Good year for Amazon

Amazon announced in a press release today that 2011 was the best holiday year for the company.

" Amazon customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers

#1 and #4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011 published independently by authors using Kindle Direct Publishing"

"SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 29, 2011-- (NASDAQ: AMZN) - Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that 2011 was the best holiday ever for the Kindle family as customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers. Authors also continue to benefit from the success of Kindle — the #1 and #4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011 were both published independently by their authors using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
“We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. “And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we’d also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the author of ‘The Mill River Recluse,’ and Chris Culver, the author of ‘The Abbey,’ for writing two of the best-selling Kindle books of the year.”
More Kindle holiday facts:

• Throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week.
• The new Kindle family held the top three spots on the Amazon.com best seller charts – #1: Kindle Fire, #2: Kindle Touch, #3: Kindle.
• Kindle Fire is the #1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon.com since its introduction 13 weeks ago.
• Kindle is also the best-selling product on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.it this holiday season.
• Gifting of Kindle books was up 175 percent between this Black Friday and Christmas Day compared to the same period in 2010.
• Christmas Day was the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads.
• Kindle Fire is the best-selling product on Amazon.com’s mobile website and across all of Amazon.com’s mobile applications.

Additional Kindle Direct Publishing successes include:

• December’s #1 best-selling Kindle Direct Publishing book “Wife by Wednesday” was also the #5 overall best-selling Kindle book in December and has appeared on both the USA Today and Wall Street Journal best seller lists. Author Catherine Bybee was formerly an emergency room registered nurse, and has now left her job to focus on writing full-time.
• In 2011, KDP and CreateSpace author CJ Lyons reached #2 on the Amazon best seller list, #2 on the New York Times best seller list, and #4 on the USA Today best seller list. As a former pediatric ER doctor, CJ has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels, and she quit her job in medicine after 17 years to pursue her dream of becoming a full-time novelist. Her latest work includes “Face to Face” and “Hot Water.”       

Amazon's Kindle Lending Library

GeekWire posted this information about the Kindle Lending Library:

This is pretty interesting. Amazon.com tonight announced the “Kindle Owners’ Lending Library” — a virtual book-borrowing service for its Kindle devices. Not for Kindle apps on other devices, but only for Amazon’s own Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablet.
It’s a no-extra-charge addition to the company’s existing Amazon Prime subscription service, adding digital-book lending to streaming video and free shipping as a benefit of the $79/year cost.
Amazon says the available library consists of more than 5,000 titles, including more than 100 current and former New York Times bestsellers."

Amazon's announcement included "We’re adding the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to Prime membership at no extra cost — Amazon Prime remains just $79 a year, which gives you free two-day shipping on millions of products, plus unlimited instant streaming of almost 13,000 movies and TV shows."

New stats and $99 e-readers

Updated ereader and ebook stats have been posted on paid-content.org:
"if all you want for Christmas is a $99 e-reader, Santa is listening, according to research firm IDC. The company also finds e-reader shipments growing 167 percent year on year...."

 Other items of interest in this article is info on Amazon's new device and sale percentages for Kindle and Nook.   "We’re also expecting Amazon’s much-rumored, color LCD-based device to ship later this year. Because we expect it to run a customized version of Android that ties its use to Amazon’s content services, we expect the device to more closely resemble Barnes & Noble’s Color Nook than Apple’s iPad 2."

Amazon and Netflix-type service

From the Wall Street Journal Digital edition:


"Amazon Digital Library, Book Prices Pressure Publishers: The Kindle maker is trying to get book publishers to buy into a book rental service for digital content, reports the Wall Street Journal. But publishers aren’t excited, believing that such a Netflix-like service could lower the value of books and strain relationships with other book retailers. The service would charge customers a fixed monthly fee.
According to the WSJ, Amazon told publishers that the service would feature older titles. Publishers would also receive a “substantial fee” for participating."

Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

Today's deal is The Lincoln Lawyer for $2.99.

