We’re thrilled to announce that Cyndi Collins is the winner of a brand new Kindle 3G in the first-ever Kindle Nation Kindle Giveaway Sweepstakes! Make sure you and your friends and family “Like” our Kindle Nation Facebook page so that you’ll get immediate notification of the next chance to win a free Kindle and more!
deals
Update on the New KINDEAL: So Far At Least, Kindle Deals Are Like a License to Print Money!
I mentioned in a post on Friday that in the first 24 hours with my new Kindeal, I was up $35.
Forty-eight hours later, the tally is up to $45, because today I responded to my Kindeal’s offer of a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10.
Here’s the only tally that counts on these Kindle deals, in my view:
- Cost of a Kindle Wi-Fi at Time of My Kindeal Purchase: $139
- Direct Savings with Kindeal, as of May 11, 2011: $45.00
- Number of Times a Kindeal Ad Has Interrupted My Reading: 0
Note to Amazon: I have no plans to buy a Buick or hundreds of dollars worth of Olay products, but keep those deals coming where I get what is essentially currency for half price and I’m your guy! At this rate, the Kindeal may save me $139 and pay for itself before it is one month old!
But that doesn’t mean that the Kindeal is the best deal currently on the table for a new Kindle. It’s strictly up to you, and here are the contenders including special “Mother’s Day” Gft Card deals:
On the New $114 Kindle with Special Offers, The World is Made Up of Two Kinds of People
The world, or at least the Kindlesphere, may be made up of two kinds of people:- those who will like the “new” $114 Kindle with Special Offers
; and
- those who will not want any part of it.
If you are a fan of Groupon, Living Social, Woot, or the Amazon Deal of the Day, but you also love to read and you don’t want to be distracted by advertising while you are reading an ebook, the Kindle with Special Offers could be just right for you.
But if you have ever spent a significant amount of time getting yourself on “Do Not Call” lists or filing spam reports or complaining to your public radio station that you don’t want to send their expensive roses to anybody on Valentine’s Day, it might be best for you to choose another Kindle or stick with the Kindle you already have.
Actually, there are probably still plenty of people in the “undecided” column, and I can say from personal experience that there are probably quite a few people in both of the camps I tried to describe above. There will be plenty to sort out with this latest Kindle, which is a good reason why we have been listening to our readers’ views and making our own notes over the past few days in an effort to share some useful information and perspective.
First, let’s make it clear what we are talking about here: On Monday afternoon, Amazon announced what it called a “new” Kindle, at a new (and rather strange) price of $114. The hardware and wi-fi connectivity is identical to the $139 latest generation Kindle Wi-fi model
Here’s a link to the bulletin post that we ran at the time, which included Amazon’s press release:
Like many of Amazon’s business innovations, regardless of whether they are Kindle-related, the new offering has generated significant controversy in the early going among bloggers and visitors to various online forums. Much of the controversy revolves around just what Amazon means by Special Offers:
- Do special offers mean advertising, or do they mean deals?
- If they mean one thing now, will they come to mean another thing later?
- Whatever these special offers are, where will they show up on the Kindle — on screensavers, on the Home screen, or — Heaven forfend! — in our Kindle books? (For the record, despite some mischievous disinformation in the blogosphere on this issue, Amazon has made it clear that there will be no encroachment into books).
The day after Monday’s announcement I posed this question on the Kindle Nation Facebook page:
What do you think of the new Kindle for $114? Do the “special offers” make it more, or less, appealing? If you already have a Kindle, do you wish you had waited for this one?
We had about 30 responses in the short period of time the question was front and center on our Facebook page, and I felt they did justice to the things that large numbers of people were thinking.
- Melanie R. I think it is an intriguing concept. It is the first technology I know of that gave a choice regarding accepting advertising. My initial reaction was to reject it; but after reading more about it, I wish that it was available in 3G. I don’t want a wifi only kindle, but I would like to take advantage of the special offers.
