Kindle is one of the best eBook readers in the market at this point. There are hundreds of readers using Kindle to read books without any glitches so far! Books on Kindle are much cheaper than actual books and can save well over a few hundred bucks for you.

There are many benefits come with Kindle other than reading books in cheaper price. Many people said the at the beginning that they miss a bit of feeling of reading books using Kindle but now with the latest version that scenario has changed. The e-ink of Kindle is ready like reading a real book. Also because of its pleasant contrast you will not feel tired even you read books on Kindle for hours. So no more people need to have a big bookshelf to manage all the books but this small device will help you to organize your books with bookmarking, annotation and dictionary look up. You really do not need to have any additional software as everything is already there in a Kindle. It also comes with cover protection so that there is no way it can break.

So imagine if you are waiting somewhere so a Kindle can be great way to best utilize your time otherwise something like that can be a simply wasted. So in such situations all you need to do carry your Kindle 2 along with you and all your favorite books are inside it. A Kindle can store Also Kindle has some cool text-to-speech function, which means you can actually read a book without actually looking at your Kindle.

Kindle comes with different versions such as Wi-Fi version and then the Wi-Fi-plus-3G version. If you have wireless internet connection at home or don’t want to use it at a hotspot, like Starbucks, then the regular Wi-Fi version of $139 is fine for you. The Wi-Fi plus 3G version works anywhere in your home as long as there is wireless internet connection available or anywhere that has cell phone signal. So if you plan on traveling a lot and downloading books away from home, I think the 3G version is worth the extra money which is $189.

Kindle comes with many free books which you can directly download from internet. For people outside US I think it is $2 per download. Also it seems many leading newspapers and magazines are having Kindle versions and they are lot cheaper compared to their original paper version.

What does it take to be a successful self-publisher? Quite a lot. Not only will you be investing some money into it, the process of putting it together will also require effort on your part.

However, as most writers know, this is all worth it once you have that manuscript ready to go. For many, the sales they make from it is only secondary to the fulfillment of having written and published a book-all through self-effort.

If you’re just starting out and currently staring at that blank first page, everything might seem daunting. It is but don’t put your pen down just yet. If you’re unsure of how to begin, below are some tips to help you get ideas going.

Pick a genre – This is one of the greatest obstacles for a new author. There are so many things that they can write about. There’s fiction, self-help, biographies and plenty of other genres that a lot of potential readers will find interesting. However, at this stage, the only person you should be thinking about is yourself.

What do you want to write? What are you most comfortable with? The point here is that you need to enjoy writing it. If you don’t, nobody will enjoy reading it. This is a fact.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes – Even the best authors commit them. Think of it as nothing more than another step to the process. First drafts are always a mess and usually, more than half of what you have written for it will get scrapped- to be replaced with better and more developed ideas.

Instead of trying to organize everything from the start, try the practice of “free writing”. This is basically the act of putting down whatever comes to mind – a sentence, a scenario, the ending to your story or even a character. Keeping everything in your head is fruitless and there is also that risk of forgetting a really great idea – the kind that you may never catch again. So write and write as much as you want.

Get over your fear of criticism – One of the biggest reasons as why people keep their writing to themselves is because of this particular fear. If you’re planning to take the self-publishing path, remember that you are also opening your work up to both positive and negative reviews. Developing a thick skin is necessary, but a listening ear is just as important. Take criticism, filter through it, and take what you can use to improve yourself.

Last, but certainly not least, don’t think too much about the money -Yes, part of the reason why you’re doing this is because of the potential financial gain. However, do not let this become your only motivation. Doing so might reduce the quality of your work and make you succumb to following the “trend”.

Just follow your instinct and always write from the heart. It doesn’t matter what genre your work falls under-a reader can see how passionate you are about the writing and that is what will make them want more from you.

These tips may seem basic, but at the heart of any good book is a solid foundation. Whether you’re a new self-publishing author or someone who is looking for new perspective to writing, we hope these tips were able to provide you with what you needed. Good luck!

Since launching the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform, Amazon has created an amazing tool for authors to take control of their book publishing process. There is no more need to endlessly submit books to dozens of publishers hoping that somebody will read it, like it, and find a place for it in their catalog. But, the new self-publishing frontier is not without its problems.

