News – 1) Amazon announces that it is selling more Kindle titles than hardcover and paperback titles combined. John C. Dvorak says they must be, ahem, cooking the books, and he wants to see the numbers. Mike Shatzkin says Amazon’s comparisons are apples-to-apples, unlike other attempts to measure the inroads of e-books as a share of total book purchases. 2) Stephen Windwalker argues convincingly that Amazon’s expansion of its buy-back program to electronics is a brilliant move to prepare ye the way for the Kindle Tablet, which he believes will be announced next month or July.
Tech Tip – Jon Cog at Beyond Black Friday pointed out that you can find out which of your Facebook friends is a fellow Kindle buff, and then add them to your network at kindle.amazon.com. Click here for my Kindle profile. Jon will be my interview guest next week for TKC 149.
Interview – Julia Adams, an editor at Hachette children’s who works on their Wayland imprint for educational publishing, spoke with me from London via Skype on May 17, 2011. She is upbeat about e-books, even as she has experienced the combination of panic and opportunity that digital publishing represents to the world of traditional publishing. We talked about how kids read these days and what will become of the well-established bookstores in Germany, now that Amazon has opened a new Kindle store there.
Content – Two smart Kindle Singles have taken up residence on my Kindle. They are The Enemy by Christopher Hitchens and Animalish by Susan Orlean. They are each available for $1.99. Also, via Andrys Basten, I’ve downloaded a terrific free-for-awhile-book, Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public Library at 100.
Other Links Mentioned – Tom Semple takes note of rumors of ePub in the Kindle’s future but says this comment illustrates why they are almost certainly untrue. Andrys Basten has more here.
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