- LaToya A. I think the special offers may be more appealing to some, but besides the $20 giftcard for $10, I don’t care for much else. The sponsered screensavers does intrigue me and I am wondering if it will be available on all Kindles…
- Eddie N. Less appealing. Savings isn’t worth the hassle of ads, sponsored screen savers, etc. For $50…maybe. For a small fraction less…and wifi only…I’ll pass. But thanks for trying ?:^)
- Lennette W. I love my WiFi+3G Kindle 3 just the way it is!!! As for the Special Offers, I hope that they offer it to the rest of us! They sound very interesting!!!
- Connie E.The ads are a turnoff. Wouldn’t be worth it to me. I LOVE my Kindle 3 just as it is.
- Juana L. This is a BAD idea. When I read on my kindle, I want to enjoy my books. Not ads. For ads, I could be watching tv.
- Marianne S. Oh no! I want that part of my life ad-free!! Would never EVER consider it for money!
- Donna D. I LOVE my Kindle but I don’t know if I could put up with the ads as I don’t like them on my TV. My Kindle takes me away from all of that!
- Sarah H. I would pay money not to have to look at Emily Dickinson again. I vote for screensaver bundles we could buy. I would do that in a heartbeat. Or give us the option of making book covers of the books we purchase our screensavers.
- Mike D. No ads for me thanks … but I’m in favor of the idea. For many people the price of a Kindle is a deal breaker, and I’m all for anything that softens the blow.
- Wendy H. I’ve already got a Kindle, but I think it might be a nice way for people to save a little money on one. I personally wouldn’t care if there was an ad on the screen saver/ home page as long as I could get to my book without delay. I’m with @Sarah H. above – I’d love some new screen savers. John Steinbeck is starting to give me the creeps…
- Ruth N. With so much advertising all around us every day, I am so glad my Kindle DX is AD FREE. worth the extra $$ not to be sold to all the time.
- Dwight J. As long as the ads never show up while I’m reading or playing a game, I don’t mind ads on the screensaver and home page. If this was available when I got my Kindle, I’d have jumped at the savings.
- Jaime A. Too small of a price break for ads, which would be a huge disruption in a book.
- Bill T. Not interested in ads. Think this devalues the Kindle.
- Debbie S.the ads are just like the screensavers, it’s no big deal. It’s not going to interrupt your reading with a commercial. The price cut just made this more affordable to a lot more people and thats a good thing. Screensaver bundles to buy…maybe, but when I pick up my Kindle I have it switched on before the cover is all the way open so I never really see much of the screensaver at all.
- Debbie T. I would like new screensavers for my kindle, tired of the ones that keep showing up, how about some different bundles, themed art or how about book covers of the books we have on the kindle, they could be screensavers and the more we buy the more screensavers we have
- Pat M. If someone bought this for me as a gift, I wouldn’t be very happy especially when I know there is a perfect Kindle without advertising that they could have purchased for me. A gift of this Kindle just tells me how cheap the person giving the gift really is.
As for me, I’m inclined to think of the Kindle with Special Offers as sort of “half brilliant.”
I guess that I see kind of a strange fault line in public sentiment on marketing. All of us boomers who grew up on commercial-cluttered network TV have managed to train ourselves and each other to hate spam with evangelical fervor, but the successes of eBay and Amazon Marketplace and Groupon and Woot and LivingSocial all prove pretty clearly that there are also huge numbers of us who loooooove deals, especially deals that dress us up in some sort of “Members Only” jacket. It can be hard to keep the distinctions straight — for instance, the old prohibitions against advertising by public radio and television stations and doctors and lawyers certainly can’t be said to exist in the same ways any more.
Groupon has certainly proven there’s a business model there, so now Amazon’s taken the natural next step after investing in Living Social and Woot, and come up with a Kindle offering that — whatever else it may be — is a delivery system for such offers. I do believe that part is brilliant in terms of the total concept, and I expect that within a year we owners of all the other Kindles will be given a chance to opt in to special offers. And many will opt in. After all, as a member of Groupon and LivingSocial I can say that once or twice a week or so I see deals offering 50 to 60% off of what I would willingly pay for things that I actually want.
But the flip side here is that Amazon has been a little tone deaf in the roll-out.
- First, a lot of existing Kindle owners are understandably upset because they have been asking Amazon to allow personal screensaver selections without forcing people to hack their Kindles to get there (under threat of warranty revocation), and now Amazon is doing something on screensavers that has little if anything to do with what folks were asking for.
