Update on Amazon author alerts idea

As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, I sent letters to Amazon execs with the suggestion that they add an "author alerts feature." Partly just because I was curious how the organization would respond.

So far, I've received two responses.

The first was a boilerplate response designed to protect them from any claim I might make on the idea:

Thank you for your correspondence recently sent to Amazon. Please be advised that Amazon does not accept unsolicited submissions of creative ideas, proposals, concepts, suggestions or materials (whether of a technical, business, financial or other nature) and does not accept any legal obligation (whether of confidentiality, compensation or otherwise) with respect to any ideas, proposals, concepts, suggestions or materials submitted to us unless we agree to such obligations in an agreement signed by a duly authorized representative of Amazon. We also specifically reserve the right to implement and develop similar ideas, concepts and materials in the future without restriction or obligation.

Thank you again for submitting your information to us, and we wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

Doesn't exactly encourage one to contribute ideas.

This one was customized and a little friendlier, but still making clear that they are probably already working on this idea so I shouldn't try to take credit for it:

Dear Will,

I'm Jonathan Norberg of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations. Jeff Wilke received your letter and asked me to respond on his behalf.

Thank you for taking the time to send your feedback about author alerts. Your ideas were clearly organized, and it was obvious you've thought about how a program like this could be most effective. While I'm certain our book team is already evaluating changes such as what you suggest, I've forwarded your letter to make sure it's seen by the appropriate parties.

We'll continue to look for ways to improve the shopping experience for our customers, Will, and we appreciate you sending your thoughts.

Have a great week!

Regards,

Jonathan M. Norberg
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com