Self-publishing means you (as the author) are responsible for everything. Once you get your book ready for publication, you are responsible for promoting it too. The marking process does not come naturally for many authors. I am going to share 3 secrets for getting the best results for your self-publishing work.

Here are 3 secrets to selling more Kindle ebooks:

1. Keep Writing
2. Internal Linking
3. Craft Your Amazon Sales Page

Secret #1 – Keep Writing

The biggest mistake first time self-publishers make is thinking they can create one book and strike it rich. The truth is, the more you publish, the better your chances of building an audience for your work. Even better is to create a book series. Tom Clancy had the ‘Jack Ryan’ series, Sir Arthur Conan Dolye had ‘Sherlock Holmes’, and Sue Grafton has her ‘alphabet series’. But, it’s not just fiction writers who benefit from this approach. Think how many ‘Chicken Soup’ books have been written over the years.

Once people read one book in a series, they are more likely to read more. That leads us to secret number two.

Secret #2 – Internal Linking

For decades traditional publishers have used this promotional tactic. Inside every book they publish is a list of ‘Other Books By This Author.’ The more books you have published, the more chances you have to connect with a new reader. If you keep a list of your other books inside everything you publish, satisfied readers will find their way to your other books.

One of the great things about publishing books on the Kindle Direct Publishing platform is that you can update a book after it has been published. This means that every time you publish a new book, you can go back through your older books and update your list of other books available.

Secret #3 – Craft Your Amazon Sales Page

The primary sales tool you have when promoting your books as a self-published Kindle author is the Amazon listing for your book. Too many authors treat the content of this page as an after thought, but it is your single best marketing tool. Your listing must be carefully crafted to entice readers to take a chance and order your book.

The Amazon website is a marketing machine. The key to getting it to work for you is to get you book onto the various bestseller lists. Following the 3 secrets outlined in this article will greatly improve your changes of getting your Kindle ebook onto the bestellers list.

A lot has been made about the Kindle Fire by Amazon and some people have suggested that it will take market share from the iPad 2. While I know that there are many people who would like nothing more than to have apple dethroned (I will admit that I am one to some degree), I will be the first to admit that the Kindle Fire will not be doing this. I hope the following review of the features of the Kindle fire will help debunk some of those myths.

• The Kindle Fire is only 7 "so if it is taking market share from anyone it will the smaller tablets like the Nokia or Samsung. (It is listed at 7.5" x 4.7 "x 0.45")
• At 8GB the Kindle Fire is only capable of storing limited data. (It does however come with free cloud storage for all Amazon content so that helps.)
• Battery life is not as robust with a maximum of 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback (without wireless turned on)
• It does not have cellular capabilities so it cannot be connected to a cellular network. It can however connect to wireless networks.
• Some reports are that it does not have any USB capabilities although I found the following caption on the Amazon website "USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)" which I assume means that it has some capabilities.
• A major shortcoming of the Kindle Fire is that it has no camera.

The Kindle Fire is slotted to be released on November 15 2011 and preliminary reports have pre-orders at 5 million, which is definitely a boost for Amazon. The major selling points other than the price are the capabilities that come from amazon some of which include:

• 100,000 Movies and TV Shows
• Your Favorite Apps and Games
• Amazon Silk capabilities, this is a cloud based
• Amazon Whispersync technology: This allows the user to automatically synchronize notes, highlights, bookmarks and last page read across several devices. (So you could be watching a movie on the Kindle and continue it on your TV from the same spot).
• Access millions of books from the amazon library and kindle store.The aforementioned cloud storage from amazon allows you to store movies, books, music and apps and access them at any time.
• The Amazon MP3 store has over 17 million songs to choose from and these will be accessible from the Kindle Fire.
• PDF and document reading capabilities. This may seem like a small factor but it bears mentioning that Apple does not have the capability to open Adobe files and this may become a big deal if Amazon decides to bring a larger tablet to the market.
• You also get 1 month of Amazon Prime free which gives feature like free 2 day amazon shipping and immediate access to 10,000 movies and tv shows.

