emachine12

I use the Kindle app on my iPod Touch to pass time. I really don't use it for leisure use but when stuck in a line, stuck waiting for someone, or stuck period; it works great.

I do wish the Kindle app supported newspaper and magazines but then they would be selling out of their pockets with that option.

darkside

I know this is a common complaint, but I have read ebooks on an LCD screen for 10 years now and I actually find reading on eink to be irritating since it has no backlight and you are limited to black and white text. I think I just got used to it out of necessity since it was the only option for so long, but I have no eye strain or headaches at all and I sometimes read for 2-3 hours in a sitting on my iPod Touch. I will alter the color of text and backgrounds and keep the light at comfortable level when reading though.

I would consider a kindle like device if they would make one the size of an ipod touch, give it some kind of back or side lighting like the new Sony Reader and price it around $100. That is pretty unlikely so I'm sticking withe iPod for now.

al_bundy

Amazon just released an updated Kindle app in ITunes. why would they do it if they cared about their hardware being exclusive?

my guess is that in the next few years we'll see the release of Apple like tablets from various manufacturers. they will be a midpoint between laptop and cell phone. they will be instant on like the iphone and the kindle will just be another app on them.

the kindle is expensive partly due to it's limited user base. once we see more multi-purpose devices that are as large as the kindle for a slightly higher price there will be no point in buying one.

RichardW

"Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!" is available for free. It sucks they don't have the whole Magic Kingdom of Landover series available for the Kindle, but I'll gladly take part 1 for free.

movieking

There is now a Michael Connelly Limited Edition Reader.

Bundle includes:

* An eBook code for one bundle download of three of Michael Connelly's favorite titles: Trunk Music, Echo Park, andLost Light.
* A second eBook coupon code for 30% off any 3 other Michael Connelly eBooks.
* Sneak peak chapters of two of Connelly's new books: Nine Dragons and Scarecrow.
* A letter from Michael Connelly
* A custom embossed Michael Connelly book cover

meglet

Oooh, thanks for posting this. Looks like a lot of Terry Brooks's stuff is on Kindle, so hopefully the rest of the series is coming soon.

Edit: and Landover book 3 is also available for Kindle, so it looks like the whole series should be in the conversion process.

GatorDeb

I think these are smoking deals:

LOTR Trilogy - $12.24

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Tri...6310826&sr=1-1



Night´s Dawn Trilogy - $7.99

http://www.amazon.com/The-Nights-Daw...6310858&sr=1-1

Deke Rivers

ive been eyeballing Nghtsdawn Trilogy..anyone have any opinions on that one?

Ginwen

Sounds interesting. For $8 I'll check it out.

Drop

The price for the Kindle 2 dropped to $299. Anyone biting now? I would if I didn't plan to get a HDTV this month. One will be mine before the end of the year.

innocentfreak

Nope not until the Kindle books drop severely below the price of paperback books. I am talking $1-$2 a paperback or $4-$6 for a new hardback in a Kindle copy. Also they should include Kindle editions with every physical copy you buy to push the device not that they seem to need to since it sells out. Then I would consider one until then I will continue to buy physical copies for cheaper even before I resell them.

Anubis2005X

Still too pricey for me. Maybe in the future when it's like $99.

Steve Phillips

I thought about getting a Kindle for a long time, unsure if I'd like it. I finally did a couple of months ago and I love it. I forget that I don't have a book in my hands, and there is tons of content you can get for free or nearly free. I can't see myself buying many books anymore, and I never, ever thought I'd say that.

Drop

I don't know how you possibly can ever conceive of new books selling that low. How do you expect any publisher or distributor to make money off books that cheap?

The amount of public domain books I would put on their is what's going to justify that price alone.

benedict

I have to wonder how much a publisher grosses from soft and hardback sales before taking out their running costs etc. Methinks there'd be considerable scope for selling e-copies very cheaply as downloads given the much-reduced distributution overheads. And providing an e-copy download with each physical copy seems like a reasonable thing to do.

I'm not saying any of this will happen but I think innocentfreak's point isn't as "out there" as you might imagine i.e. up to a dollar apiece for publisher and author for books that are in softback and double that for premium/just released editions.

jack999

Back in the 50's and 60's I worked in my dad's grocery store and we sold brand new pocket books for 25 and 50 cents. An extra thick PB was 75 cents. Those were the prices printed on the books.

I read a book by Gene Klein (hope I remember the name right), the then order of the San Diego Chargers (where I lived then) and he bragged about how he was the first to realize that consumers would be willing to pay much more for PBs. He jacked up the prices, not based on what they cost him, but on what he thought the market would bare.

I know inflation would have raised the prices since then, but a brand new PB in a bookstore is going to cost you over $7. That's way too much inflation. I believe there is one hellava lot of profit in the price of a PB.

Probably one of the smallest expenses in producing a PB is producing the printed book. Profits to the publisher and author and all the other hands in the pie represent much more of the cost, I believe.

For this reason, it's doubtful you'll save much money buying the kindle version. In fact, for those of use who buy only PBs (used or new) the Kindle represents an increase in price if you buy the book while it's still only available as a hardcover/Kindle edition. Does the price go down for the Kindle edition when the book is released as a PB?

Steve Phillips

It appears that way. Lots of paperback bestsellers in Kindle editions in the $5-6 range, but many others even less, and tons of classics for free.

Jay G.

[QUOTE=jack999;9558981Probably one of the smallest expenses in producing a PB is producing the printed book. [/QUOTE]
Paperbacks have that "if you bought this book without a cover..." warning in the front because when a paperback book doesn't sell, the retailer tears off the cover and mails it back for full credit, destroying the rest of the book. Basically, PBs aren't worth the shipping cost to the publishers.

Ginwen

It took me a while to get into but I'm pretty sucked in now. The thing I don't like as much is that it's a bunch of parallel stories at this point, so I get interested in one and it switches to a different one--in a normal book I'd probably cheat a bit and skip ahead in the stories I like best, not so easy on a kindle.

Also, this sucker is long. I think it'd be around 3000 pages or so. I'm around location 12000 (which is a bit under half the length of the extended version of the stand) and that's 15% of the book.

RichardW

I went to purchase Wicked this morning, but it's no longer available. Damn Amazon!

jack999

You think not being able to buy a book is bad, what about having a book you've already bought being taken from you? Check out this link:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/16865...l_wbx_h_crawl1

benedict

The Orwell/Amazon/Copyright matter already has its own thread - currently on Page One of Book Talk.

Deke Rivers

thanks for your input..im thinking ill just grab it and save for the long winter months ..

Drop

Looks like Barnes and Noble are entering the ebook/reader market. And it seems they are going to have comparable prices and probably a cheaper device. I'm looking forward to what they have and atleast there will be serious competition now, hopefully this will solidify the future of ebooks and the e-ink technology.

al_bundy

when you have to spend money to print paper books then you have to be picky with which books you choose to print.

with Kindle book hosting costs being very low you can sign up more writers and sell for less to increase sales. with electronic distribution you don't need a traditional distributor like Ingram Books. the publisher just uploads the book to Amazon who takes a cut like Apple does in the App Store.