I mentioned the concept of a new and improved book club model for the Kindle in this post on my Publishing 2020 blog last week. Now I'm starting to wonder about the prospects for what could be called a "book subscription." This isn't viable for some types of books, but think about ones where you tend to pick up new editions from time to time. Technology books are a great example, and not just because I work with them every day...
Let's say you're currently using Windows XP and might upgrade to Windows Vista in 2008. Let's further assume you bought a reference guide on XP for your Kindle and are faced with the prospects of buying the Vista edition of that same book next year. Wouldn't it be nice to have the option of buying a subscription to that book so that you could download updated editions as needed? If the XP edition for your Kindle cost $10, would you pay more than $10 knowing that it buys you access to the XP version as well as any other editions that come out in the next 2 years, for example?
Again, this model isn't for all types of books but there are some where it makes a lot of sense. The connectivity model Amazon created for the Kindle is a great enabler for this sort of solution.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Kindle Book Subscriptions
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5 comments:
The books that I think would work best with this model are those that are published on an annual basis, such directories and minute books. With these types of books, I want the latest information, but I don't want to have check to see if the people compiling the information have published a new version yet. When it is available, I just want it to be there.
Hi Timothy. Yes, I think you've identified another area of potential for this. You're also starting to get into an area that's somewhat different since it involves more dynamically updated and downloaded content. In essence, you're talking about a living book that automatically replicates itself locally on your Kindle. Very cool.
hi there,
I have also set up a blog for Kindle and I have added your KindleVille to that blog at
http://kindle-amazon-ebook-reader.blogspot.com/
two words: stephen king. remember that serialized self-publishing experiment he tried a couple years ago? doing something experimental on the kindle seems like the kind of thing he'd be interested in trying. all amazon would have to do is pay him or someone like him for an exclusive story or stories or a serialized story/novel/novella, and boom, they just sold another jillion kindles. maybe they could compensate him with amazon options or something.
Interesting idea. I think that King book was called "The Plant." I was reading it as he posted it and was disappointed when he stopped.
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