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F. Paul Wilson’s SciFi Classics from the LaNague Federation Series Get the Exclusive Treatment in the Kindle Store, for Just $2.99 Each!

Amazon has just announced that the five science fiction classics that comprise F. Paul Wilson’s LaNague Federation series are available for the first time in ebook format, and will be found exclusively in the Kindle Store for one year.

And here’s Amazon’s news release:

New York Times Bestselling Author F. Paul Wilson Makes Electronic Editions of Five of His Books Available Exclusively in the Kindle Store
 
Previously out-of-print and award-winning LaNague Federation series available for the first time electronically
 
SEATTLE, Mar 23, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that renowned horror and science-fiction author F. Paul Wilson has decided to make the five books in his LaNague Federation series available exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). This is the first time any of these books have been available electronically, and the five books will be exclusive to the Kindle Store for one year. Wilson chose to use Amazon’s self-service Digital Text Platform to upload these books and make them available to Kindle customers around the world. “One of the great things about Kindle is the ability for authors to make previously out-of-print titles available for their readers again,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “For the first time ever, F. Paul Wilson’s fans will be able to discover their favorite titles electronically, and new fans can find these previously out-of-print titles more easily than ever before.”
The titles from the LaNague Federation series are:

  • “An Enemy of the State,” winner of the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award
  • “Wheels Within Wheels,” winner of the first Prometheus Award
  • “The Tery”
  • “Dydeetown World,” on the American Library Association’s list of “Best Books for Young Adults” and on the New York Public Library’s recommended list of “Books for the Teen Age”
  • “Healer,” winner of the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award

F. Paul Wilson is a New York Times bestselling author who has won the Stoker, Inkpot, Porgie and Prometheus awards. He has written more than 40 books in genres that include science fiction and horror, and his books have been translated into 24 languages. His work has been adapted for film and TV: his novel “The Keep” was made into a 1983 film directed by Michael Mann, and many of his stories have been adapted into teleplays that have aired on Showtime and the Sci-Fi Channel (now called SyFy). 

“I’m thrilled that I’m able to make all five novels of the LaNague Federation series – including an additional five bonus short stories – available for the first time in digital, and for the first time all together as a series,” said F. Paul Wilson. “The result is a giant roman à thèse exclusively for Kindle readers. It’s wonderful that Kindle and the Digital Text Platform provide a convenient channel for authors like me to reintroduce classic titles to a whole new audience.” 


The Kindle Store now includes over 450,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York TimesBestsellersand New Releases. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle, including titles such as “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Treasure Island.” 


Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at www.amazon.com/kindle. Amazon’s Digital Text Platform can be accessed at http://dtp.amazon.com.

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert: Start with Inkmesh to Find and Download Over a Hundred Free Books from Baen

Baen Books is a well-respected indie science fiction publisher that has been around for over 25 years, and the company has been in the forefront among publishers who understand and play well with the ebook revolution.

Baen regularly offers free promotional ebooks in a very successful effort to inspire reader interest in other books that are offered for a price, and the publisher is currently offering over 100 free Kindle-compatible books from its website. In every case they are:

  • easy to find;
  • easy to download to your PC or Mac;
  • easy to transfer to your Kindle; and
  • easy to read on your Kindle, Kindle for PC, or Kindle for Mac.

Before you start, if you are going to download any of these books to your computer, make sure that you have downloaded and registered the Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac app to your computer; it’s free, easy, and it will make it easier for you to manage and organize free book downloads like these in the future. You can find links for all of the Kindle’s current and future free device apps downloads in the left sidebar on this Kindle Store page.

I recommend starting with this Inkmesh link to find the list of free books from Baen: http://bit.ly/FreeBaenBks. Once you see the Inkmesh list on the screen of your PC or Mac (as in the screenshot at right), just follow these steps:

  • Right-click or COMMAND+click on a title that interests you.
  • On the individual title’s Inkmesh detail screen, click on the link in the line that reads “Get it from Baen WebScriptions for free!”
  • On the book’s Baen Books page, you will have a choice between emailing the book directly to your Kindle via the Whispernet, which in virtually all cases involving a Kindle located in the U.S. will cost you 15 cents for Amazon’s email services, or downloading it for free to your computer in a pre-formatted Kindle-compatible file provided by Baen.
  • If you choose to download the book to your computer just click on the link that looks like this under the heading “Download Unzipped Files.” You also have the option of downloading a zipped file, but at today’s download speeds this seems an unnecessary step given that most ebook files are far less than a megabyte. The download should begin immediately with the usual caveats about making sure you trust the source of the file. Baen’s been around twice as long as Amazon and is deserving of your trust.
  • If you are downloading a book to your Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac app for the first time, you may be prompted to select the application that you choose to have open “files like this,” and you should select the Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac app. Once you’ve made this selection and responded appropriately to prompts along the way, your copy of the ebook will open in the Kindle app environment right on your computer. 
  • Once you take a look at the ebook and decide that you want to be able to read it on your Kindle, if you have a Kindle, just connect the Kindle to your computer via USB, locate the book file in your “My Kindle Content” folder within your computer’s “My Documents” folder (or a similarly named folder), and you can drag and drop it easily into your Kindle’s documents folder.
  • If you choose to email the book directly to your Kindle, click on the “Email book to my Kindle” and you’ll see a pop-up screen like the one at the right, prompting you to add the address suffix @webscription.net to your “Your Kindle approved e-mail list”on your Amazon Kindle Manger [sic], by which they actually mean your Manage Your Kindle page at Amazon.com. Once you take these steps, enter the address for your Kindle device in the appropriate field and click “Send,” you should see a message like this one, and the book should show up on your Kindle’s Home screen:

The file [northworld_trilogy.mobi] was sent to your Kindle at [you@kindle.com]

Good luck!

