The Spectacle Blog
Okay, I have now had time to read an entire book on the Kindle. Excellent experience. What is really amazing is the content delivery aspect of it. I was going to deliver a lecture on technology and culture and wanted to brush up on Orwell’s 1984. I downloaded it via the Kindle for .99. Instant delivery. No shipping. I was reading in the next minute.
I was worried about the issue of notetaking, highlighting, underlining, etc. Good news on that front. You can easily highlight text and then go to a separate page that keeps all of your highlighted sections. Outstanding. Only one minor complaint is that you can’t highlight text across pages. You highlight on the page you are on. Stop. Then highlight the section you want on the next page.
It takes a little reading experience to get used to holding this device in hand and reading. It is different from holding a book. No question. Feels different. At first, I thought I was going to reject it. But after reading for about 10 minutes, it became quite natural.
I think these e-readers are going to change the publishing business substantially. E-publishing will eventually grab maybe a quarter of the overall take. Just a prediction. Probably too modest.
The real question is what is this going to do to publishing companies. With a device like the Kindle, you simply do not NEED a publisher. At least, you do not need a publisher if you have established your own name and/or brand. Though the attempts have been abortive so far, there WILL come a time when the big writers, analysts, reporters, etc. just sell their stuff direct. It will be interesting to see what the political effect of that kind of democratization of discourse will be. The model, strangely enough, might be something like the old Evans and Novak report. Something like that would be perfect to just purchase direct via micro-payments or a cheap subscription.
John| 3.16.09 @ 5:42PM
you say people might sell direct to their audience - No surprise - go to any music festival and see how many recording artists have set up booths/tents to hawk their own wares. I went to a large bluegrass festival last October - about 40 groups and/or indivduals performed over a 4 day period. Each of them had made at least 1-2 albums and some who had made 15-20 or more. Some by big name studios and some by small studios but all were on sale with the artists manning the booth.
Aaron| 3.16.09 @ 7:24PM
My question is this... Wifey wants one, do I buy one now or wait for the next best thing? Such as a color screen. I probably should just go for it like I did with those new fangled IPOD thingys. Now I have three of them to the two of us...
Andrys | 3.16.09 @ 7:54PM
Hunter, are you using a Kindle 1 rather than the Kindle 2? The 2nd Kindle can highlight across pages. While highlighting you press NextPage and continue on down and when you press the 5-way button again, then it completes the highlighting (in the Kindle 2).
Navigation and speed are much better in the 2nd Kindle than in the 1st model.
Pingback| 3.16.09 @ 9:49PM
Amazon Kindle and the Future of Content | buy-amazon-kindle2.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Michael McCollum | 3.16.09 @ 11:35PM
I have been a professional science fiction writer for 34 years. I was with Del Rey (the science fiction imprint of Ballantine, then owned by Random House) for 15 years and sold 250,000 books in bookstores.
Fifteen years ago, I went into business for myself and now sell my novels on my own website in both trade paperback and seven different ebook formats. Over the last year, when selling to "regular folks", my sales have been 50% paperback and 50% ebook. When selling to computer enthusiasts, it has been 25% paperback and 75% ebook.
I am now experimenting with audio books where the words are read by computer generated voices, although if the Kindle 2 voice is any good, that format may be overtaken by events.
My royalty at Del Rey was 6-8% of the cover price. My profit online is 75% for trade paperbacks and 100% for ebooks. I am currently grossing approximately 3 times what I made in my best year with Del Rey. Nowhere near Stephen King's class, but nothing to be sneezed at either.
Michael McCollum
http://www.scifi-az.com
http://3mpub.com
Pingback| 3.18.09 @ 8:35AM
The News Factor: News, opinion, current events — a rewarding news experience » Blog A links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.19.09 @ 7:07PM
Footprints (19.03.09) | Chris Deary links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
rentacar | 10.28.09 @ 5:18PM
This article is very interesting. Thank you very much for sharing .
Ned Ferguson| 12.8.10 @ 9:37PM
Just got my Kindle about three weeks ago and I am thrilled. These aging eyes are able to read much more easily and rapidly. My reading speed and pleasure has increased ten-fold.
It is my disappointment so far that there appears to be a dearth of conservative newspapers or magazines (hint! hint!). One can readily obtain the the New York Times, Newsweek, or The New Republic however. The closest thing I've seen to a "conservative" publication is the Christian Science Monitor.
Is some nefarious plot at work?