Jeff Bezos loves you.
Seriously.
I know the feeling isn’t always mutual, but nobody’s done more for authors since Johannes Gutenberg.
During Thursday’s big hardware announcement from Amazon, the CEO (who has never looked more comfortable or effective addressing the world, by the way) could have just ignored you.
After all, not all tech leaders have made a point of crediting authors…and especially, independently published authors.
Bezos devoted quite a bit of this extraordinarily valuable time doing just that.
He showed a graph of how much more Kindle readers read after getting the device…and said how important that was. It’s also been accelerating in a crazy manner. Each year, Kindle readers have been reading more.
It’s not just brand name authors. Jeff made a point that 27 of the top 100 paid books at the Kindle store are published through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Jeff talked about how many rejections some successful authors have gone through, and how there are great books that haven’t been published.
They took the time to show a video of authors who are living their dreams to dream their livings by writing.
Credit was given for the exclusive books at Amazon, including those in the KOLL (Kindle Owners’ Lending Library).
He even literally lead a round of applause for KDP authors! How often do writers get that kind of public, big stage acknowledgement?
I don’t doubt it…Jeff Bezos loves independent authors.
Start the video of the conference at about 19 minutes if you want to get a warm fuzzy from one of the most important people in the history of books.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYi1jZXz9Kg&feature=g-all-u
Recent posts in the I Love My Kindle blog which may be of particular interest to WG2E readers:
- Which Kindle should you buy? September 2012
- Judge Cote approves DoJ Agency Model settlement
- Snapshot: September 1 2012
- paidContent: “Exclusive: Amazon NY signs deal to sell its ebooks through other retailers”
- Can respecting authors mean not reading their books?
Note: picture of Jeff Bezos used with permission of Amazon.
Bufo Calvin is the author of the popular I Love My Kindle blog and six titles in the Kindle store, including the #1 bestseller Love Your Kindle Fire: The ILMK Guide to Amazon’s Entertablet. Bufo is proud to be a part of the WG2E family.
Very cool – I feel affirmed! Appreciate your sharing, Bufo.
~Nancy Jill Thames
Indie Author of the Jillian Bradley Mysteries
“Queen of Afternoon Tea”
Absolutely, Nancy! There’s a lot of positive in the world…I love to share it.
I think I want to marry him!
Me too, Sibel! LOL
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m was searching for a blog topic for Monday. And there it is!
Sibel, here’s another reason you can be jealous of Jeff’s Significant Other…the CEO famously sleeps eight hours a night.
At least, that used to be yet another reason many other CEOs didn’t like Amazon’s visioneer. There is some clear work/life balance.
Susan, please post a link on Monday: I’d love to read it.
Sister wives? LOL
Yay! And it’s very true. I definitely read more now than before I purchased my Kindle. A part of it is because there is more of a selection. I read self published and traditional. Not just traditional and not just a few. Now I never run out of choices. And I love it.
And, all that reading is making me a better writer so… win, win.
Count me in on these points too, Laura!!! Well said!!!
No question, Laura…reading is a huge part of being a writer. E-books mean I can read the world’s great literature (public domain classics) for free easily. I knew about e-books before I got my first Kindle, and I’d even tried it…but they didn’t become part of my life until I had a library in my pocket.
Great post, Bufo!
Not only did Bezos cheer us on and encourage the world to cheers us on too, he also flew many top Indie Epub Authors to the event, including The WG2E’s very own Theresa Ragan!!!
Bezos does care and his actions show it.
We’ll be talking about this Amazon event from the new tablets perspective tomorrow!
***I’m still not a fan of KDP Select, but I think on everything else Amazon has nailed it.
I’ll be looking forward to your article! I’ve been writing quite a bit about the new devices.
By the way, Amazon has confirmed to me that the new Fires will have text-to-speech that works with Kindle store books! That’s a big personal issue for me, and I love this change!
And what was that feature they mentioned about immersion reading…or some phrase like that…where you could read a book while also listening to it via audio book format? Or did I misunderstand?
And LOL…I always leave all the techno stuff and scoop for you to explain, Bufo! You are my all-things Kindle and Tech King!!!
Yes, D.D., that’s an amazing new feature!
It’s something that people with reading challenges have used on some devices, but bringing it to a $159 (!) tablet is a great step forward.
What happens is that you can hear a professionally recorded audiobook at the same time that you are sight-reading the book…and it “lights up” the words the person is saying! That helps a lot of people by engaging two senses at the same time.
It’s going to be available on about 15,000 books from Audible (which Amazon owns) at first.
