Kindle Blog » e-Books

Amazon capitulates and accept Macmillan’s terms

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:20:09 +0000

Until now, Amazon has set e-book prices with $9.99 as the default for new releases and bestsellers.
But last week, Macmillan changed how they want to price their publications, $12.99 to $14.99 for new released e-books.

On Friday, Amazon removed “buy” buttons from thousands of titles published by Macmillan, including recent bestsellers. Customers who wanted to buy print editions could do so only from third-party sellers. Digital editions made for Amazon’s Kindle device disappeared.

But yesteday, Amazon.com finally surrendered to Macmillan and agreed to raise prices on some e-books.

The Amazon Kindle team announced it on Kindle forum:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

NASA releases first free e-book

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:18:29 +0000

For space geeks looking for e-reading, NASA recently added an e-book section to its publications list and rolled out the first free title for the Kindle and Sony Reader: “X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight” by Dennis R. Jenkins

“Apollo of Aeronautics: NASA’s Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program, 1973-1987″ by Mark D. Bowles will be available soon and more titles are on the way. The agency already has plenty of technical papers, presentations, case studies and other publications on its website that could eventually land in your e-reader.

Source: Wired Science.

Paulo Coelho’s Books Available in Portuguese Exclusively in Kindle Store

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:44:56 +0000

Coelho’s books, including the iconic “The Alchemist,” are now available in the author’s native language for download in under 60 seconds

Amazon.com announced on January, 08 that international bestselling author Paulo Coelho has decided to make 17 of his books, including “The Alchemist,” available in his native Portuguese exclusively for worldwide distribution in Amazon’s Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). This is the first time any of these editions have been available as electronic books, and they will be exclusive to the Kindle Store for six months. Kindle is the most gifted, most wished for and the No. 1 bestselling product across all categories on Amazon.com–not just electronics. The Kindle Store now includes over 400,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases.

“Our customers around the world have long been fans of Paulo Coelho’s books,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president, Kindle Content. “We’re thrilled to work with Mr. Coelho to offer these titles in his native Portuguese in the Kindle Store for download in less than 60 seconds in more than 100 countries around the world.”

Paulo Coelho is the all-time bestselling Portuguese-language author. One of his best-known books, “The Alchemist,” was a No. 1 bestselling title in 74 countries. “The Alchemist” also holds the 2008 Guinness World Record for the most translated book in the world (67 languages in over 150 countries).

“The great opportunity that Kindle offers to a writer is that it allows readers who are not in their country and do not have access to their local bookstores to immediately access texts in their mother tongue,” said Coelho. “Therefore, it is with great joy that I now see all my books in Portuguese, so far only available abroad in a few specialized bookstores, being just a click away from all Portuguese readers that are around the world.”

Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at http://www.amazon.com/kindle. Kindle DX will be released on Jan 19, 2010.

Source: Amazon.