It’s hard to conceive that it’s only been six months since the Amazon Kindle eBook reader was released on November 21st, 2007, just a few days shy of Black Friday, the infamous mega-retail (and now e-tail) day of the year in commemoration of the beginning of the holiday shopping season. The first production run was sold out in 5.5 hours after the announcement according to CEO Jeff Bezos.  Shortly thereafter, it could be found on eBay for $100 over list price. Despite being extremely short in supply during its first six months of life, it is back in stock with free two-day delivery at Amazon. 

This despite all reasons to the contrary, the industry wags branding it with various epithets from ugly to silly to a bit sad.  That hasn’t discouraged consumers, who have wanted something like this for a decade or more:  an eBook reader that made sense.  The Kindle can deliver your blogs and newspapers to you without ever leaving the comfort of your own bed – not even your dog can do that for you. 

Really, once again, it’s the content, stupid!  The Kindle launched with 90,000 titles and by all accounts is adding an astonishing 3,000 titles per month.  Now I’m going to say something really controversial:  the Kindle has leveled the playing field for self-published authors and small presses in a way that has not been since the introduction of the Internet itself.  There is no fee for an author to get their book up on Kindle, once it’s on Kindle it looks just the “same” as all other books by any of hundreds of other publishers.  You can get onboard yourself as an author thru their do-it-yourself site or you can get an experienced team to optimize the reading experience for you, as is offered by Reader Views.

So what are you waiting for?

May 2008
Victor R. Volkman
www.LovingHealing.com

“Redefining what is possible for healing mind and spirit”