Well, our One Kit Wonders book just took another hit with a 2-star review. The reviewer writes
"... I purchased this book thinking it meant what it stated in the title by "One Kit," meaning the main NXT kit and no other additional parts. This book requires many parts that don't come in the original main kit, and none of the extra parts I do have. The parts are not labeled and you must hunt and peck through your system to find the parts you don't have in your main kit and hunt them down and order them (not exactly a truthful title)... I've yet to build anything with this book and I've had it for over a year now. Plus several parts I have ordered turned out to be wrong, do to poor picture quality and lack of measurements."
Let's ignore the fact that the reviewer states he's had the book over a year... I'm guessing by the review that he's possibly purchased a 2.0 kit (or the Education kit). I think a lot of the problems with buyers not being happy with their books is that they're not doing the research to determine to which NXT kit the book applies. This is a 1.0 book... but Amazon makes no attempt to encourage buyers of the NXT 2.0 kit to buy this book (and others)... even when WE know the two are not compatible.
Sales on NXT books are low... not sure if it's because the product has matured or whether there are a lot more choices in books or a combination of these (or other factors). But the fact remains that reviews hurt sales... and bad sales cause publishers to pursue other topics. I've spoken with publishers who are concerned about sales of the NXT and the confusion that the multiple versions are bringing to the table. All it takes is one new NXT 1.0 owner to come and read this review and they're likely to NOT purchase the book even though, IMO, it's a great book for 1.0 owners. We can't request that the review be removed because that's not how Amazon works... (to be honest, someone could write "This latest Steven King novel stinks" - give it a 1 star review - and Amazon would still unlikely remove it from the OKW reviews).
Not sure what the solution is, but once gain I want to encourage you, the NXT book owner, to speak your mind and write reviews, good or bad, of the NXT books you use. Reviews can make or break a book... and they do have an impact on publishers who are considering doing more NXT books. It's unfortunate that studies have shown that unhappy people are more likely to write an unfavorable review than happy people are to write a favorable one.
I don't know if No Starch will ever consider another OKW book (or Idea Book) - I'm not sure what the deciding factors are... but I do believe that these negative reviews will impact sales which are likely to impact (negatively) the odds of more NXT books being done.
I wish this OKW reviewer had written a more fair review - I wonder how many parents of 1.0 owners are looking for Christmas books right now and will pass this one by because the latest review basically states (inaccurately) that this book is misleading, incorrect, and a bad buy?
Jim
One more thing: I do think that all NXT publishers should request Amazon (and other online seller) to update their book descriptions with something that clearly states whether the book is for 1.0 or 2.0 or mixure. What do you think?
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