Amazing: Jeff Bezos and Amazon Kindle Reader

“Amazon Kindle is the Most Gifted Item Ever on Amazon.com
On Christmas Day, for the First Time Ever, Customers Purchased More Kindle Books Than Physical Books

SEATTLE, Dec 26, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon's history. On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books. The Kindle Store now includes over 390,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases.

"We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading!"

On Amazon's peak day, Dec. 14, 2009, customers ordered over 9.5 million items worldwide, which is a record-breaking 110 items per second.”

Read these incredible Amazon stats.

I sold some of my Kindle books and regular print books during this holiday season.

For those of you who purchased a Kindle Reader and are looking for books to upload, check my variety out on my Kindle Page.

And for those of you without a Kindle, like me, take a look at my print books.

Happy reading....

~Linda

The Unease in the Publishing World

"Nothing endures but change." - Heraclitus

Many authors are moving away from traditional publishing and going to self-publishing. This last month there was outrage in the publishing industry because Harlequin and another publisher now have a branch of their companies dealing in self-publishing.

Kevin Weiss is CEO of Author Solutions, the company who owns the self-publishing companies such as Exlibris, Author House, and iUniverse (who I have published several books with in 2000 and 2002, in addition to putting 12 of my late husband, Don Pendleton’s books back in print with their program in association with the Authors Guild, Inc.).

I’m not necessarily recommending an author choose to go the self publishing route without doing some research of the idea, but as I have written I have been upset by the attitude of publishers and many agents who believe a self-published author is not worthy of regular, traditional publishing and is not a professional. And I am also perturbed by the same attitude of author organizations, such as the Mystery Writers of America, who will not allow membership in the organization unless an author has been published by a company they consider to be a traditional publisher. I consider those attitudes to be elitist and unreasonable.

I must say I agree with what Kevin Weiss states in his video, and in my last blog I talked about Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and the Kindle Reader.

Change is happening in the industry and there is resistance. I doubt we’re going to go backwards so everybody might as well surrender to it instead of fighting it. It is time for change. And readers who are not spending $30 on a hardcover book should be giving publishers a hint. And millions spent on advances, especially celebrity advances, are not being recovered.

Seems there is a message there.

Let's see what 2010 brings....

~Linda

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and the Kindle Reader

Jeff Bezos has always intrigued me with his innovative ideas and visionary approach to his business, Amazon.com, which he launched in 1994. I previously wrote about him and his company here.

When asked in a December, 2009 Newsweek article (by Daniel Lyons) about the success and broadening of his business, Jeff Bezos stated, “We learn whatever skills we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer. The second thing is, we are inventors, so you won't see us focusing on "me too" areas. We like to go down unexplored alleys and see what's at the end. Sometimes they're dead ends. Sometimes they open up into broad avenues and we find something really exciting.

Of course his latest exciting adventure is the successful Kindle reader, but Kindle didn’t happen overnight according to Bezos. He said this about the development of the Kindle: “It's been on the market for two years, but we worked on it for three years in earnest before that. We talked about it for a year before that. We had to go hire people to build a hardware--engineering team to build the device. We had to acquire new skills. There's a tendency, I think, for executives to think that the right course of action is to stick to the knitting—stick with what you're good at. That may be a generally good rule, but the problem is the world changes out from under you if you're not constantly adding to your skill set.”

You see what I mean about a visionary attitude, and the guts to take risks and move forward?

I was somewhat surprised by the stats he gave on the success of the Kindle and his comment that he was “astonished” by the success of the Kindle. “Two years ago, none of us expected what has happened so far. It is [our] No. 1 bestselling product. It's the No. 1 most-wished-for product as measured by people putting it on their wish list. It's the No. 1 most-gifted item on Amazon. And I'm not just talking in electronics—that's true across all product categories. We've spent years working on our physical books business, and today, for titles that have a Kindle edition, Kindle book sales are 48 percent of the physical sales. That's up from 35 percent in May. The business is growing very quickly. This is not just a business for us. There is missionary zeal. We feel like Kindle is bigger than we are.”

Apparently Bezos believes that physical books are on their way out...although he admits he does not know how long that will take but they have had a five hundred year run. He stated, “Given how much change there has been everywhere else, what's remarkable is how stable the book has been for so long. But no technology, not even one as elegant as the book, lasts forever.”

