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MaineWriter:
from the International Herald Tribune:

Campaign articles from Newsweek become e-books for Amazon Kindle
By Richard Pérez-Peña
Monday, October 13, 2008

It would seem to be a magazine's dream in these straitened times: Take something you have already published and sold, repackage it and distribute it without all that expense of paper, ink and trucks, and then sell it again.

This week, Newsweek will publish four books, one about each of the major presidential and vice presidential candidates — Senators John McCain, Barack Obama and Joseph Biden, and Governor Sarah Palin — books that will not appear in print but will be available only as e-books from Amazon.com for download to Amazon's Kindle device.

The books will contain versions of articles that Newsweek, owned by The Washington Post Company, has already published during the campaign. Turning this kind of collection into books is an old idea; what is new is to do it with such minimal production and distribution costs that even the most limited sales could be profitable.

Amazon says this is probably the first such venture by a publication, but it is not likely to be the last.

"We think it's a very interesting model that could broaden," said Ian Freed, an Amazon vice president in charge of the Kindle reading device. "This could start to change the way at least some books are published."

The books, at $9.99, will go on sale Wednesday and can be ordered starting Monday.

Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, approached Amazon with the idea about a month ago. The use of material published over the course of the campaign points to another advantage of digital books: a fast turnaround time.

"Every magazine editor thinks their stuff should be in an anthology, but that's hard to do economically," Meacham said. "Here's a way of doing it more quickly and with virtually no overhead. This is competing in the digital space with our traditional strengths, and that's been hard to do."

News magazines, like newspapers, have struggled financially, with circulation and advertising in decline. The economic downturn has cut deeply into advertising, while the magazines are forced to compete with many sources of information available instantly, and usually free, on the Internet.

The Kindle, introduced in November, costs $359. Amazon offers 180,000 books for wireless download, along with more than 40 newspapers and magazines.

The potential audience may be voracious, but it remains relatively small — Amazon will not say how many Kindles it has sold. Industry analysts have estimated that the figure is in the low hundreds of thousands.

But the experiment is appealing "because anyone who owns a Kindle is someone we want as a reader," Meacham said. "We're putting it in front of committed readers."

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=16893552

Front-Ranger:
Leslie, this information is very interesting...keep it coming!

MaineWriter:
Thank you, Lee! I will!

From Entertainment Weekly, an A review for the Kindle!


Digital Commentary
Reading with Kindle
Can the Kindle sway a book geek? -- A look at whether Amazon's gadget is a worthy replacement for the morning paper


By Rick Tetzeli

Looking forward to a two-month stretch of several long business trips and a vacation, I decided to sacrifice myself for the good of our new tech section and tackle a ridiculous challenge: Could I live for that whole time with just a Kindle, Amazon's electronic-book reader? No books, newspapers, or magazines (save EW, of course!)? The answer seemed obvious: No. I'm a book geek, I've read The New York Times every morning since I was 12, and I make my bones editing a magazine.

Two months later, I have to admit that the Kindle is a pleasure, the best tech gadget I've laid my hands on since the iPod. It's so good that I've found myself humming a dismal version of an R.E.M. tune: It's the end of all print as we know it, and I feel fine. Actually, I wouldn't take things that far. But any device that forces you to start thinking about what a world without books, magazines, and newspapers would actually look like — What will we put on the shelves? Will the magazine racks of the world become (oh, God) kindling? Will my daughter Tal scooter to school down Manhattan streets emptied of newsstands? — must be pretty damn good.

The Kindle is still rare enough that it begs looks and questions in a New York City subway car. So for the uninitiated, let me quickly explain: The Kindle is a white plastic device, measuring 7.5'' x 5.3'' x 0.7'', with a large e-paper screen and a pretty useless keyboard, simple ''next'' and ''previous page'' buttons, and a scroll wheel for navigation. You can download books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs through Amazon's wireless network. The Kindle lets you adjust text size, take notes, click on links within blogs, connect to the Internet, and find definitions via the New Oxford American Dictionary.

That's the catalog blurb, more or less. The real definition is this: Reading on a Kindle is just as good as reading a physical book — but with extra benefits.

