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Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert for Wednesday, June 23: Bulls Island: Free With Bonus Material by Dorothea Benton Frank, and Dozens More

A satisfying tale of honor, chance, and star-crossed love infused with Southern wit, grace, and charm from the New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank

Changing a Troubled Ship
Must Read Related Post:

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Step-by-Step Tip: Amazon & Open Library Collaborate So You Can Send Tens of Thousands of Free eBooks Directly to Your Kindle via Whispernet

 L. Ron Hubbard

Cry Sanctuary: Book 1 of Red Rock Pass series

Two mid-day additions to our updated list of dozens of free Kindle promotional titles:

Violet Dawn

by Dwight “Ike” Reighard 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
(Love Comes Softly Series, Book 1) by Janette Oke 4.8 out of 5 stars (104 customer reviews) 

Here’s the rest of our updated list of free promotional titles in the Kindle Store as of June 23:

iPads and Kindles: It’s Not Either/Or, and Millions Will Own Both

By Stephen Windwalker

With apologies to Soren Kierkegaard and fanboys everywhere, we do not have have to make an either-or choice between the Kindle and the iPad. It’s not Ford vs. Chevy, Celtics vs. Lakers, or Beatles or Stones.

You can have both, and you can love both.

I have both, and I love both.

The day before the Kindle was launched in November 2007, you could have asked 100 people if they wanted a dedicated ereader and none of them would have said yes. Amazon has now sold about 4 million Kindles, and people are buying Kindle books every day and reading them on Kindles, PCs, Macs, BlackBerrys, and, yes, all the i-devices from Apple.

Before Apple announced the iPad, tablet computers were a total non-starter. Now Apple has announced that it sold 3 million iPads globally in its first 80 days.

Now that Amazon has reduced the price of the Kindle to $189, it is easy to see what the future holds. The Kindle, because of catalog, connectivity, and convenience, is the best dedicated ereader. The iPad is well on the way to being the best device for everything else.

Within the next two years, the installed base of Kindles will be over 10 million. For the iPad, the installed base will surpass 25 million. For the iPhone and the iPod Touch, it will surpass 200 million.

And there will be at least 5 million serious readers who own both an iPad and a Kindle.

And there will be entire landfills devoted to laptops and netbooks.

From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: Using a Mighty Bright Light for Reading My Kindle in Bed

Thanks to Kindle Nation citizen and My Real Life Was Backordered blogger DeNae for her comment on our post “Dude, Do I Have to Paint a Picture for You?“:

Honestly, the backlight thing is a reason I haven’t converted to Kindle just yet. (My mother loves hers, if that helps!) Because, yes, I do read at night. And I haven’t yet found a good solution to the whole problem of my needing a good reading light and my husband needing to sleep. So, Anonymous #2, there’s my response. I think it’s a valid thing to want in the product.

Makes good sense to me, DeNae.

We all have different reading styles and approaches, and what’s good for the goose may keep the gander awake nights. I have both an iPad and a Kindle, and while I am more likely to use the iPad if I am reading email in bed, I’m still far more likely to use a Kindle with a booklight if I am reading an ebook. My son gave me a Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Clip-On Light (Kindle Version) last Christmas and it’s a great Kindle accessory that also gets a lot of use for all kinds of nonKindle reading whenever there’s tiny print involved. 

I change the batteries about once every three months, and it works like a charm.

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert for Tuesday, June 22: Three New Business & Leadership Shorts from FT Press, and Dozens More

Changing a Troubled Ship
Must Read Related Post:

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Step-by-Step Tip: Amazon & Open Library Collaborate So You Can Send Tens of Thousands of Free eBooks Directly to Your Kindle via Whispernet

 L. Ron Hubbard

Cry Sanctuary: Book 1 of Red Rock Pass series

Two mid-day additions to our updated list of dozens of free Kindle promotional titles:

Violet Dawn
A new daybook from inspirational author Zig Ziglar and a popular religious novel start the week’s free Kindle Store promotional listings:

by Dwight “Ike” Reighard 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
(Love Comes Softly Series, Book 1) by Janette Oke 4.8 out of 5 stars (104 customer reviews) 

Also, if you are a fan of Kindle Store bargains, don’t miss this weekend post:

Kindle Nation Daily Bargain Book Alert: 15 Great Reads from 79 Cents to $1.99!

Here’s the rest of our updated list of free promotional titles in the Kindle Store as of June 21:

Kindle Readers Get Final Version as Well as Original Author’s Cut of Today’s New Konrath Release, TRAPPED

Related posts: 

J.A. Konrath, King of the Kindlesphere, Gives Big Publishers a Rejection Slip with “Endurance” and “Trapped”

JA Konrath Releases Two Original Kindle Thrillers

Yesterday the citizens of Kindle Nation sent Joe Konrath’s new “Jack Kilborn” terror novel, Endurance, soaring into the top 50 paid bestsellers in the Kindle Store.

