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New FREE Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

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happyhoppy
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New FREE Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

Post by happyhoppy »

Updated

Shameless plug here but with Admin's permission.

I basically had the idea and someone else has developed a free app (and an ad free 69p version) https://play.google.com/store/search?q= ... tic&c=apps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/author- ... ?ls=1&mt=8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

which essentially when you add your favourite authors into the app it will:-

1. Let you know via an alert on your phone when your authors launch new books
2. It keeps you up to date with your favourite authors using the app’s Library features
3. All formats of books (e book, paperback and hardback) can be purchased from your amazon account (or just viewed and look at reviews). iPhone version also allows purchase of ibooks.

Website with screenshots and FAQs is here:- http://hoppyappz.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Be grateful if you could give it a try (and anyone else you know who you think would be interested) and review it (but only if 5*haha), any questions or problems please let me know, thanks!
Last edited by happyhoppy on 12 Oct 2013, 08:39, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Zimmerman »

Brilliant idea. You sorted it for the iPhone yet?

This sounds up my street; I'm not massively well read, but when I find an author I like, I to tend to read everything they've written.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Vid »

I would get it for the mrs but as all the books she buys for her Kindle are paid for from my Amazon account that 69p could cost me a lot more!!! :lol:

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by bluenosey »

Great idea Happy Hoppy 8-)

Hope it takes off and makes you a bob or two :)

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Hogmeister »

Yeah, neat idea HH - think I'd probably go for that as and when you get it out for the iPhone.

Notice the original post was a month ago - how have the first month's sales been?

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Vid »

Not sure about it preventing the phone from sleeping?

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Zimmerman wrote:Brilliant idea. You sorted it for the iPhone yet?
This sounds up my street; I'm not massively well read, but when I find an author I like, I to tend to read everything they've written.
Cheers (and everyone else), I'm not an avid reader either, it's an idea I had when I started bashing through the Jack Reacher books and I thought it would be good if "someone" could tell me automatically when the next one was out.

Apple sadly have rejected it, they won't allow purchasing of any digital content unless it's through itunes which is very annoying. So the iphone version is being redesigned to try and overcome this obstacle. It's frustrating as I always said that if it was a flop at least I would be able to use it but I can't as I have an iphone. :evil:
Hogmeister wrote:Yeah, neat idea HH - think I'd probably go for that as and when you get it out for the iPhone.

Notice the original post was a month ago - how have the first month's sales been?
£2.71 8-) :lol: The problem is getting it visibility.
Vid wrote:Not sure about it preventing the phone from sleeping?
Notifications will appear when you next turn on your phone and you can always turn them off if you want.

What I need is downloads and lots of them and then positive reviews then it will slowly climb the book listing it's in (about page 3786 at the moment haha).

I use social media and on twitter but have a few authors following me but no one is retweeting (so my app gets seen by all their followers) which would really help. Marketing costs money and it's not a route I want to go down without some guarantees.

So I limp along. :lol:

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by murf »

If I want to look into an author I would just use Amazon/Wiki/Google (have down recently with Mark Billingham after hearing an interview).

Sell me why your app is better :twisted:

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Ok I'll give it a go :P

Add Mark Billingham as a new author to your app. Click on the author and it will populate the app with all his books in chronological order (latest at the top) for your chosen format kindle, paperback or hardback). You can then click on any book and buy it (or just view it and read reviews like on Amazon) eg a kindle is one click ordering and will sync with your chosen device. Once you have your author on the app you will never have to miss a book he launches as you will receive an alert on your phone.

With the library fetaures you can track all your Billingham books marking up those you have read creating your very own Mark Billingham library and a tailor made list of those you have yet to read (called To BUY, like a wish list but you can modify this list if there are certain books you do not wish to read/buy).

Apart from the new book notifications I like to know where I am with all my authors and without the app I really wouldn't have a clue.