As can be seen from the above, this device is in no way an iPad killer but it does offer some cool features. However I believe that for $ 199 the Kindle Fire deserves a look and there is a big possibility that Amazon will come out with a bigger tablet with more capabilities.

A book can be many different things. It can be instructional, inspirational, based on real life or something more fictional. Plenty of people out there have a lot to share. They also have the skills to eloquently get their thoughts across through writing, but not all of them will be granted the chance to publish a book.

With the internet constantly changing the way we receive and disseminate information, it’s not surprising that the publishing of written work has become a lot more accessible for many as well. Just take the Kindle Publishing platform for example. All you need to do is write your masterpiece and publish it through Amazon. It’s that simple!

However, simple doesn’t always mean it’s easy to get started. For that, we’ve prepared a few tips. These are basic guidelines that should be help you with putting down the foundations for your new book.

I. Start Writing

The first step is to write, of course. Give yourself three drafts-just enough to get it right.

· Take a blank page – Now, write down every idea that you have. Just write it down. From the basic outline to your table of contents. Don’t mind that it’s messy and seemingly aimless. You can sort through it later. The important thing is that you get started with it and manage to save every good idea you get in the process. This is your “vomit” draft.

· This next step is where you actually spent some time sorting through the first draft. Take some time to develop what ideas you can use and discard what doesn’t fit (or save them for another book). Think about what you really want to say and write it down-make it more organized this time. This is the “review” draft.

· For the third one, ask a friend or professional to read through your work and provide an opinion. They can see what you might have missed and check if you made any mistakes, not just in grammar but also the structure of your book. This is the “editorial” draft.

II. Design and Format

Now, the fun part. Making your book look visually appealing to match the content.

· Format it for Kindle. There is a program called “Calibre” that you can use for this but it is recommended to get a professional instead. This is especially so if you do not have much experience with the program or if you’re not comfortable with using it.

· Sort out the cover. Treat this as the face of your book so spend some time and a little budget on it. There are plenty of options online for outsourcing the work if you don’t have the skills to do it personally.

III. Publishing

The most important thing. It’s simple enough to do so just follow the guidelines below.

1. Go to kdp.amazon.com and sign in for an account.

2. Input your tax info to receive your royalties.

3. Click on “Bookshelf” and then click on “Add new title.”

4. Fill out the form properly.

5. Upload your book cover.

6. Upload the book itself.

7. Check how your book looks on Amazon’s online viewer.

8. Click “Save and continue” before moving to the “Rights and Pricing” page.

9. Click on “Worldwide Rights.”

10. Now, opt for a 70% royalty rate and then select your price, this allows international prices to adjust based on the US price.

11. Click Save and Publish.

12. Amazon will email you when the book is ready.

Easy, isn’t it? However, here’s a PRO TIP: Don’t rush the creation of your e-book-it does not matter if it’s a work of fiction or something meant to provide information. Quality trumps quantity in this case. You won’t make more money by publishing a lot of books within a short period of time.

What you want is for people to notice your content and keep coming back for more. So focus on writing something really good, the money will follow suit.

Good luck!

We do not yet have a firm idea about when the Amazon Kindle 4 reader will be ready. Before the 3rd generation reader was released, it was able to be pre-ordered. It will likely be the same with the next version of this device. But both current Kindle users and people who do not yet own an electronic reading device have a host of questions regarding this newer model. For example:

• Will it have a color screen?
• If it does, will this mean a move away from electronic paper in favor of an LCD display?
• Will it offer touch functionality similar to the iPad?
• How much will it cost?
• When will it be ready?

Some of these questions are a bit easier to answer than other. For some, we simply have to wait for an announcement from Amazon. However, we can certainly take an educated guess at most of them simply from the information that is already available online. For example, by looking at media reports and going direct to the websites of companies involved in the innovation of technology that the Kindle uses, we can glean a lot of useful information.

Firstly, there is every chance that we shall be reading using a color Kindle 4 in the not so distant future. This is more than just a dream. The fact of the matter is that a color electronic display is already a reality. At the moment, it is a company called E Ink who make the screens for the Kindle 3. The version that is used for this model is called Pearl. Their newer version which can display more than 4,000 different colors is called Triton. Since Amazon already have a relationship with this company and are comfortable using their inventions, it is a logical step that they will move to use the most up to date electronic paper display technology.