Today, you’re the first to learn about another groundbreaking “Kilborn” ebook, Trapped. Here’s what Joe wrote to me in an email about it last night — the only thing I’ve cut out of the email pertains to discussions that Joe and I are having about a special surprise treat that we will be springing on Kindle Nation subscribers next week:

Hi Steve,

TRAPPED, another Jack Kilborn ebook, will be live [Tuesday]. I did something fun with this, and it’s another first.

My publisher really hated the first draft of TRAPPED, and made me do significant changes. I made those changes, adding new characters, cutting scenes, writing new ones. They still thought the book was too extreme. So I found another publisher for it, then wound up turning them down in order to self-publish.

With the Kindle release of TRAPPED, readers are getting both versions. The final, edited version, and the uncut first draft with all the different stuff. It’s sort of like a DVD with special features. And, as always, it’s $2.99.

Joe

Bulletin: Amazon Lowers Kindle Price to $189!

Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6″ Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) 

Big news! Amazon has just lowered the price of the Kindle 2 with 3G global wireless and internal web connectivity to $189. There have been indications today that Kindle inventory may be on the low side, so here’s your link to get a Kindle at this all-time record low price while supplies last!

Here’s the guts of Amazon’s news release today:

AMAZON KINDLE NOW ONLY $189
Still with free 3G wireless–no monthly fees or annual contracts
 

SEATTLE, Jun 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Amazon Kindle, the best e-reader on the market (see this recent press release from the world’s leading consumer reporting organization–http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/2010/06/amazons-kindle-tops-cr-ebook-reader-ratings.html), is now only $189, down from $259. Kindle is the 3G wireless portable reader that allows you to think of a book and be reading in 60 seconds, from wherever you happen to be. Easy to read even in bright sunlight, the 10.2 ounce Kindle is light enough for one-handed reading. Even though it’s a 3G wireless device, Kindle has no monthly fees or annual contracts. The Kindle Store includes over 600,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including 109 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases from $9.99. In addition, over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available to read on Kindle. Since its release, Kindle has been the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon. Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment at the new lower price of $189. Learn more at www.amazon.com/kindle.

J.A. Konrath, King of the Kindlesphere, Gives Big Publishers a Rejection Slip with “Endurance” and “Trapped”

J.A. “Joe” Konrath is no stranger to the citizens of Kindle Nation, whether he is writing under his real name or his “Jack Kilborn” nom de plume. He was one of the first authors to be featured in our Free Kindle Nation Shorts program with his short story “The Screaming” in May 2009, he has been a frequent occupant of the highest rungs of the Kindle Store’s bestseller lists, and he made big publishing news just a few weeks ago with the announcement that his forthcoming novel Shaken, the 7th title in his bestselling Jack Daniels series, will be published by AmazonEncore as a Kindle edition in October and a paperback in February. He has sold over 50,000 Kindle books, and he has a huge following among Kindle Nation readers.

But today he is breaking some serious new ground for authors, publishers, and readers.

What’s the story?

Konrath is issuing a big fat rejection slip to the traditional publishing industry by pulling back Endurance, a “Jack Kilborn” novel that was headed for traditional publication, and publishing it directly and exclusively as a Kindle book at a price, at least for now, of $2.99. 

It’s on my Kindle, and it is available to download wirelessly to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, or Mac with a click of this link.

There will be another Konrath exclusive coming out later this week — Trapped, which had been accepted for traditional publication before Konrath pulled it back to publish it directly and exclusively himself — and we’ll be sure to issue a reminder here.  In addition to being a terrific and versatile author of thrillers, horror tales, and police procedurals, Konrath’s blog about publishing and writing is a must-read for anyone in the book trades, and you can keep up with it at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog, or read Konrath’s similarly titled ebook, The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing (Everything A Writer Needs To Know).

Not every author who decides to circumvent the traditional publishers is going to experience anything close to Konrath’s success. But if you’re an author who is wondering whether direct publishing on the Kindle platform might work for you, here are a few things to consider:

  • If you publish a paperback novel with a traditional publisher, your royalties will be somewhere in the range of 60 cents to $1.50 per copy sold, based on the standard contract royalty rates of 6 to 10 percent and a retail priced between $10 and $15.
  • If you publish a Kindle ebook priced at $2.99 anytime after next week, your royalty will range between $2 and $2.07 based on a 70 percent royalty rate less a small charge for electronic transmission. At a price of $5.99, your royalty would be over $4.10. 
  • How much marketing power would you expect a traditional publisher to throw behind your book, if any? How much could you offset that force with your own marketing efforts and a much lower price?
  • How much would you be limiting your market by publishing on the Kindle platform. Or, to put the same question another way, how many of your likely readers are without any of the following Kindle-compatible devices: Kindle, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, or iPad.