The latest issue of our free weekly Kindle Nation email digest is now live on the web! March 23, 2010 – Volume II, Number 13

Click Here to Read the Entire Issue Online
Coming Soon, and Inspiring Some Questions: Kindle for iPad and Other Tablets
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Creating a Picture Album on Your Kindle
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Printing a Recipe from Kindle for Mac
On David Baldacci’s “Writer’s Cut” and eBooks: When Is the Book Itself “the Whole Shebang?”
Free Book Alert: New Free Listings and Pre-Orders
A Heads Up on Some Great Kindle Blogs
From the Shameless Plug Department: Using Kindle for Mac or PC to Get the Most Out of Windwalker’s Kindle Guide
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Understanding the Kindle Store Bestseller Lists
Amazon Touts “Great Books for Cooks and Epicures” on the Kindle
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Zooming in on Graphics with Kindle for Mac
Free Book Alert: How to Access Millions of Free Books in Seconds from Anywhere in the World
From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: How to Make Sure You Are Receiving Your Kindle Nation Daily Subscription
Categories Uncategorized Tags

From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: How to Make Sure You Are Receiving Your Kindle Nation Daily Subscription

Thanks to Kindle Nation subscriber Ruth R for writing in about this problem:

Hi Stephen,
Would you please let me know why I have not received any daily updates in my kindle? Is it something I am doing or not doing?
Thank you,
Ruth
Ruth, unfortunately there is a recurring problem that Amazon has promised to fix through a firmware update. Although the problem can affect any Kindle blog, Kindle Nation Daily may be more vulnerable to it because of the frequency of our posts, which average about three a day.  (One way to determine for sure if you’ve been missing posts on your Kindle is to have Amazon send the blog to your Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac App following the instructions located here, and compare notes).
We’re still waiting for the Amazon fix, but meanwhile, here’s a do-it-yourself solution that should only take a couple of moments:

From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Make Sure You Are Receiving Your Kindle Nation Daily Subscription

If you are a subscriber and you ever notice you’ve gone a couple of days without receiving your Kindle Nation Daily posts on your Kindle, I suggest following these steps:

  1. Try a system restart using the steps below (rather than holding the Kindle power switch to the right). In many cases this will resolve some minor issue that is blocking new blog content from downloading wirelessly to your Kindle. (Here’s a previous post on this subject). Then use the Home screen menu to select “Sync & Check for Items.” If all is well, you should see the blog on your Kindle home screen within an hour or two.
  2. If that doesn’t work, go to your Manage Your Kindle Subscriptions page and make sure that Kindle Nation Daily shows up in the listing of Your Active Kindle Subscriptions. If Kindle Nation Daily shows up under Your Inactive Kindle Subscriptions, click the “reactivate subscription” link to the right of the listing. You may have to update credit card information.
  3. If another hour passes and you still haven’t received fresh Kindle Nation Daily posts on your Kindle, contact Kindle Support via the web or by calling 1-866-321-8851. To ensure that the support personnel on the other end aren’t confused, I suggest giving them the exact name and ASIN number of the blog (Kindle Nation Daily – B0029U1A08), and insisting that you know other customers — like me, for instance — who are receiving new posts.
I hope this helps, and please let me know if you’re still having problems afterward!

Step-by-Step: Kindle System Restart
  1. Make sure your Kindle is on.*
  2. Disconnect the Kindle from the USB or Power Adapter cable.
  3. Press the Home button on the right edge of the Kindle.
  4. From the Home screen, press the Menu button on the right edge of the Kindle.
  5. Select “Settings” from the Home Menu.
  6. From the Settings page, press the Menu button again.
  7. Select “Restart” from the Setting Menu.
  8. Wait a couple of minutes for your Kindle to Restart, then give your Kindle another few minutes to update files, blog posts, etc.

*If your Kindle does not come on, or seems frozen, connect it via its Power Adapter to a wall outlet and give it an hour to re-energize itself.

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert for Monday, March 22, 2010: A New Amazon Book on How to Publish a Kindle Book, and Over 2 Million Other Free Books!

Downloading? Uploading? More and more Kindle owners are doing both, and this morning Amazon has launched a new free book that is clearly aimed at encouraging thousands of established, emerging, and brand new authors to publish their work directly on the Kindle platform. This is a very brief and rudimentary introduction to using the Kindle Digital Text Platform, but it makes sense for Amazon to use a free ebook to help build interest among current and prospective authors.

