Post #11–Two Women Business–Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

Serendipity Books III by dweekly on Flickr

Earlier today I read a post by Hugh McGuire, entitled “What If the Book Business Collapses?” McGuire started out lamenting the presence of the big box store, the power of stockholders over the book business and the many changes and closings we can expect. I have to admit that my irritation grew with each sentence and woe. Not because I applaud declines in readership or the disappearance of quirky independent booksellers and musty secondhand book shops. Actually I love both. In fact, I met a boyfriend years ago in Santa Barbara through the secondhand book shop. I bought and sold a lot of books in my grad-school days and always put my name inside. This one man kept buying my books. He became so enamored of our similar tastes in history and literature that he tracked me down to my new home in San Francisco. But that’s another story. [click to continue...]

Unless you don’t use Amazon at all, you probably are aware of the Kindle digital book. It’s very cool. The basic unit:

* weighs just 10.3 ounces with a 6? screen capable of 600×800 pixels and gray scale images
* holds more than 200 titles (more memory available)
* has a library of more than 160,000 books, blogs, newspapers, magazines and ebooks available for download
* charges just $9.99 for most books
* handles audiobooks and music as well as text
* uses cell phone technology to link (so you don’t have to find a wi-fi hot spot
* lets you read for about a week on a single charge
* charges you only for what you download, no monthly wireless bills, contracts or service plans
* allows you to annotate text
* makes available free samples and first chapters for your review before buying

But even with all this to commend the Kindle, you may be thinking the price is still too high for you (at $359). Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device Are You Thinking Kindle? But did you know you can get a $100 rebate if you buy with your Visa card? And conventional wisdom suggests the price will continue to fall. Still some readers think it best to wait for Kindle 2.0 to come out before they buy.
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But as writers, you should know that about 250,000 Kindles have been sold. This is a platform you should probably be considering for your book or ebook. Amazon now has a section for authors to go to learn more. So check out the Digital Text Platform and start preparing to publish for Kindle.