the front page.
• Venue search has been sped up, and now only shows venues with upcoming events.
• It's now possible to access venue pages without the "/show" section. For instance, http://booktour.com/places/show/13709-Sawyer-Free-Library and http://booktour.com/places/13709-Sawyer-Free-Library are identical.
• The boxes that float on top of faded-out BookTour pages (e.g. from clicking the More Stores link on an author's page) have been redone from scratch. Not only do they now work properly in Internet Explorer (finally!), but because there's no fade-out animation, they appear instantly.
• A bug that caused new author widgets to not display in Internet Explorer 6 has been fixed.
• A bug that caused a few authors' RSS feeds to return error pages has been fixed.
• A bug that caused custom widget pages to update incorrectly has been fixed.
• A bug that didn't redirect correctly to the custom search page has been fixed.
• A bug that broke iCalendar feeds has been fixed.
• A bug that prevented about 1% of users from seeing the front page has been fixed.
• A bug that made pins' shadows appear without the pins themselves on place search result pages has been fixed.
• A bug that briefly caused search results to fail has been fixed.
• A broken link on the master feature list page has been fixed.

Comments

[Jacquelyn Orton]

For several months I have been sending requests to you, asking that you simply correct the title of my book. You currently have it listed as "How to Plot the Perfect Summer (Without Really Trying)". The correct title is, as I have told you before, "Tall Poppies". Unfortunately, I have received NO response to my five previous requests and you continue to list MY book with a TOTALLY incorrect title. (If you would look at the front cover image, you would see how incorrect your listing is.)

I have decided that I no longer want to be associated with an organization that will not proceed in a professional manner. However, your service will neither allow me to delete my profile (including my incorrectly titled book listing) nor unsubscribe from your "service". Would you please delete me and my book from Book Tour? I would very much appreciate your granting THIS request.

Thank you,
Jacquelyn Orton

[Jacquelyn Orton]

Hi,

Thank you for resolving the issue with my book title. I have sent all of my requests the only way I knew to do so--through the "Contact Us" feature. I was pretty frustrated by the time I noticed the link to your blog yesterday. I sent my first request to have my title corrected back in April! I even sent them to all three of the "Contact" options, hoping that someone would find them.

You might want to re-evaluate how to handle these sorts of issues--especially when dealing with book authors who tend to be rather protective of their work product. If there is actually nobody answering the "Contact Us" inquiries, you might want to refer people to the blog and remove the "Contact Us" button. If there is supposed to be a live person answering the "Contact Us" inquiries, you need to know that they are definitely dropping the ball.

Thank you again for your assistance,
Jacquelyn Orton