Just so you know, I've personally and professionally benefited from Amazon's Kindle. Why? Because I've published my novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, as an e-book for Kindle. And as of last night, I'd sold nearly 700 downloads of the book for Kindle alone (more than 700, counting downloads through other sites), since June 2, 2009, when I put it up on Amazon's digital text platform.
But up until now, I've only been able to say that I'm a Kindle author, not a Kindle user. This has made me feel a bit weird, frankly. Here I am benefiting as an author from a product I don't use. (Whether that should make me feel weird or not is a subject for another post.)
Anyhow, the issue has been rendered moot as of yesterday. For as I was opening my gifts, what to my overjoyed eyes should I see, but a Kindle for Christmas!
So now, I too can travel without having to lug all those books around. I can get thousands (more? I don't even know) of books at the touch of a button, for a more-than-reasonable price, no less. The shelves in my house will be relieved to know that Kindle has helped lighten their burden and manage at least some of the clutter.
Don't get me wrong. I'll still buy and read print books. At least, I think so.
Anyhow, today I registered myself as a Kindle user. I have 30 days to return it, if I don't like it. I suspect that won't happen, but it'll be fun to play with this new toy and see.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
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3 comments:
So now you get to PAY for everything you read. One word: Library.
That's essentially what a Kindle is--a library where you pay for the borrowing privileges, without the need to return the book.
The main benefit in my opinion is portability. You can carry your library around without straining your back (or your luggage).
As more backlisted books become available as e-books, the additional benefit will be access to books your library doesn't carry. And they'll be much cheaper priced than the print alternatives.
Plus libraries are starting to make e-books available. I don't know if they're compatible with Kindle (which I think will only download proprietary files), but they do show that even libraries are responding to e-reader usage.
I still love libraries and I still love print books. Even so, I think Kindle will provide value for me. I guess I'll know for sure after I've used it a while.
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