New book published service ?

April 16, 2007 11:29 PM

Can anyone recommend a service which will ping me if an author publishes a new book ?
posted by matholio to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Online bookstores will do that. I think both Powell's and Amazon will let you set up watch lists and when a book comes in that matches your list, they send you mail.
posted by hattifattener at 12:24 AM on April 17, 2007

Harper Collins has author tracker.This may apply with other publishers.
posted by johnny7 at 12:28 AM on April 17, 2007

(and as an addendum --- I wasn't able to find the watchlist functionality I remembered, just now, so maybe I'm mistaken. I'd swear I used it for a while, though, but canceled it because it would notify me not just of new books, but new editions: the tpb is out! now the paperback is out! now it's in a second printing! now the audiobook! and the large-print library binding!)
posted by hattifattener at 12:46 AM on April 17, 2007

Powell's is quite good about this.
posted by DudeAsInCool at 2:21 AM on April 17, 2007

Response by poster: I was hoping for an RSS feed, but email would do.

Thanks
posted by matholio at 2:24 AM on April 17, 2007

This *sort of* works. It's a google news search with the phrases "new book" and "author name." You can set the frequency to "as it happens." Using Michael Chabon as the author returns three articles, and using Donna Tartt returns none. It isn't perfect, but seems like it would mostly do the trick. You can also use that search on the main news page and get an RSS feed. It seems like it could be tweaked.
posted by JamesToast at 5:45 AM on April 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

i know amazon used to have a system where they could email you whenever a new product, matching your search criteria, was available to order. unfortunately i don't have a link for you, but i'm sure if you hunt around amazon you'll find it.
posted by fac21 at 5:52 AM on April 17, 2007

Amazon *USED* to have a watchlist functionality but they discontinued it a while back. The google news search looks good.
posted by Ferrari328 at 5:58 AM on April 17, 2007

If you subscribe a dodgeit.com account to your author watchlist, you can pick up the account contents via RSS. It's a bit Heath-Robinson, but it works. Gmail lets you subscribe to your emails by RSS, too.
posted by Leon at 7:51 AM on April 17, 2007

Previously, and previously.
posted by jjg at 11:48 AM on April 17, 2007

Amazon doesn't have this anymore. I e-mailed them about it a few days ago. They have "recommendations" and a few mailing lists that aren't helpful. Some individual publishers (Random House, Simon Says) have "author alert" services that e-mail you when new books come out, but so far they've done me very little good. If you go that route, be sure that the author's newest books are available as well as their older ones.

I haven't looked into Powells, but if they have an author tracker, it will be a lot easier than tracking down individual publishing houses.
posted by lorimt at 12:54 PM on April 17, 2007