- Second, there’s too much stumbling language in their description of the new Kindle with Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers
But I understand that there’s a delicate balance that Amazon is trying to achieve here. As is evident from some of the responses above that people posted on our Facebook page, there will be plenty of people who buy this new Kindle in order to save $25. Some of them will be fine with the special offers and sponsorships, and some will quickly become fed up.
There are plenty of smart people who are saying “Maybe I would bite if the discount were $50.” And a lot of us wondered why Amazon hadn’t dropped the price to $99, which would obviously be a much more appealing price point.
But that’s exactly what Amazon did not want to do, at least not right off the bat. If they get a lot of people buying the “new” Kindle only because of the price break, those folks will have a higher resistance and a more negative response to the special offers. If, on the other hand, most of the people who buy the “new” Kindle are interested in or intrigued by the deals, and Amazon starts out with a fantastic array of specials in the first couple of weeks, the Kindle with Special Offers is likely to be a great success in at least two ways:
- It will continue to broaden the base of Kindle users.
- It will provide an effective and popular delivery system for Living Social, Woot, and the Amazon Deal of the Day.
The “new” $114 Kindle with Special Offers won’t ship until May 2 or 3, and that three-week shipping gap will give Amazon a chance to pay close attention to the response and tweak the user experience if they are so inclined. But for all of us who are wondering where this will lead, we’ll just be guessing until customers actually have the “new” Kindles in their hands.
As for me, I tend to be a grumpy curmudgeon with respect to most advertising. I am channeling Mr. Ashley, whose lawn I used to mow on Saturday afternoons when I was 12. He was a great guy, well into his 70s, and it seemed like he popped Nitroglycerine every 20 minutes for his angina. When I finished his lawn he’d give me $1.25 and invite me for a cold lemonade and a few innings of the Red Sox game. I had never seen a remote control device before and I was amazed to see him mute the beer ads between innings. And the car ads, andsoforth. Like Mr. Ashley, now, I game the system, mute the ads, use the DVR, try to block out ads when I am at the movie theater, block pop-ups on my computer, use the spam filter on the Viagra ads, etc.
But I know quite a few smart, serious people who are addicted to Groupon and LivingSocial and scarf up more coupons than they will ever use. What they love are deals that 
are suited to them, I guess. They don’t think of them as ads or spam, and they don’t spend much time fine-tuning the analogies with respect to what is or is not like TV advertising or NPR underwriting or whatever. It’s just beyond most of our bandwidth to worry much about that.
And what most of us do with ads and spam and deals and offers is define our own boundaries, and since the “new” Kindle is opt-in, I’ll be surprised if many actual customers end up being upset with their actual experience, as opposed to what they fear it may be leading to, or what they hear about it in the media, etc.
Which is why I still think it is half-brilliant. And I’m intrigued. And I haven’t ruled out pulling the trigger on one. After all, if I’d had the “new” $114 Kindle with Special Offers in hand this morning, it probably would have told me about the Amazon Deal of the Day … the today-only price cut from $379 to $299 on the latest-generation Kindle DX!
Kind of makes you wonder what’s coming next month, doesn’t it? Which may be the biggest cause of friction for Amazon’s efforts to sell either the $114 Kindle or the $299 DX.
Bulletin: Amazon Cuts Price of Kindle DX from $379 to $299, Today Only
Major Price Cut Today Only on Latest Generation Kindle DX! Marked Down from $379 to $299 Until Midnight Tonight – This is the 9.7″-inch display model, Graphite, with Free 3G – And did I mention it is today only? (Because it is Amazon’s Deal of the Day)
Click here to get the Kindle DX for $299 – Today Only — April 15, 2011
All New, High Contrast E Ink Pearl Screen: Our graphite Kindle DX display uses the latest generation E Ink Pearl technology with 50% better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images
Beautiful Large Display: The 9.7″ diagonal E Ink screen is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs
Read in Sunlight with No Glare: Unlike backlit computer or LCD screens, Kindle DX’s display looks and reads like real paper, with no glare. Read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room
Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines
Books In Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
Free 3G Wireless: No monthly payments, no annual contracts. Download books anywhere, anytime
Long Battery Life: Read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for two to three weeks.