Whether or not a color screen will add a great deal to the user experience is debatable. That said, it will be a major marketing device to be able to compare the Kindle reader, at its lower cost, to the flashier iPad tablet devices. The fact of the matter is that the Kindle and the iPad are only really in competition with each other to the extent that they are both hand held electronic gadgets. But the thing is, they are really designed to do different tasks. The Kindle has one primary function, to allow its users to read electronic books. The iPad on the other hand offers a wider range of capabilities but does not have one specific function. The Kindle is more functional while the iPad is cooler. Bringing out a Kindle with a color screen might not add too much functionality but it certainly gives this gadget an improved coolness factor.

As you will have gathered from the preceding paragraphs, a color screen does not necessitate an LCD display. There is no doubt that LCD screens can operate at higher resolutions. After all, this is the type of screens that computers use. But electronic paper displays offer some advantages of their own. These include a far superior battery life when compared to devices like laptops, mobile phones and the iPad. The current version of the Kindle reader can go for one month between battery charges. Secondly, reading with the Amazon Kindle really is just the same as reading a book, as far as your eyes are concerned. I have yet to get a headache or feel the effects of eye strain from using my Kindle. They are definitely more relaxing to use than looking at a computer screen for a long time.

Another cool feature that the iPad offers is its touch ability. The 3rd generation Kindle makes use of a small QWERTY keyboard that sits at the bottom of the device. However, whether the Kindle 4 will still have a keyboard or not is still unknown. Developments in this area include Amazon’s purchase of a company called TouchCo in 2010. This firm was developing touch functionality for electronic paper displays. Indeed, at the time of their purchase, it they had already invented working prototypes. Therefore, making another assumption, it may well be the case that this technology is now fully operational. We do not know for sure whether Amazon will choose to include this in their Kindle 4 reader but as long as they have it working correctly, it would be surprising if they did not make use of this innovation.

So it may well be the case that Amazon will be able to steal some of the thunder of the iPad device. As far as the marketing of their next hand held reader is concerned, having both a color screen and touch functionality would be of major value. The question is whether these features will add much, if anything, to the price of the device itself.

At the moment there are three different models of Kindle. Two 6″ versions (Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 3G) as well as the larger DX device. We could say that the 6″ Kindles are the standard type while the DX is a luxury version. The cost of the Kindle DX is about twice the price of the cheapest model and double the price of the one with 3G. Will Amazon be able to sell a color and touch version of their product for less than $150? A massive part of the appeal of the Kindle reader is its affordability. It would be a shame if the price had to rise to over $200, for instance. This would certainly limit some people’s ability to be able to purchase the hand set.

As I mentioned at the start of this article, we do not know exactly when the Kindle 4 will be released. There has been no announcement from Amazon other than to say that it is still a long way off. To date, there have been three versions of the Kindle so far. The first one came on sale in November 2007. That was just over three years ago. So if they stick to a similar sort of time scale it may be possible to purchase a Kindle 4 before the end of 2011. Bringing out the next version would ensure record breaking sales in the run up to Christmas. But potentially more important to Amazon than short term profit is ensuring that the Kindle 4 electronic reader is the best device of its type. Therefore rather than working to a sales timetable, it seems likely that they will only bring out the next incarnation of their bestselling handset when the device is good and ready. This might not be until 2012.

Overview:

The Kindle app is designed for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, providing users the ability to read Kindle books in a bright, and crisp color screen. The Kindle store has over 540,000 ebooks including bestsellers and new releases. In addition, books published before 1923 and other classic books are free!

Whether you read your Kindle books on your Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Kindle, and Kindle DX; the Kindle App in conjunction with Whisper sync instantly syncs your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across all of your devices, so you can pick up right where you left off regardless of what device you happen to be reading on.

Kindle iPad App highlights:

* Over 540,000 Kindle books. 105 of 112 NY Times Best Sellers

* Cheap prices for NY Times best sellers starting at $9.99

* Free classic books like Sherlock Holmes and the Bible

* You can read the 1st chapter of very book for free.

* Bright Color Screen

* Customize background color, font, and font color

* Tap either side of the screen to turn page.