Don't Miss a Deal


The Kindle Daily Deal will be posted daily on Twitter, and frequently on Facebook and the Kindle Daily Post

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Kindle Cloud Reader

Technology is truly amazing.  Now Amazon has come up with the Kindle Cloud Reader.

Buy Once, Read Everywhere

• Instant access to your Kindle library
• Continue reading even when you lose your internet connection
• Optimized for iPad: shop the integrated Kindle Store for Tablets

Kindle in public libraries?

According to an article on ReadWriteWeb, "The CEO of OverDrive, which distributes e-books and audiobooks to libraries, has dropped a pretty obvious hint that the Kindle will join other major e-readers in public libraries in September. EarlyWord reports that Steve Potash looked "like a kid with a delicious secret" at OverDrive's Digipalooza conference last weekend, saying that he was "not allowed to announce a date ye[t]," but he included this blunt clue in his "Crystal Ball Report" during the final session:


Streamlining (both downloading and ordering)
Explosion (we have gone from two reading devices to 85 and more are coming)
Premium (the library catalog as the most premium, value-added site on the Web)
Traffic (enormous growth coming by year's end).


I find this agreement very interesting.  It is great news for public libraries and the general public, but not for school libraries.  Recently Amazon made the statement that a separate email address for each device is required.  This requirement seems a bit unruly for school libraries with numerous Kindles.   Is this Amazon's way of forcing school libraries to subscribe to Overdrive?  However, the policy just might send school libraries to the Nook!

Back from a little break and Lending Kindle books

Took a little break from blogging the past couple weeks.  Been busy taking care of household chores, running errands and travelling to the beach!  The temperature has finally lowered to the 80s, but now we are waiting for the rain so I thought I would get back to blogging.


Borrowing and or lending Kindle books always seems to be a hot topic.  A recent article in Daily Finance has information on another lending site.

Self-published author sells over a million books for Kindle

John Locke, a self-published author sells over a million books for Kindle on Amazon.com.   MSN reports the "Amazon.com recently announced that Locke is the eighth author to sell over one million Kindle books — over 1,010,370 — to become the newest member of the "Kindle Million Club," and the first independently published author to do so. Using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Locke has made protagonist Donovan Creed a household — or at least a beach and bedside reading — presence that would probably make plenty of print-only authors envious."

I haven't read any of these books, but the last time I looked on Amazon most of Locke's the books were selling for 99 cents.  Surely an inspiration for other authors.

Another way to get free Kindle books

Came across this site by accident -- eReaderIQ.com:

"eReaderIQ provides Amazon Kindle price drop alerts, watches your favorite titles to let you know when they are available for Kindle, and gives you a regularly updated list of all non-public domain freebies on Amazon.com. We also offer a superior search engine which not only lets you search the Kindle store by genre and keyword, but also lets you define the price range, reader age, language and more!"

The service is free and easy to use.

Kindle Sales

Kindle sales and ebooks are booming!  Last week Amazon released this statement:


Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.


I find this amazing!  Are people just buying the books and storing them to read later.  I have many, many books on my Kindle that I have purchased (inexpensive and special offers) and free books that I plan to read at some point.  Or are people actually reading more now?

Kindle Screesavers

Some people are just so creative -- I 'm not!  The Shifted Librarian and How To Geek discuss how to personalize the screensavers on your Kindle and add library-related screensavers.  I haven't tried this yet, but they say it is simple to do.

Disguise your Kindle

Do you have a Kindle, but miss holding a physical book?  Do you want to hide your Kindle so others won't know you are reading it?  The solution may be an ebook safe.  Coming soon to the ereader market....

Kindle books at your local library

Amazon will make Kindle books available at public libraries.  According to a recent Amazon press release  'Kindle Library Lending, a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. Kindle Library Lending will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps....


"We're doing a little something extra here," Marine continued. "Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we're extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced....