Carry Your Library: Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents
Buy Once, Read Everywhere: Kindle books can be read on all your devices. Our Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your Kindle library and last page read across your Kindle(s), PC, iPhone, Mac, iPad, Android device, and BlackBerry device
Share Meaningful Passages: Share your passion for reading with friends and family by posting meaningful passages to Twitter and Facebook directly from your Kindle
Global Coverage: Enjoy wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries. See details. Check wireless coverage map.
Built-In PDF Reader: Carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go. Now with Zoom capability to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics
Auto-Rotating Screen: Display auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages
Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable
Large Selection: Over 900,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including 107 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. For non-U.S. customers, content availability and pricing will vary. Check your country.
Out-of-Copyright, Pre-1923 Books: Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available to read on Kindle, including titles such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island. Learn more
Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases from $9.99.
Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy
Did you ever want a blowtorch for a finger? Meet Sybil Nelson’s Priscilla the Great, an ordinary 7th grader with amazing powers – 10 straight 5-star reviews for just $2.99 makes it our Kindle eBook of the Day!
Here’s the set-up for Sybil Nelson’s Priscilla The Great:
Did you ever want a blowtorch for a finger?
Meet Priscilla Sumner, an ordinary seventh grader with extraordinary gifts. As if middle school isn’t hard enough, not only does Priscilla have to fight pimples and bullies, but she has to deal with genetically enhanced assassins trying to kill her and her family.
Armed with wit, strength, and a genius best friend, Priscilla must defeat the Selliwood Institute, a mysterious organization with a mission of turning children into killing machines.
About the Author:
Sybil Nelson lives in Charleston, SC. She is a former math teacher and has a master’s degree in mathematics from the College of Charleston and bachelor’s degrees from Washington and Lee University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in biostatistics and continues to write in her spare time. To date, Sybil has completed ten Young Adult novels.
The Reviewers Said:
My 12 year-old daughter read this book and LOVED it, so I’m writing this review per her instructions: Priscilla the Great was very suspenseful and a real page turner. Fun AND funny too! I really, really, REALLY want a sequel! Highly, HIGHLY recommended for kids my age.
Priscilla the Great is a wonderfully funny book! I have had the pleaure of reading this book and, as a grade school teacher, I have plans to get a copy for my classroom as well. Priss in no simpering heroine, waiting to be rescued by a cute boy. She’s spunky and has a great sense of humor. Priss really is a positive role model for girls
If you don’t have a young adult to buy a book for, read this yourself. I’m glad I did and am pleased that I have a place to review it and recommend it to everyone.
Priscilla the Great is an immediately engaging novel, clever, quirky, and comical. The author, Sybil Nelson, has created a character who is incredibly endearing while still feeling “real”. Well, as real a a girl who can start fires with her hands could possibly be! She is exactly what you want in a heroine, especially one who is destined to develop superpower powers and live up to the novel’s title.
Check out Priscilla’s blog here!
Click here 
to download Priscilla The Great (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
to download Priscilla The Great (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!UK Kindle customers: Click here to buy or sample Priscilla The Great
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
Is it a nose for news that has small-town reporter John Moretz turning up first at every murder scene, or something more disturbing? The police want to know, in Scott Nicholson’s Crime Beat – Just 99 cents on Kindle, and here’s a free sample!
Some reporters have a “nose for news” and seem to turn up wherever news is breaking right before their eyes or soon after. But if a reporter keeps appearing at the scenes of murders, the police do start to wonder. Author Scott Nicholson lists “reporter” among his many “odd” jobs, so perhaps it is no surprise that this gritty, realistic murder mystery is written with such authority.
Here’s the set-up for Crime Beat
, another great Nicholson yarn that is just 99 cents for a limited time in the Kindle Store:
, another great Nicholson yarn that is just 99 cents for a limited time in the Kindle Store:
When John Moretz takes a job as a reporter in the Appalachian town of Sycamore Shade, a crime wave erupts that boosts circulation and leaves people uneasy. Then a murder victim is discovered, and Moretz is first on the scene.