Product Details
by Amazon.com (Kindle Edition – Mar. 14, 2010)Kindle Book
Buy: $0.00
“Free” in the Kindle Store refers, for now, to the price for download to US-based Kindles. Amazon adds various charges for Kindles based beyond US borders.
 

Coming Soon: Kindle for iPad and Other Tablets

As we’ve been saying, Kindle Apps are coming soon for tablet computers like the iPad, the Dell Mini 5 “Streak,” and other releases, and this morning Amazon has added one more official indication with a new page on the Kindle site. No big surprises here, but here’s what Amazon has to say about the coming apps:

Experience the Beautiful User Interface

  • Get the best reading experience  available on your tablet computer including the iPad. No Kindle required
  • Tailored to the size, look, and feel of your  tablet computer
  • Customize background  color and font size to ease eye strain
  • Adjust  screen brightness from within the app to make reading easier
  • Page turn animation replicates the look of  turning a page in a book. Or choose Basic Reading Mode for a simpler and  unadorned reading experience

Read Kindle Books on Your Tablet Computer  Including the iPad

  • Amazon’s Whispersync technology  automatically synchronizes your last page read, bookmarks, notes and  highlights with Kindle and Kindle-compatible devices  PC, Mac, iPhone, and BlackBerry
  • Customers can start reading on one device and,  on another, pick up where they left off
  • Already have a Kindle? Access your Kindle books even if you  don’t have your Kindle with you
  • Create  bookmarks, notes, and highlights, and view the annotations you created  on your Kindle

Shop for Books in the Kindle Store

  • Search and browse more than 450,000  Kindle books, including 101 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers. If you  are a non-U.S. customer, book availability may vary
  • Get free book samples–read the first chapter  for free before you decide to buy
  • Books  you purchase can also be read on a Kindle and Kindle-compatible devices

Waiting for the iPad: What’s the Real Scoop on iBooks and VoiceOver?

Early Saturday morning I pre-ordered an iPad, which will arrive here at my home on April 3. I went back and forth for a week about whether to hold out for the far more expensive 3G version that does not ship until late April, but finally decided that since 95 percent of my iPad use would likely occur in locations with wifi, I could go the “economy” route. (I’ll have a little more to say tomorrow about the expense of iPad ownership.)

I expect to get a lot of use out of the iPad, from occasionally writing Kindle Nation Daily posts and other material to enjoying music and film to using the Kindle for iPad app to read of the hundreds of ebooks that I have purchased, and will continue to purchase, from the Kindle Store.

I have plenty of questions about the iPad, many of which I probably won’t be able to answer to my own satisfaction until I have it in my hands. But for now the two questions that are foremost on my mind concern specific functionality issues with the Kindle for iPad app and with Apple’s new “iBooks on iPad” ebook store and reading software:

  • First, will the Kindle for iPad app be more like the Kindle for iPhone app or like the Kindle for Mac app? The Kindle for iPhone app allows me to make my own notes and highlights in a Kindle document, which is nice, but those features are supposed to be in the works for the Kindle for Mac app. Frankly, I would prefer that the Kindle for iPad app come with the Kindle for Mac’s capacity to allow me to maintain and read any Kindle-compatible books and documents that I can download from sources such as the Internet Archive, the Project Gutenberg Magic Catalog, Instapaper, Calibre, or (through Amazon’s conversion service) my own sources. While much of what has been written about the iPad makes it out to be a supersized iPod Touch, I’m hoping to find that, consistent with its apparent capacity to work like a tablet computer with iWorks files and other files, it might be more of an undersized Mac. We’ll see, and in the process we’ll see what it can do with a Kindle app.
  • Second, I’m very curious to find out whether the iPad’s VoiceOver actually works like the Kindle’s text-to-speech, as some reports have suggested based on this sentence from the iBooks page in the Apple Store: “iBooks works with VoiceOver, the screen reader in iPad, so it can read you the contents of any page.” That sounds interesting, but frankly it does not sound like the Kindle’s text-to-speech, which can read me the contents of any book, except, of course, for the many books on which publishers have disabled text-to-speech. There’s a big difference, whether you are listening to a book being read aloud on a long drive or as you drift off to sleep, between a reading-aloud process that keeps reading page after page and one that has to be re-set for each page. I have to assume that if VoiceOver could read an entire book aloud, Apple’s marketing staff would have been up to the task of sharing that information a bit more explicitly. On the other hand, if VoiceOver is really just a one-page-at-a-time deal, I wonder if Apple’s copywriters have somehow been trying to fudge that performance issue in something like the way Barnes & Noble copywriters overstated the Nook’s ebook lending feature and understated its weight back in late 2009. Either way, I hope Apple can clear it up right away.

There are other questions about VoiceOver, of course, and the two most prominent for me right now are:

  • Will VoiceOver be uniformly enabled by all iBooks publishers, or will it be blocked by the same publishers who have disabled text-to-speech on their Kindle ebooks?
  • Is VoiceOver a universal feature on the iPad and thus one that we might expect to be able to use while reading with the Kindle for iPad app?

Just a few questions while I wait for a shiny new toy that I am convinced will also help me work more efficiently.