Amazon is working with OverDrive, the leading provider of digital content solutions for over 11,000 public and educational libraries in the United States, to bring a seamless library borrowing experience to Kindle customers. "We are excited to be working with Amazon to offer Kindle Library Lending to the millions of customers who read on Kindle and Kindle apps," said Steve Potash, CEO, OverDrive. "We hear librarians and patrons rave about Kindle, so we are thrilled that we can be part of bringing library books to the unparalleled experience of reading on Kindle." '

Maybe all the negative comments about Amazon/Kindle not liking libraries made an impact.  A win-win for all.

Lendle gone, Lendle back!

Lendle is back.  The Lendle webpage states the following:

"Amazon revokes Lendle’s API access (Update: We’re back!)

Update, March 22nd, 2011: We’re thrilled to report that Amazon has reinstated our API access, and Lendle is back up and running. Welcome back, Lendlers!"  For more information, go to Lendle.

ebook lending clubs (an incomplete list)

From ALA Tech Source:    http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/02/e-book-lending-clubs.html

The article, ‘Ebook lending clubs’ gives a little background on lending ebooks and information on five lending clubs.  Be sure to check out the clubs listed in this article.  

The clubs/sites listed below are not included in this article.  I have not borrowed from any of these clubs – this is just information not a recommendation for use.

Lendle   http://lendle.me/how-it-works/

Lendle states they are the “easiest, fastest,  fairest and best way to lend and borrow Kindle books.”

BookBee   http://www.bookbee.net/

“A Beginner's guide to ebooks - simple guide/comparison to device, software, format, buying and help.  Info on Kindle, iPad, Nook, PC (Windows), Mac (OS X), iPhone.”  This site also offers Book Ant (search for books with prices at B&N and Amazon) and an ebook exchange.  I registered on BookBee to see what is offered.  At the time, only four books were available, but this was a few weeks ago.

Ebook exchange     http://www.ebookexchange.com/

Lend or borrow ebooks (Kindle or Nook).  Complete step-by-step instructions and registration is free.  I did see a spot for a $3 donation, but I’m not sure this is required.

Open Library   (Internet Archive )    http://openlibrary.org/

“Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published….  Just like Wikipedia, you can contribute new information or corrections to the catalog. You can browse by subject, author or lists members have created. If you love books, why not help build a library?”

Wikipedia    http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries

List of worldwide lending libraries

Amazon Kindle ebooks sales

Amazon.com has sold more Kindle ebooks than paperbacks in the last year.  


The Amazon press release stated:  "Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company has sold 115 Kindle books." 
"Additionally, during this same time period the Company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books."
"The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 810,000 books including New Releases and 107 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 670,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 74 New York Times Bestsellers. Millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle."

Kindles in libraries

I've been following the Kindle program set up by The Unquiet Librarian (Creekview High School Library).  Buffy Hamilton has put a great deal of thought and time into this program and has a really attractive and informative website with all the details.  Take a look at the forms and tracking information they are using at Creekview High School.  Some of the forms are Checkout and Permissions, Request for Kindle ebooks, Gift Card Tracking Record Form.

Lending Kindles

Though I ended up purchasing a Kindle, one of the reasons I considered a Nook was the lending capability to another Nook owner (once for a two-week period) and borrowing books from the public library. I decided that borrowing a book from a friend might be okay for short books, but sometimes I need longer than two weeks to read a book. So what would I do after that two-week lending period? I'd have to buy the book or check the public library offerings.

After owning a Kindle for three months, I do not regret the decision not to get a Nook. I find that my life activities determine how much time I can devote to reading which hasn't been much lately for a variety of reasons. The books I purchased from Amazon and those free books that I downloaded are still in the queue waiting for me.

Then the other day I heard that Kindle will allow lending books in the near future. The Kindle, too, will only allow a maximum lending period of fourteen days. Why is that? Why even have a limit? If the book is on loan, only one person can read it. Why should it matter who has it on the device?