Another interesting thing is Whispersync for voice. That’s a bit different, but many people will like it. You can sight-read a book, then get in the car and listen to the audiobook…and it will start where you stopped sight-reading. Get out of the car and go back to sight-reading…and again, it will know where you stopped listening.
These are both pretty complex technically, and I’m quite impressed.
Wow!!!! Totally wow!!! I hope they picked my Audible Books!!!
I would luuuvvv to give that a whirl!!!
Thanks, Bufo! Great post!
Bufo, thanks for the post. I will admit to being one of the “hold outs” on jumping on the e-reader bandwagon (love the feel of a good paperback, but oh those poor trees!). It sounds like it’s time to take the plunge…as soon as I figure out which model to purchase…soooo many choices!
I think my Significant Other had the best line on that. Somebody said to my SO
“I like the feel of a book in my hand.”
My SO: “I like the feel of a hundred in mine…”
As to which one, I did a comparison of the currently available and newly introduced Kindles…
http://ilmk.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/which-kindle-should-you-buy-september-2012/
You don’t have to get a Kindle, of course, but there are some advantages in my opinion. One of the keys: Customer Service. You can “return” any Kindle store book within seven days of purchase for a refund…they’ve also made that super easy (you can do the whole process yourself). Last time I checked, neither Barnes & Noble nor Sony allowed the return of e-books at any time for any reason.
Thanks, Bufo! I’m on my way to your blog to read about the selections. (Some version of Kindle seems like it would be a fit for this “first timer”.)
besides great (and greater number of) selections, ereaders (and my wife has one of the original kindles, with a case with a light that pulls out for night reading) there’s a few things i’ve been surprised about using a kindle to read i hadn’t expected :
1) i can more easily read multiple titles, since when i re-open a book, it’s right there where i left off, makes it very enticing to keep a bunch of titles going, letting my interests and time lead me to which one to read at any one time
2) the to kindle app for web articles, doing this much much more, strips out everything but the good stuff
easy to read and, like # 1 above, can have multiple articles going if they’re extra long, or not quite what i want to finish reading at that time
so, yeah, kudos to amazon
Adan, I’ve always been a simultaneous multiple book reader, and yes, the Kindle makes that much easier. I used to literally have a book I was reading in just about every room of the house…as I went from one room to another, I just switched books.
I also carried two books with me when I went out, plus I had an “emergency book” in the car.
Send to Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_ac?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201016420
is a free app that Amazon offers, although it is similar to some other apps/extensions out there. The basic idea, for those who don’t know, is that you are on a website, and you see a lengthy article you’d like to read. You can just click something you’ve installed in your browser, and it’s sent pretty instantly to your Kindle…stripped of the ads and other extraneous stuff. It works reasonably well, and can be really good for those who need to read web information on the go and when you aren’t connected (your Kindle needs to be connected when it gets the article, but not when you read it).
glad you expanded about how useful the app for reading stuff from the web on the kindle is -
and lol, a book for emergencies! i’ve just now getting where i carry my kindle “as my emergency” book when i go to dr appts etc, incredible huh?
thanks so much, really nice article, best wishes
Fab post, Bufo! I know many folks like to demonize Amazon, but as an Indie author my experience has been just the opposite. Even the way Author Central actually has a phone number with real people to help with product page issues. And ditto what D.D. said — you are the kindle guru always there with explanations that help me understand stuff that is beyond my techno-dunce brain.
Alicia, that’s so nice of you to say! I love explaining things…that’s probably my favorite thing to do.
My (more than) full time job is an educator/trainer. I write quite a bit (I average at least a thousand words a day, although I’m sure many of you beat that easily), but definitely, answering questions in either “job” is the fun part. 
I am with Laura. I now read indie authors as well as trad published ones. Thanks to the Kindle and other ereaders, I have discovered authors and genres that I now like but never thought I would do so, and that includes our very own DD. And, I have to say this, but ereaders have made me more excited about my writing than I have ever been before in my life. I feel I now have a purpose to my writing and am really living and loving my dream.
Julie, I’ve always been an eclectic reader, but I have also broadened my horizons because of e-books. Free and low cost books have certainly been part of that.
Bufo, I love this post! I totally agree.
I was lucky enough to be invited to sit in the audience and it was sooo thrilling. After Jeff Bezos’ talk I was able to hold a lot of the new devices in my hand, except for the new $499 one. All the media people were swarming around that table and I couldn’t squeeze my way close enough. But I love the paperwhite and I think I want all of the new devices. So many cool new enhancements.
Theresa, I’m jealous! I wasn’t able to go, due to work commitments.
Things are even evolving rapidly. Amazon now allows buying out of the advertising for $15 on the tablets, and text-to-speech on the tablets that works with Kindle store books has been confirmed (and the product pages have been updated to reflect that).