As more bodies turn up, Moretz comes under police suspicion, but the newspaper’s sales are booming due to his coverage of sensational crime. His editor is torn between calling off his newshound and cashing in on the attention, plus the editor is romancing the big-city reporter assigned to cover the suspected serial killer.
And Moretz seems to be one step ahead of the other reporters, the police, and even the killer himself.
CRIME BEAT is a 21,000-word novella, the equivalent of about 80 book pages. Also contains the bonus story “Do You Know Me Yet?” from HEAD CASES.
is a 21,000-word novella, the equivalent of about 80 book pages. Also contains the bonus story “Do You Know Me Yet?” from HEAD CASES.Here’s a note to readers from Scott himself:
I live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and much of my fiction is based on mountain legends, local haunted places, and strange events. I was inspired by my grandmother’s storytelling, and have always written as long as I can remember.
My novels include the Kindle bestsellers Disintegration, The Red Church, Speed Dating with the Dead, and The Skull Ring, as well as eight other novels, including the urban fantasy Cursed! with J.R. Rain and the paranormal romance series October Girls. I’ve also created the comics Grave Conditions and DIRT and have written six screenplays, several of which are available on Kindle.
My web site www.hauntedcomputer.com has writing advice, fiction excerpts, art and samples from my comic books, my movie work, and numerous essays.
Crime doesn’t pay … but neither does journalism. DRM-free and 99 cents for a limited time.
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
From the Folks Who Bring You Kindle Review: FLIP IT! FOR KINDLE, An Intriguing New Game That’s Tailor-Made for Your Kindle, Just 99 Cents in the Kindle Store!
If you’ve been reading Kindle Nation for a while. I’m sure you’ve seen my occasional mentions of one of the smartest people writing about Kindle developments, over at the Kindle Review blog. Abhi’s a tech guy and I’m a recovering English major, but somehow we find that we have plenty in common. But the news I want to share with you today involves something he’s done that I could never, ever do, and he has done it well.
This week his 7 Dragons team has launched the first of what 
will be several apps for the Kindle. They won’t all be games, from what I hear, but he’s led with a very cool game called FLIP IT! FOR KINDLE that makes perfect visual and brain-engaging use of the Kindle environment. I was going to let the FLIP IT! launch lead a story about a range of new Kindle apps that have become available lately, but I think this one is best in class and Abhi himself has written a great description, so I’m just going to put off the other games until next week and turn over the microphone to Abhi here for a few moments….
Our first Kindle App for you ($1)
Posted on February 2, 2011 by switch11
I’m super happy to finally start releasing our Kindle Apps for all of you.
The first one is Flip It! for Kindle – a game to exercise your brain. We like to think it’s very good value for the money at $1.
The main features of Flip It –
- Built for the Kindle from the ground up. Every single thing is built with Kindle owners in mind.
- It’s a lot of fun to play. This was a game that people just loved playing.
- There are 40 levels. Thanks to Amazon for suggesting we increase from 14 levels to 40 levels. Also, for a lot of good suggestions like adding a Timed Mode, tracking statistics, and adding a timer.
- There are two modes – Timed Mode and Normal Mode.
- There are 8 user profiles. That means you and your family or friends can all have your own profile.
- The number of flips you took to finish the game and the time you took are tracked. So you can try to improve on your scores. Note: 75% of the first 20 levels can be finished in 10 or less flips.
- There are lots of useful additions – you can pause a game, you can leave a game and resume it later, there’s detailed Help with illustrations, and so forth.
At $1 we feel it’s a steal, which is probably why it’s #1 on the Movers and Shakers List.
80% or more of the credit goes to the developer, Sergii, who did most of the graphics (the squares, the title page, etc.) and all of the coding. Being able to get all these images to update quickly on eInk is ridiculously good – He’s just a superstar developer.
Look for more Kindle Apps from him and from our other superstar developers – hopefully soon.
Click here to buy FLIP IT! FOR KINDLE for 99 cents!
Disclosure: There is no sponsorship relationship here, but I do have a lot of respect and admiration for Abhi and I’ve noticed that he has also had nice things to say about my work.