So, like millions of others, you got a Kindle for Christmas. It’s fancy. It’s sleek. Your only question: What the hell is a Kindle?
Not to worry. There are people like David Wisehart out there who got a handle on this whole e-reader business back when you still thought “kindle” was a verb.
A writer, director and producer, Wisehart runs the popular blog Kindle Author specifically to help both readers and writers trying to fumble their way into the Kindle landscape.
I understand the Kindle e-reader has become the top-selling product of all-time on Amazon. Is this the end of it? Or is the gizmo going to just get more popular? Amazon is constantly working to improve the Kindle e-reader, and I’m sure we’ll see further tech improvements and price cuts in 2011. But more important than the Kindle device are the free Kindle apps, which allow people to access Kindle ebooks on other devices. With a free Kindle app, you can now read a Kindle ebook on your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone 7, and no doubt many other devices in the future. Soon you will be able to read a Kindle ebook on almost any device capable of displaying text. I’m sure one day there will be a Kindle app for your contact lenses. Amazon started by selling books, and they’re the best company in the world at selling books. Now they make a nice profit on every Kindle ebook sold. Amazon’s short-term strategy is the e-reader, but their long-term strategy is the ebook. Content is king.
What goes on at Kindle Author, anyway? A lot of typing, mostly. The blog has become a sort of online magazine of indie author interviews, with a bit of news and opinion thrown in for good measure. I get about a dozen requests a day for Kindle Author interviews, and typically post two or three interviews each day. As you can see, the math doesn’t work out. I’m falling further and further behind on my e-mails. However, I have used the Christmas holiday season to catch up, and I’ve been posting more interviews per day. As a result, my Internet traffic has steadily climbed. So I’m very happy about that.
You feature a lot of authors at your site. Do you write Kindle books as well? Thank you for asking. Yes, I self-published my first novel, “Devil’s Lair,” this year. It’s an epic fantasy set in Dante’s Inferno: a medieval knight leads a quest through Hell to recover the Holy Grail from the Devil. The publication of “Devil’s Lair” was the original inspiration for my Kindle Author blog. I started the blog to promote my own Kindle ebook, but soon discovered that the best thing I could do to promote myself was to help promote the work of other indie authors. So it’s been a win-win for everybody. I’ve also self-published a short story and a stage play on Kindle, and have several new novels in the works for 2011.
What’s the best way to deal with the luddites who insist they could never read a book on an electronic contraption? Shouldn’t we just put those types into museums and be done with it? I understand the resistance to e-reading devices. Although I’ve generally considered myself an early adopter of new technologies, even I hesitate at some changes. In fact, I was one of those people who said I’d never get a cell phone. Now I can’t imagine life without one.
Successful technologies often have a slow ramp up, then a tipping point, then mass acceptance. Part of that is price. Prices must come down. And that’s been happening. Another important part is improving the technology. E-reader technology has to evolve to meet the real needs of real consumers. That’s been happening. And the last piece of the puzzle is “social proof.” When enough of your friends and family start raving about something new, the walls of resistance begin to drop.
The key thing with e-readers is that they actually solve important problems for book readers. Like instant delivery. If a friend recommends a book to me, and I decide at that moment to buy it, I no longer have to get in my car and drive down to the local bookstore, which may or may not carry the book. I don’t have to wait days or weeks to have the book shipped from Amazon. Now in 60 seconds or less I can buy the book from Amazon, download it, and start reading it on my Kindle (or iPhone, or BlackBerry, etc.). Ebooks are now impulse buys from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Another problem solved is storage. That’s why frequent fliers were among the early adopters of Kindle. You can fit a lot of ebooks into your carry-on bag. I love physical books and have been collecting books for most of my life. At the beginning of last year I owned well over 2,000 books. But when I changed apartments over the summer, I gave most of those books to charity. They took up too much space. You know how much space 2,000 ebooks take up? Almost none. (New philosophy question: “How many ebooks can dance on the head of a pin?”)
The ebook revolution is happening. The tipping point is here. This Christmas, Amazon sold millions of Kindles. Some say 5 million, others say 8 million. Amazon’s not saying. They’re too busy counting their cash. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble sold more ebooks in December than printed books. And Borders, a company that came to the revolution a day late and millions of dollars short, has stopped paying the money it owes to publishers. I don’t think it’s the end of traditional publishing, but brink-and-mortar bookstores are downsizing fast. If Borders survives 2011, I’ll be surprised.
You want to know what the tipping point looks like? Here’s an example. In mid-April of 2010 a young, unpublished Minnesota writer named Amanda Hocking self-published her first ebook on Kindle. When I interviewed Amanda for my blog in mid-July, her sales were already improving week over week, and she was publishing and promoting several more books. In December of 2010 she sold over 100,000 ebooks. In December alone.
Welcome to the revolution.
I’m selling all of my Kindle books for $2.99 at marklaflamme.com/books. In addition to this kind of shameless plug, what does Kindle Author do to help writers promote their work?
A few things. First and foremost are the interviews. I invite any author with a book on Kindle to discuss their books, their writing process and their journey as a writer. Second, I’m selling sponsorships. Authors can sponsor a post to promote their book, and they can include excerpts to entice potential new readers. Third, I started an initiative on Twitter to help readers discover new writers, using the hashtag #SampleSunday. A lot of indie authors experimented with this in December, and it seems to be catching on.
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