Author-focused tools for scheduling an event associated with an author or with a work of the author

• US 8,209,217 B1
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Issued: 06/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Griffith, Victoria A., Leng, Daniel, Iser, Adam J., Frazzini, Michael Anthony, Belle, Jeff L., Winham, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jasmin, Lynda
• Assistant Examiner(s): Koneru, Sujay
• Application Number:
  US12/425,877
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/962 Operator interface for marketing or sales

Abstract

This disclosure describes a platform for better connecting authors and retailers that offer works of the authors for acquisition by a community of users. This platform includes multiple tools that allow the authors to provide content to the community of users through the retailer or through another entity. In addition, this platform provides tools that authors may utilize for marketing their works, for tracking acquisition (e.g., sales) of their works, for connecting with other authors, or for a multitude of other purposes.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

an engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to;

serve a user interface for display to an author of a work or a user associated with the author, the user interface indicating a geographical distribution of consumers that have conducted transactions associated with the work of the author; and

facilitate scheduling of an event by the author or by the user associated with the author, the event being associated with the author or with the work by the author, the facilitating scheduling of the event including;

enabling the author or the user associated with the author to select a geographical region at which to hold the event, the geographic region displayed within the user interface,

based at least in part on the selection of the geographical region by the author or the user associated with the author, enabling the author or the user associated with the author to select a venue to host the event that is located in or is within a predefined distance of the geographical region, and

based at least in part on the selection of the venue by the author or by the user associated with the author, scheduling the event at the venue selected by the author or by the user associated with the author.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising an author alert engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to notify the author of the work regarding an event that has occurred and that is associated with the work.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a reviewer recommendation engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to recommend to the author a particular group of reviewers to review the work, the particular group of reviewers being selected at least in part based on attributes of the work or the author.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising an event notification engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to notify one or more users of a scheduled event associated with the work or the author, the one or more users being selected based at least in part on a location of the one or more users.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a sales chart engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to:

determine information associated with sales of the work;

cause display of the information on a chart; and

facilitate annotation of the chart by the author of the work.

6. A system as recited in claim 5, wherein the user interface and the chart are for display on a webpage that is associated with the author, and wherein the system further comprises a health-indication engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to message to the author a completeness of the webpage that is associated with the author.

7. A system as recited in claim 6, wherein the health-indication engine determines the completeness of the webpage based on a number of fields completed by the author relative to a total number of available fields of the webpage that is associated with the author.

8. A system as recited in claim 5, further comprising a forecasting engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to forecast a future demand for the work based at least in part on annotations on the chart provided by the author of the work.

9. A system as recited in claim 5, wherein the user interface and the chart are for display on a webpage that is associated with the author, and wherein the system further comprises:

a health-indication engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to message to the author a completeness of the webpage that is associated with the author;

an author alert engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to notify the author of the work regarding an event that has occurred and that is associated with the work;

a reviewer recommendation engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to recommend to the author a particular group of reviewers to review the work, the particular group of reviewers being selected at least in part based on attributes of the work or the author;

a forecasting engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to forecast a future demand for the work based at least in part on annotations on the chart provided by the author of the work; and

an event notification engine, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to notify one or more users of a scheduled event associated with the work or the author, the one or more users being selected based at least in part on a location of the one or more users.

10. A method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, serving a user interface for display on a computing device of an author of a work or a user associated with the author, the user interface indicating a geographical distribution of consumers that have conducted transactions associated with the work of the author; and

facilitating scheduling of an event by the author or by the user associated with the author, the event being associated with the author or with the work by the author, the facilitating scheduling of the event including;

enabling the author or the user associated with the author to select a geographical region at which to hold the event, the geographic region displayed within the user interface,

based at least in part on the selection of the geographical region by the author or the user associated with the author, enabling the author or the user associated with the author to select a venue to host the event that is located in or is within a predefined distance of the geographical region, and

based at least in part on the selection of the venue by the author or by the user associated with the author, scheduling the event at the venue selected by the author or by the user associated with the author.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the transactions comprise acquiring the work of the author or requesting of a page associated with the author or with the work of the author.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises a map that indicates the geographical distribution of sales of the work by the author.

13. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

upon scheduling of the event by the author or by the user associated with the author;

identifying a group of consumers that are within a predefined distance of a location of the scheduled event; and

notifying at least a portion of the group of consumers that are within the predefined distance of the location about the scheduled event.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the at least a portion of the group of consumers comprises consumers that are associated with the work or with the author.

15. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the work by the author comprises a book, an article, a song, a video or a piece of art.

16. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising facilitating invitation of consumers by the author or by the user associated with the author.

17. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to the author or the user associated with the author scheduling the event;

determining a group of consumers that are located within a predefined distance of a location of the event; and

inviting the group of consumers to the event based at least in part on determining that the group of consumers are located within the predefined distance of the location of the event.

18. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to the author or the user associated with the author scheduling the event;

determining a group of consumers that are associated with the author or the work of the author; and

inviting the group of consumers to the event based at least in part on determining that the group of consumers are associated with the author or the work of the author.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the determining that the group of consumers are associated with the author or the work of the author comprises determining that consumers of the group of consumers have previously acquired:

(i) the work of the author or another work of the author, or (ii) a work that has been deemed similar to the work of the author or to another work of the author.