My Kindle Stuff

Well, I’m swamped by rumors, happy with Kindle news and what with all the good books I’ve found– just wallowing in Kindle-goodness.

Rumors

First for the rumors.  Sometime yesterday the 6″ Kindle went out of stock, there were refurbs available, but they’ve since sold out as well.  Rumors on Twitter, Amazon Discussion boards, Kindleboards and MobileReads speculate that the Kindle 3 is just around the corner.  In response, 3rd parties have already raised the prices of used Kindles upwards of $230, pretty much reflecting the old Kindle price of $259.  It will be interesting to watch the price gouging wars if the Kindle 2 stays out of stock for a few days.  I don’t dare look at the prices on ebay (ugh).

News

In Kindle news, Amazon issued a Press Release announcing that Stieg Larsson (author of the Millennium Trilogy)  is the frst author and first member of the “Kindle Million Club”.  That club is for writers whose books have sold over 1 million Kindle copies.
This kind of confuses me as I thought James Patterson was the 1st, but apparently that news was for selling a million ebooks (whether Kindle or otherwise) and was issued by his publisher, not Amazon.  So there you go.
For those thinking that the iPad was going to be the death of the Kindle–raspberries to you.  I say up with dedicated devices that do one thing great rather than focus on muli-ourpose ones that do a lot of stuff just okay. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPad, but my Kindle is my baby!

My Lastest books (All VERY good! If you are into the Fantasy genre, be sure to check them out)

All that Lives Must Die (Mortal Coils #2) – Mortal Coils (Mortal Coils #1) by Eric Nylund – Mortal Coils was one of my Best Books of 2009

Tracking the Tempest (Jane True #2), Tempest Rising (Jane True, #1) by Nicole Peeler

Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia #1) by David Anthony Durham

Salute the Dark (Shadows of the Apt #4), Blood of the Mantis (Shadows of the Apt #3), Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt #2), Empire in Black & Gold (Shadows of the Apt #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Well, along with the iPad and Kindle for iPad, agency pricing has arrived.  After a week of books being unavailable for some Kindle versions, Amazon has updated the pricing for same.

All I can say after reviewing the prices is that if publishers are trying to boost sales and increase market shares, somebody is living in a dream world.  As pointed out on a Kindleworld blog post, this new pricing leaves less money to the author and publisher and less money in customer pockets.  The only one making more money on this deal is Amazon, who if believed, would rather have done without the pay raise. (Note: Random House is the only ‘Big 6′ publisher staying out of the agency model for now.)

All of this was instigated by Apple’s contract negotiations with the publishers in preparation for the iPad. Perhaps Apple knew that they wouldn’t be selling as many books from their iBookstore so wanted a bigger piece of the pie–who knows.  But as pointed out by a savvy blogger, the publishers who signed on forgot that the Kindle encompasses more than a single device.  If you have an iPad, you can only read books on that single device–if you own a Kindle, you can read all of your purchased books on your PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry and now your iPad.  Why publishers would side with Apple on this one baffles me (but see previous post).

Frankly some of the pricing is ridiculous, but Amazon wants to make sure you know where those prices are coming from.  In the listing (and in bold when viewing from your Kindle) is the name of the publisher and a notice that “This price was set by the publisher”.  The pricing for these books has also been moved out of the Amazon price column and into the New price column.

There is a mix of price points.  Some books are higher priced than the paperback–even old ones like some from the Twilight series, while still being less than the hard cover version. Some are reasonably priced, with the Kindle version less than both, and some are too high to be worth mentioning.

I’m waiting to see what the near outcome of this pricing will be.  Are publishers going to react to inevitable lower sales numbers of ebooks by lowering pricing? Will they use those numbers to say that ebooks ‘don’t sell’? One thing I will be watching–will the ebook torrent (piracy) levels increases.

For some alternatives to the higher prices, the Kindle Boards forum users (Kindle board is one of the most popular Kindle sites) offer suggestions to lower prices, alternatives to the Big 6 books, links and lists to free and cheap books along with other suggestions.  The best suggestion is to contact the publisher via email to let them know what you think. When all is said and done, your mileage may vary depending on which books you are looking for, but you’ll definitely be paying more if you don’t want to wait for prices to come down by using the ‘wait for paperback’ strategy.

(Update 9:20PM 1/31/2010) – Well, Amazon gave into MacMillan’s demands for higher prices.  For the full story see the NYT article here.  It remains to see what, if any fallout there is for the publisher or the ebook industry as a whole.  Certainly, publishers own their content and can set the pricing for it, but I really wonder if they are trying to save hardcover sales, give Amazon a swift kick in the behind by ’siding’ with Jobs & the iPad (go google that one!) or just don’t value the ereader consumer.  Whatever the case, I guess they didn’t read the article published on Slate last year Does the Book Industry Want To Get Napstered? Nuff said.

