Publishing and E-Publishing

Books As History: Your New Sales Tool?

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So as we all know eBooks are selling like crazy.  Right now as we can read ebooks on multiple formats, on multiple devices, and save money, it's not surprising.  These eBook sales also bring up the usual question of what happens to print media (you know the one that comes up every few months)

As much as I love my Kindle and eBooks, I admit part of me wonders about the role permanence of the printed word.  A book can last.  A book can be read without a battery charger or a when locked out of an account.  A book is a record without strings attached.

So I'd like to postulate something that both sells more physical books and helps people appreciate them – something that may help you authors out there get your hard copies into people's hands.

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Those Powerful Christmas Gifts

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(Some of this was covered in a past podcast, but I wanted to revisit the idea).

What do the Kindle, the iPad, and Smartphones have in common with Gift Cards?

If you answered "flat and I'm sick of hearing of them as gift options" you're close, but I think you're missing the larger picture.  Though I too nearly burnt out on Kindlepadphone news over Christmas, despite my high news-capacity (news is mental jello to me), I believe there is something important about the sales of the Kindle, iPad, and Smartphones over the holiday.  In fact, I think there's a trend here that is worth exploring as it's going to affect technology use, and sales, and any jobs related to them.

We've all heard how Amazon's Kindle sales have been awesome. (I did my part in contributing to them as you saw).  Of course it seems that iPads are selling like crazy(at least in estimates) and have been doing well since the beginning.  Smartphones appear to be hot gifts.  So what is this trend beyond "technical stuff sells" that I'm all worked up over?

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The Amazon Kindle 3G: A Review

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PROS:

  • The screen is easy on the eyes.
  • Very easy to use and buy books.
  • A nice amount of extra features.
  • Man is it easy to get and read books.
  • There's promising experiments and software that hint at future improvements.
  • BOOKS!  OH GODS, THE BOOKS!

CONS:

  •  . . . I'll get back to you

SUMMARY: If you're a heavy reader the Kindle is a space, money, and time-saving device you should consider – even if you have a device that supports Kindle software.

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