I'd like to apoligise for a minor error in last week's newsletter it was in fact from "April" and not "March" as it said in the title. In other news, I myself am thinking of writing a thriller exclusively for the Kindle Store. I already have a vague draft ready and would like to do this for the experience of writing not only a book, but more specifically for the Kindle platform. Also, I have asked Kindle-millionaire-seller Amanda Hocking for an interview which I'd like to publish soon if she can take time out of her busy schedule for that. I'll keep you updated.
Now, after that lengthy introduction, here's the news:
1. Apple to challenge Kindle directly? - Rumours are emerging that Apple may be creating a hybrid-display technology allowing the iPad and other Apple devices to use e-ink technology as well as a standard LCD-screen. In my opinion, this is highly unlikely as the price of having both technologies in one device, as well as the extra space it would require, seems counter-intuitive to me. Read more here.
2. Kindles in libraries - A library in the US in offering e-reader rentals, not e-book but e-reader rentals. They have bought an Amazon Kindle and are offering it to be loaned out with several hundred books on it. The standard library rules apply whereby it must be returned within a certain date. There is a $2 fee per day if you return the Kindle late. Although this sound like a move forward, to me it seems like a backwards step, although more people will get acquainted with the Kindle - it will have to be locked down and shouldn't we just be able to rent books directly to our own Kindles instead of carrying around one that it used by many others. Original article here.
3. Searches for "Kindle" on Google soar - After the New York Times Paywall rose, and they announced that Kindle subscribers get free acccess to the online edition for $20 a month, searches for the device have increased by 40%. The independent has the full story here.
4. Users angry at Kindle book prices - US users are very angry with publishers in the US as they have started leaving 1-star reviews on Amazon books. The movement started as a result of people noticing that certain Kindle books are more expensive than their print counterparts and were being sold at $14.99 - roughly £9.10. I guess we're lucky here in the UK, although there are certain books which are more expensive on Kindle the majority of e-books are cheaper. And around 75% of the Kindle best-sellers are £1 or less and none are above £7. CNET has more.
Cheap e-books:
Rated 5 stars average from 1 review
Synopsis: "This file includes the complete text of: Desperate Remedies, 1871; Under the Greenwood Tree, 1872; A Pair of Blue Eyes, 1873; Far From the Madding Crowd, 1874; The Hand of Ethelberta, 1876; The Return of the Native, 1878; Wessex Tales, 1879; The Trumpet-Major, 1880; A Laodicean, 1881; Two on a Tower, 1882; The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid, 1883; A Changed Man and Other Tales, 1885; The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886; The Woodlanders, 1887; Tess of the d'Urbervilles, 1891; A Group of Noble Dames, 1891; Life's Little Ironies, 1891; Jude the Obscure, 1895; The Well-Beloved, 1897; and The Dynasts, 1903."
Rated 4.5 stars average from 18 reviews
Synopsis: "LONDON AND BERLIN, 1946. The perfect partnership - gang-busters by day, lovers by night… Danny McRae, private detective scraping a living in ration-card London.
Eve Copeland, crime reporter, looking for new angles to save her career. It’s an alliance made in heaven. Until Eve disappears, a contact dies violently and an old adversary presents Danny with some unpalatable truths. His desperate search for his lover draws him into a web of black marketeers, double agents and assassins, and hurls him into the shattered remains of Berlin, where terrorism and espionage foreshadow the bleakness of the Cold War. And Danny begins to lose sight of the thin line between good and evil…"
Rated 5 stars average from 14 reviews
Synopsis: "Anna who is attending a ten year school reunion hosted by the ex school bully. Can she find a willing man to accompany her to the bash or will she have to turn up alone and face the girls who once made her life hell?"
Free books: (There's a nice variation this week)
Rated 5 stars average from 1 review
Synopsis: "Pat Nolan, an American man, is summoned to Paris to claim the body of his estranged daughter Megan, who has committed suicide. The body, however, is not Megan's and it becomes instantly clear to Pat that Megan staged this, that she is in serious trouble, and that she is calling to him for help.This sends Pat on an odyssey that stretches across France and into the Czech Republic and that makes him the target of both the French police and a band of international terrorists. Joining Pat on his search is Catherine Laurence, a beautiful but tormented Paris detective who sees in Pat something she never thought she'd find--genuine passion and desperate need. .A World I Never Made is an atmospheric novel of suspense with brilliantly drawn characters and back-stories as compelling as the plot itself. It is the kind of novel that resonates deeply and leaves its traces long after you turn the final page."
Rated 4 stars average from 3 reviews
Synopsis: "The three-century, on-and-off-again romance between Jazz, a witch, and Nicholas, a vampire cop, takes an all new turn when Nick enlists Jazz's help to track down a maniacal serial killer with his own supernatural powers. Original."
Rated 4 stars average from 26 reviews
Synopsis: "It's all very well having a stunning website, but what if browsers can't find you? What if you're not visible on the main search engines, and on Google in particular? Making your site Google friendly or employing SEO should be a priority because if you don't rank on those results you may as well not have a website at all - it's that serious. Get into bed with Google can help you optimise your website. The 52 brilliant ideas contained within are canny and quick fixes that should result in immediate benefits to your site. This second edition of the bestselling Get into bed with Google contains new material on social networks and Google analytics that will catapult readers' websites to the top of search results pages. Simply brilliant."
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That's it for this week - I have one small favour to ask which is that if you have 30 seconds please can you fill our our reader survey here - it means I can target the newsletter better to you the readers. It is free and really will help the newsletter. Thanks and see you next week!
- Giovanni
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