* Read in landscape or portrait mode

Fun Features not found on Kindle

* Add comments, highlights, and bookmarks.

* Zoom in and out on images.

* Home Library view

Review:

Installation

Installing the kindle App in your eye pad is easy as apple pie. Simply download the Kindle App for free and log in my signing into your account. If you currently have a physical kindle, you will find all your books in your archive ready to download with a push of a button. The Kindle iPad app will sync up your existing reading library. There’s also the ability to drop multiple bookmarks, skip between them, switch animated page turns on or off, and adjust the font and background hue of your digital pages. Downloading is very simple as your books are not organized in a slow and long single page mode of the physical Kindle. You get to see the full-color book cover which you can easily navigate by sliding your fingers along your collection.

Settings

When opening the settings, you are given the choice of reading backgrounds from white, black, and sepia. Sepia gives the most “book” like experience. In addition, text size and color is fully customizable.

Note taking

Simply touch on any word or highlight any section to take notes. The virtual screen pops up. Write what you wish!

Page Turning

You feel like reading a real book since each page turn in animated just like a real book. For those who quickly want to flip through a book, there is also a “Basic Reading Mode” option than turns off the animations.

Purchasing a Book

Assuming you already have an Amazon account. Just tap in your username and password, and you’ll be able to choose which Kindle device to send your book too. After you have purchased your book of choice, there’s a simple button to take you back the Kindle iPad app and closes Safari.

Reading Experience

We suggest getting an anti-reflective overlay if you are reading a lot with the iPad. Even a simple overhead light will induce a glare. Otherwise, the sharp crisp and colorful screen is far beyond the physical Kindle. You can easily place bookmarks by tapping the screen for the menu bar, then just tap the upper right corner of your screen on the bookmark icon.

Conclusion

Amazon’s free app and selection make it a must have if you plan to read books on your iPad. While Apple has it’s proprietary iBook app, we anticipate most people will purchase their books through Amazon due to its ability to integrate with multiple devices and the physical Kindle, and mainly because of the lower prices on books as of this writing.

Amazon came out with the Kindle and to this day still has some of the best pricing available for their product. As each new and improved Kindle comes out the prices drop and you receive more value for your money than ever before. The newest Kindles are Wi Fi ready, lighter, smaller and have larger screens. You really can’t go wrong with any model of Kindle.

Now that you have your Kindle reader you will be looking for where to buy kindle books. It just makes sense to go back to Amazon and see what selections they have.

The best part about purchasing books for your Kindle is that they can be downloaded very quickly. It now takes less than one minute to download a book. All of this can be done directly on your Kindle. So you don’t have to worry about connecting to your PC or Mac and then transferring data. All the Kindle models are extremely user friendly and even come pre-installed with a user guide.

As electronic readers become more popular, more and more authors are making their books available in this format. Amazon now has a book forum which you can join. Here you can discuss which the best books to download are and how to get out of print books for free.

Even though books for Kindle readers are inexpensive it is still nice to read some reviews and testimonials before making your final purchase. The book forum can do all of this for you and more. You should check it out today.

When you go to the Amazon website to look where to buy Kindle books you will come to a page with lots of choices. From here you can narrow down your selection by sorting books by topic, newest releases or by popularity. The prices are displayed right on the screen for you along with the delivery method.

You will be downloading your book to your Kindle by using Whispernet, it is very quick to do. You can be reading your latest purchase within minutes. On the newer Kindle versions you have the ability to share your books onto your Smart phones and PC’s at home. You are not allowed to share books amongst other Kindle users.

You won’t be short on selection on which books to download to your Kindle. In the last 30 days almost 4,000 Kindle books have been released on Amazon alone. You will quickly be able to build up your own mini library for sure.

As electronic readers become more available worldwide it is possible to download books to many different countries. So even if you are travelling you should have no trouble in finding where to buy Kindle books or accessories.

The easiest place for you to purchase anything related to Kindle is Amazon. They came out with the device and are such a large retailer that you will have a hard time finding better prices on Kindles anywhere else.