I began my two months with a test I knew the Kindle would fail: Could I possibly fall as deep into a great book on the Kindle as I can with a regular book? To find out, I ordered titles from two of my favorite authors, Richard Price (Lush Life) and Andre Dubus III (The Garden of Last Days). While the Kindle's light weight was initially disconcerting, I soon found myself clicking through the novels just as automatically as I once turned pages. On a laptop, the quality of the text and the glare of the screen distract from longer reads. The words on the Kindle, however, somehow have the textured feel of a new hardcover.

That said, the Kindle can't replace books just yet. The Kindle store, your primary source for downloads, is no better stocked with fiction than an average airport bookstore. The prices are good, and you can occasionally nab a cheap, surprising find (the complete poems of John Keats for $3.19!). But there's no guarantee you'll find your favorite best-sellers — and good luck trying to find older titles: I found just 19 of the 50 volumes on EW's list of the top books published since 1983.

The biggest surprise I encountered was in reading some of the newspapers and magazines you can subscribe to (sadly, not EW yet). I now enjoy the Kindle edition of the Times more than the real thing. Yes, I miss the photographs, but honestly (sorry, photo editors!), I don't miss them that much. Since you navigate by clicking through article headlines and blurbs, reading the Times, Newsweek, or Fortune is like reading a blog, only without the headache of a computer screen. I find myself reading more full-length articles, both mainstream features and off-point surprises, than I ever did with the print versions — the experience is totally different; instead of scanning a newspaper spread or busy magazine pages, your eye is focused only on the list of articles, making it easier to find stories you're interested in. And finally, the prices are great: My brother-in-law Mark, who lives in Massachusetts, glommed onto my Kindle during vacation, and loved it so much that he figured out the following ploy (in order to convince his wife that he should buy it): He saw the Kindle for $395, found a promotion that cut $100 off the price, then got a Kindle subscription to The New York Times ($168/year) and dumped their home subscription ($697/year). Satiating tech lust has never been so cost-effective!

Actually, thinking of the Kindle as a tech device is all wrong — for one thing, it's terrible with blogs, since it does a poor, slow job of linking to the Internet from them. The Kindle is really just the next step in reading. For now, it's a great way to travel with books and newspapers and magazines, and the best example yet of how the worlds of deep reading and digital innovation have begun to happily collide. The next logical step is already under way: Amazon is rumored to be working with many colleges across the country to test a college edition of the Kindle. In this future, when Tal scooters to school, she won't be swerving around under the weight of a heavy sackful of books on her back. A

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20232376,00.html

MaineWriter:
Amazon has Kindle giveaways every week or so, so of course I take advantage!

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

Tess is a former physician and lives here in Maine, so I keep up on her writing career. I've read several of her other books so when I saw this was free, I snapped it up. It's a murder mystery. Unfortunately, it's a little bit more gruesome than some of her other books and this distracted me from enjoying the story. There were also a few loose ends that I didn't feel were very well tied up. Overall--okay, but not great. B-

Pefecting Amanda by Bonnie Dee

A case of pretend mistaken identity which turns into trouble for the three main characters: Spencer, Travis, and the eponymous Amanda. The description sounded silly but I actually enjoyed this book a whole lot more than I expected! The writing was good -- not great -- but this isn't meant to be great literature. There were a few hot (het) sex scenes. For escapist entertainment, this fills the bill quite nicely. B+

Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter's Guide to Sarah Palin by Sue Katz

I knew from the title this wouldn't be a sympathetic view of the vice presidential candidate, but I really didn't expect such a hatchet job. How about a tad more objectivity, Ms. Katz? I got about halfway though and gave up in disgust -- and I am not a Palin fan. F

The Surgeon and Perfecting Amanda are available in Kindle versions as well as print. Search at Amazon.com for links. Thanks But No Thanks -- Kindle only. But trust me, you don't want to read it.

L

MaineWriter:
For the holiday weekend, I treated myself to a purchased book and I am glad I did!

Captain's Surrender by Alex Beecroft

Anchors aweigh as the Royal Navy sets sail in 1780 (or so). This is a great story with lively naval battles, a wonderful (gay) romance and some absolutely beautiful writing. If you want real hot m/m action, this might disappoint but if you like romance with some heart wrenching drama -- Captain's Surrender will keep you entertained. One advantage of the Kindle version -- I did not have to look at the awful cover (and believe you me, that's not what I pictured Josh and Peter looking like!). There are a few inconsistencies but nothing dreadful. All in all, a solid A- for this book. It is a worthwhile read.

Available in print and Kindle. Links for both are at Amazon.com.

L

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