Wow.  This has been a crazy weekend in the Kindleverse!  Amazon pulling MacMillan titles, forum boards erupting with both anger and dismay, Twitter going crazy with 140 character comments on same-plus a lot of bad information. Authors weighing in on mostly the publishers side and some Kindlers vowing retribution by both bad reviews (here we go again) and boycott tagging.

When this all first happened, I was angry at MacMillan.  About 8 books on my Amazon wish list were gone and I don’t even remember which ones they were.  Now I’m just weary of the whole thing, while at the same time extremely curious on how it all will shake out.

I do have a couple of observations to make, though.  First, I’m a avid reader and had to join Amazon prime to defray shipping costs.  I almost always purchased mass-market paperbacks over hardcover books just to appear like I was trying to stay within some sort of reasonable budget.  There were a few authors that I loved which I felt merited the $20 for a (discounted) hardback, but not many.  I didn’t go to the library and I didn’t use 2nd hand books because, frankly, old paperback stink and I hated the yellowing due to the cheap paper used.  Then I discovered the Kindle which I’ve had a Kindle for about two years now.  If anything, I read faster and now spend way more on books.

Just as pre-Kindle, I spend more than $9.99 for some authors, but my average for a Kindle book is between $5 and $7.  I don’t really care about book format or DRM, because I have the tools to change both, and I don’t share my Kindle account with anyone, so if I find a good book, I just recommend to my Kindle friends so they can purchase their own copy.

That being said, there is NO WAY that I can see myself regularly paying $15 for a newly published ebook; and I doubt that I would even remember the book when the price came down to what I would pay–unless it got recommended by an online review or other listing.  That is a hit-or-miss proposition as most books are reviewed when they are released, not 7 months later.  The best example of this for me is the slow release of the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series.  I was going to buy it for my Kindle until I saw the release dates.  After I saw that it was releasing approximately one book a month and that I wouldn’t be able to get through it for a year, I decided to wait and haven’t thought about it since.  Some ereaders that I know got them on the darknet to read now, then would buy the ebooks as they were released.  That can start a whole conversation about ebook availability vs. piracy which I won’t go into.

Some are saying that this whole thing was started by the immenent advent of the iPad and it’s iBook store.  Maybe, maybe not, but as a non-LCD ereader, I think the publishers are barking up the wrong tree if they think that avid readers will be embracing reading books on what is virtually a flashlight on any type of regular basis.  I do plan on getting one, but it will be either as a replacement for my iPhone, or as a living room and portable laptop-lite device–not as a reader.  I’ve seen this sentiment repeated more times than I can count, so if MacMillan and other publishers are looking as the iPad to revolutionize books, I fear they will be sadly disappointed.

I don’t know who will win this war, but America loves a good fight.  Hey! Maybe they should put it on Pay Per View?

Want an alternative to the Amazon Kindle store?  Head on over to the Fictionwise Kindle store and click away.  All you have to do is register on the site. Once you’ve done so you can elect to have the books sent wirelessly to your Kindle–remember Amazon charges $ .15/MB, or you can move your purchases to your device using the USB.  Currently, you are limited to their non-DRM’d books, unless you use the KindlePID script that Amazon forced MobiPocket to remove from their site.  Fictionwise in no way recommends use of the script, but if you’ve been doing that up to now, this announcement won’t really affect you.

Makes me wonder…Amazon bought Stanza and has owned MobiPocket for awhile; B&N owns Fictionwise.  Whose move is it now?

(Update 12/17/2009 – Thanks to KindleVixen, I was informed the Fictionwise will not accept your KindlePID. See tools here for additional Kindle Tools info)

(Updated: 12/15/2009 – Kindle Book Deletion has been confirmed.  You can delete books from your account on the Manage Your Kindle page.  Also, you can add Kindle books to your Wish List via the Kindle store on your device or online.)

Thanks to Anarel on Kindleboards who noticed the new feature on the Kindle’s Manage Your Kindle pages.  Amazon is  quietly adding or testing the ability to permanently delete items in your Kindle archive.  Nice!  Well, I’m off to make a list of nook features that would require backend or software updates only.  Bet we see them soon!

This feature is not yet enabled on my account, but I am looking forward to it.

Additions So far

• International Device
• Native PDF
• Screen Rotation
• Longer Battery Life
• Kindle Wish Lists (available online/device)
• Book Deletion
• Kindle for PC (Mac announced sign-up here/Blackberry coming)
• Content Management (Coming Soon)

Possibly next?

• Custom screensavers
• Add’l fonts
• Add’l file types
• Maybe another DRM format?

Then, they’ll add stuff that nook doesn’t have that they’ve been holding on to FOREVER – like folders/tagging and other user-requested features.  The nook will be fixing performance for the next couple of months, then they’ll have to do something.  Hopefully this will go on until they have maxed out features on the current hardware.