There are some wonderful books available in both paperback and e-book formats and, thanks to online retail sites, it has never been easier to choose a book and be reading it about a minute later. E-books are available immediately, easy to transport and they save trees. One of the biggest considerations for readers when making a purchase, is that e-books are affordable and usually a fraction of the price of paperback versions.

As well as being a writer, I am also a prolific reader. Truth be told, I still prefer to hold a book in my hand but I also have a large library of e-books and my collection would be even bigger if some of the e-books I would like to buy weren’t over-priced. When I see an e-book advertised at more than $8, I move on to find another book at a reasonable price. The writer may have sweated over the manuscript for years, and poured heart and soul into it, but competition for readers is high and if the book is over-priced few people will get to appreciate the author’s hard work.

You only have to look at an online retail site to see that e-books in the $1 to $2.99 category have more reviews, while those priced around the $10 mark languish on the virtual shelf waiting for a buyer. Reviews aren’t the only measure of a book’s popularity – many of my readers send me emails but don’t bother to leave a review on a public site – but you don’t have to be a mathematician to work out that higher priced e-books will attract less buyers than those that are reasonably priced. It’s a simple matter of economics. Unless the author has a loyal band of followers who would pay any price to read her new work, readers will generally be cautious with their money when buying a book by an author they do not know.

I have seen authors price a book of just over 100 pages at $4 or more, while more substantial offerings seem to be flying off the shelves at $2.99. The purchase price of your e-book is no reflection upon the quality of your work – it’s more about competing for attention in a very crowded space where some authors are even prepared to give their work away. I don’t agree with the strategy of offering books for free. Few people who have gone down that road have seen any real bump in books purchased. When you can get something for free, why would you pay for it? If your book is worth reading, it is worth paying for at a realistic price.

Readers expect to be able to buy e-books at a low price, so don’t disappoint them or they will give their hard-earned dollars to another author who is offering a quality product for less. From a royalty point of view, a percentage of something is better than a percentage of nothing.

The term “reflowable” refers to e-books that are text-heavy. Basically, the content of reflowable e-books “reflow” when the users change the text settings. Creating a reflowable e-book is easy if the text and images are separate. Obviously, separating the text from the images of an image-heavy book (e.g. manga) is extremely difficult.

Here are the things to keep in mind when publishing a reflowable e-book:

· Don’t use absolute positioning to align the text.

· Make sure that the text is set in single columns.

· By default, Kindle tags eBooks as “reflowable”. That means you don’t have to do any complex trick to publish a reflowable book.

· Avoid excessive styling when preparing the book’s body. Creativity is great when used on the book’s footnotes, headings, TOC, etc. However, keep the book’s text as simple as possible to ensure great legibility and reading experience.

· Never set entire chapters in italic or boldface. These font settings are not ideal for Kindle books.

· Use the default line height and font size for Kindle books when appropriate. Don’t use CSS attributes.

· Some Kindle users change the background color of the books they are reading. Consequently, do not use font colors that are too dark or too light. These colors may cause contrast-related issues when viewed on Kindle apps and devices.

· Do not use a white or black background for your text. These colors ruin the reading experience of your customers when they switch the device background to another color.

· Don’t use forced typefaces in your books. If you will ignore this rule, your readers won’t be able to choose their preferred font for reading Kindle e-books.

· If you are using KindleGen, the first line of each paragraph will be indented automatically. You can fix this by adjusting the book’s

· Use the margin-bottom style and/or margin-top style on your book’s

· The Kindle platform sets a default typeface for e-books that don’t have one. Also, Kindle is compatible with monospaced typefaces. Note that Kindle uses a monospaced typeface for the contents of certain HTML tags (e.g.

· Don't use fixed values (e.g. pixels) when setting your book's CSS properties (e.g. padding, line-height, text-indent, etc.). Use ems to make sure that your text will look nice on different resolutions and screen sizes.

· Use percentages when specifying the padding and/or margin properties of the book. This way, the said properties won't grow too large when the readers choose a large font.

· Prevent content overlaps by setting margins at zero or higher.

· Use relative units or percentages when setting the drop caps of your book. Make sure that the apex of each drop cap is aligned with your book's text.

· Avoid using blank lines to separate pages. Use CSS attributes (e.g. page-break-after) to insert page breaks.