Searching for a complete library of an author's books on Amazon isn't a user friendly experience in my opinion, my app simplifies that process into a nice neat list.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Take a look here at the various screenshots with a summary of how it works (it needs updating a bit for latest changes but the crux of it is the same).

http://www.hoppyappz.co.uk/AuthorMatic/Home.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by murf »

Sounds good - I will download it later and do a quick test.

When you say 'chronological order' then that would be great if it is genuine order of first release rather than the order of the latest re-release etc (also some authors aren't released in order of writing, e.g. Jo Nesbo translations).

Could have come in handy the other day when I saw some Sharpe paperbacks cheap. I couldn't remember how far into the series I was or which books came next (Chronological order may not have helped though as Bernard Cornwell didn't write/release them in order).

Having said that at the moment I am still buying/borrowing too many books and never finding the time to read them so I don't need encouragement to buy more!

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Surprised »

happyhoppy wrote:
I use social media and on twitter but have a few authors following me but no one is retweeting (so my app gets seen by all their followers) which would really help. Marketing costs money and it's not a route I want to go down without some guarantees.

So I limp along. :lol:

If you are on twitter it might be worth asking Stephen Fry to give you a retweet

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Knulpuk »

Nice idea - the chronological thing is helpful - i am about to launch into the Bolitar books and was scrambling around to get then in order - will download later on.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

A word of warning, the chronological order is based (as is everything within the app) on Amazon data and in this case the Amazon release date so is not necessarily the publication date. So for example Kindle hasn't been around forever and many books were added in 2008. What you will get though is the latest book listed first.

Also when you populate the app with a list of books it pulls down the first 50 to make this as quick as possible, for authors with many books you may need to press the "more" button if the book you want isn't listed.

Caveat - The app is very much dependent on the accuracy of information within Amazon but I hope it works for you if you try it, do let me know if you need any help or encounter any problems or bugs (there are 2 minor ones at the moment from the latest release when you press the help button in 2 places which I added to each screen). :wink:

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Surprised wrote:
happyhoppy wrote:
I use social media and on twitter but have a few authors following me but no one is retweeting (so my app gets seen by all their followers) which would really help. Marketing costs money and it's not a route I want to go down without some guarantees.

So I limp along. :lol:

If you are on twitter it might be worth asking Stephen Fry to give you a retweet
I am on twitter (@hoppyappz) and I follow him as do 6m others, I tried but absolutely zero chance of retweet or even getting my tweet seen as is the case with many authors who follow me but ignore my tweets, bizarre (they followed me first)!

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by Richt »

Big thumbs up from Mrs Richt.

Right up her street :)

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Richt wrote:Big thumbs up from Mrs Richt.

Right up her street :)


Good to hear, ask her to leave a review!

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Thanks Julian Clements (knulpuk) for great review. 8-)

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Anyone got any feedback on the Android?

The iphone version hopefully will be resubmitted soon now and will differ from the android version as apple don't allow digital content to be bought other than through itunes.

When you click on an ebook (renamed from kindle) the app will give you the option of viewing/buying the ebook using ibooks (apple's own book store) or if you want a kindle format it will
generate an email link for you to buy it outside of the app. Not ideal but what can you do.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by kizkiz »

had a look (just realised I didn't rate it. oops) and it seems ok
As others have said, I read everything by an author I like, so handy for that I suspect.
The problem for me is that I tend to like old sci fi, which is almost all out of print and therefore not for sale on amazon
I also get a bit anal about some authors. Pratchett for instance...the latest book I have the slip case, metallic cover, and a signed copy :lol: ...but you can't specify these differences as far as I can see?

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by kizkiz »

Just tried Asimov, an author with hundreds of books to his name, and the app found about 15.
Have amazon got an official app that does anything similar?
If not, might be worth giving them a shout, as it's more of a selling tool for them than anything

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Did you press the "more" button in the top right? To speed up the display of books it pulls down about 40 at a time.

To my knowledge there aren't any apps out there that do this although I haven't checked in the last few months as its a bit late now!, Amazon don't.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Is that Isaac?