I personally do not have a Kindle yet....maybe one day, but I am so interested because I am now selling 10 items through Kindle (fiction and nonfiction). I am making sales in the two to four months that my works have been available in that format. To hear that the Kindle book sales are nearly half of the Amazon book sales, sounds pretty good to me.

I’ve always get a kick out of Jeff Bezos’ humor and laughter. Maybe his attitude has helped him to succeed and laugh at the obstacles, ups and downs, and challenges along the way.

He seems to be enjoying the journey...

He dares to risk...

Maybe we all need to do more of that.

~Linda

For One More Day, Mitch Albom

Last night I read Mitch Albom’s latest book, "For One More Day." Actually, I read the book in two sittings. I began reading Tuesday night after American Idol, and last night picked it up when I realized I had an hour to spare before American Idol came on. I reluctantly set the book aside to watch Idol and then finished reading it after the show.

I very much enjoyed the story. It is a small book of 197 pages, and is a fast read. Mitch Albom’s writing is an easy style and reminds me somewhat of the easy style of my favorite author, Nicholas Sparks. Albom writes a fascinating and unique tale of a broken, middle-aged man, Charley Benetto who is deeply troubled by regrets, self-doubt, alcoholism, broken family relationships, and on the verge of ending his own life. It is a story about childhood, hopes and dreams, self-doubt, family secrets, forgiveness, and the power of love. It enhances the idea that love lives on after death. At the moment of Charley’s greatest despair, he returns to his childhood home and encounters his mother who has been dead for eight years. It is heartwarming, inspirational, and in the exploration of family relationships and a mother’s love, readers are left with much to ponder about the meaning of family and love in the own lives.

I’ve not read Albom’s previous two books, although I did see the movie, "Tuesday’s With Morrie." His second book, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," has been sitting in my "TO READ" stack, along with Nicholas Sparks’ "Dear John," Dan Brown’s "Angels and Demons," Nora Ephron’s "I Feel Bad About My Neck," Anderson Cooper’s "Dispatches From the Edge," Suze Orman’s "Women and Money," and several others. I may now be motivated to put Albom’s book at the top of my stack!

~ Linda

Linda's Saturday Night Musings

I am excited to have a joint blog with my sister, Nancy. After getting the blog up and going today, my last couple of hours have been spent wondering what to write for my first entry.

I am an author. When asked what I write, my response most often is, "Fiction and nonfiction. My writing goes from flying angels to flying bullets!" I may also then add, "Of course, not usually in the same book."

My writings cover a variety of genres: inspirational/new age nonfiction, mystery/suspense, Comic books, poetry, angel cards, ecourses, and screenplays. A lifelong interest in the fields of metaphysics and the paranormal has influenced my writing and research.

In 1990, the nonfiction book, "To Dance With Angels," coauthored with my husband, renowned author Don Pendleton, was published by Kensington Books, and is now in its fourth edition. The book is a definitive study of life and death and spirit communication and was my first book of several nonfiction books in the area of metaphysics, spirit communication, the paranormal, and self-help.

My fiction includes mystery, suspense, historical novels; Comic adaptation and scripting of two of my late husband’s action/adventure series novels, "The Executioner: War Against the Mafia" and "Death Squad"; screenplay adaptations of several of our novels; and an original screenplay. I recently completed a private eye novel (doing the hard work now of finding a publisher) and am currently at work on two novels. You can read more about my books at my website: http://www.lindapendleton.com

Actually I have three websites, listed below under Favorite Links. My excellent web designer, Judy will probably be thrilled to see I now have a blog so I won’t be bugging her all the time to add to my websites. LOL

I was pleased to learn today that Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was recently inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, 2007. It is too bad she was not given that honor before her passing in August of 2004. She was an incredible woman, and I was lucky enough to have known her personally. Her last book, "On Grief and Grieving," written with David Kessler, completed shortly before her death, is excellent for anyone who has lost a loved one. Her work on death and dying has impacted millions of people and will continue to do so for many years to come.

I was saddened earlier this week to learn of author Sydney Sheldon’s death. I very much enjoyed his novels. His characterization of female protagonists was so good that you’d forget a man had written the book. I heard him speak at the Santa Barbara California Writers Conference in 1983 or 1984. A very interesting man.

Until next time, Linda