The Insomniac Coder

So I just finished a Kindle book, and this is what I saw as the last page: They allow you to rate the book, which also includes the ability to send your rating as a Tweet or Facebook wall post, to which Amazon of course adds a link so others can find the book. On top of that they show you five other books that may interest you, based on the title, and a few more, based on the author. The only mistake in this page is that I own one of these books offered to me. I am sure that it won't take long before Amazon corrects this very small mistake and make this page 100% customized to each and every reader/customer.

Let's recap: Ivette's first Kindle, murdered because she (who blames PJ) sat on it. This was a first generation Kindle. Ivette's second Kindle, sort of died while in her custody. No physical signs of abuse, the thing just turned itself into a brick. I am almost sure this was a Kindle 2.  Ivette's third Kindle, a Kindle 3 Wifi , dead under suspicious circumstances. It looks almost exactly like #1, but she is too willing to blame PJ for it instead of owning up to it. So there we have it, three dead Kindles. Here's #3: Amazon's warranty doesn't cover accidental damage, and a new Kindle Wifi with offers is just $114. Today we have our usual weekly shopping trip with PJ so we picked one up at BJ Wholesale for $109. After sales tax it was $114.45. My "old" Kindle 3 Wifi is now hers: She didn't like that it said "Pedro's Kindle" on the title bar , so I changed it :-) Now, people are curious about what is different about the...

Cover via Amazon Kindle Books Now Outselling Paperbacks at Amazon : "In a statement, CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected – and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.” The company adds that for 2010, it sold 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperback books, and “three times as many Kindle books as hardcovers.” Those numbers don’t include free Kindle books, making the numbers all the more significant." Good news for Amazon, mass publishers and independent publishers that sell for the Kindle platform. Really bad news for anyone that makes a living peddling dead trees. Related articles Kindle Books Now Outselling Paperbacks at Amazon (mashable.com)

Image by pvera via Flickr Cheaper or free Kindle books? While the publisher and Amazon make more money? Sign me up! Seriously. What is my loss here? If my next novel purchase for the Kindle costs me less, and the novel itself is intact, I'll skip through the ads. The publisher makes more money, which means they will keep putting out books for the Kindle. Amazon makes more money, which means the Kindle platform stays alive to fight another day. We all win. Of course, you can bitch and moan about ad barrages, but the other 99% of us out there couldn't give a shit. We like to read, and we know a bargain when we see one.  Just make sure the ads are inserted dynamically and not stored with the books. Oh, and figure out how the hell you are going to make it work when we turn off the wireless in the Kindle (yea, I bet you didn't think of this one). It probably means when the book is delivered it will arrive with a set of default ads, to be rotated at a later date when wireless...