There appears to be many more paperbacks than kindle its possible some are not on kindle? Amazon are adding back catalogue books all the time.

The app searches through Amazons library so I'm reliant on their accuracy and content.

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by kizkiz »

happyhoppy wrote:Is that Isaac?

There appears to be many more paperbacks than kindle its possible some are not on kindle? Amazon are adding back catalogue books all the time.

The app searches through Amazons library so I'm reliant on their accuracy and content.
Ok, so that's a bit annoying having to click more. It did start adding about 6 more each time, which could take me years to get them all up :lol:
No option to just add everything by one author?
Tbh, i'm probably not your target audience

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Re: New Book App by happyhoppy!

Post by happyhoppy »

Haha, you can't please everyone, without that button it was taking about 2 mins to load certain author's books so we came up with that as a solution! :lol:

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Re: New Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

Post by happyhoppy »

Finally the iphone version is out today. What a battle that was.

Key differences are:-

1. You can log on as a guest but your data will not be saved to the server.

2. Kindle books can be bought via an email link provided in the app. (if you have registered and logged in not as a guest)

3. You can also buy ibooks from the apple store.

The free version for some reason has not been released so only the ad free 69p version is available in the store at present.

Feedback much appreciated (and downloads/positive reviews :wink: )






Here is some FAQS should you need it.

Why do you need my email address?
So we can store your app data (on your books and authors) on our secure server.
We will also use your email address to send you an email if you wish to buy kindle books. (Apple will not allow us to go direct from the app).

What if I don’t want to use my email address?
You can use the app as a guest and the data will be stored to your phone only.

Is there a free version?
A free version with ads is coming soon. The ad free version is just 69p

When I try to add my author it is not listed?
Try and get the exact spelling right, it is searching the Amazon server for a match. Note, there may be multiple entries for the same author so if you don’t get the listing you expected try another.

How do I list books for that author?
Just click on the author and the app will start loading the books (60 at a time).

When I load the books for my author not all their books are listed?
To speed up display the first 60 books are listed (all formats) so press “more” to list more books, you can tailor this list to your chosen format eg ebook.

How do I delete authors?
Simple, swipe left or right and follow the instruction.

What do the buttons All, To Buy and My Library mean?
All – This lists all books for the author, you can tailor these to the format of your choice eg e book,
To Buy – You can tailor this list (swipe left or right to remove books) to create your very own wish list for your authors.
My Library – When you click “Bought” in the All List these books will move here and create a record of all books you have bought/read for that author. Again you can tailor this list as above.

Can I delete books from these lists?
Yes you can, simply swipe left or right to remove books from these lists.

Why can’t I buy Kindle books?
You can. When you click on an ebook it will provide you with 2 options to either buy from Apple’s ibooks or send you an email with a link to buy direct from the kindle store.

Why can’t I buy kindle books direct from the app?
Unfortunately Apple will not allow this but via the email link we have provided a solution.

How do notifications work?
If you have allowed push notifications on the app and you have them switched on in your phone settings then you will receive a pop up notification when your chosen author publishes a new book. These are then listed in the app for you to look at later should you wish. You can tailor this list.

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Re: New Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

Post by happyhoppy »

The free version is now available for all you tightwads, would appreciate downloads as this helps ranking as do 5* reviews but I won't push my luck.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/author- ... ?ls=1&mt=8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: New Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

Post by Surprised »

Looks great but I have a strange platform on my phone so can't use it

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Re: New Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

Post by happyhoppy »

Surprised wrote:Looks great but I have a strange platform on my phone so can't use it
So you don't have an android or an iPhone?

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Re: New Book App "Author Matic" now on iphone!

Post by Surprised »

happyhoppy wrote:
Surprised wrote:Looks great but I have a strange platform on my phone so can't use it
So you don't have an android or an iPhone?

No
I will never get an Iphone but might upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 1020 at some point. My current phone is Linux based

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