Round up #61: M-Edge sues, Best. Kindle. Christmas. Ever!
Amazon: “2011 is the Best Holiday Ever for Kindle”
Well, no particular surprise that the Kindle Fire was the best-selling item of any kind at Amazon this holiday season.
However, according to this Amazon
the second and third best-selling items were reflective screen Kindles.
- Kindle Fire
- Kindle Touch (they don’t specify which one, so I’m assuming they combined the 3G & Wi-Fi and the 3G only models)
- Kindle (the $79/$109 model that I call the “Mindle”)
There were people who were afraid that Amazon would abandon RSKs (Reflective Screen Kindles), and that EBRs (E-Book Readers) were on the way out, to be replaced by backlit Tablets.
Not likely…with millions of RSKs sold this holiday season (along with millions of Kindle Fires). I did think it was interesting that Amazon didn’t say “more than five million Kindle Fires sold”…my guess is that means that wasn’t the case. they could just like the symmetry of the statements for RSKs and the Fire, though). What they specifically said was
“…customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers.”
I thought the terminology of “e-readers” to differentiate RSKs was interesting…that pretty much says that the Kindle Fire isn’t an e-reader. That’s logical, but I don’t think I’ve seen that said by Amazon before.
They also tout the success of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)….which may be even more significant in the long run than the success of the Kindle.
One of the most exciting things for me about e-books is the way it opens up book distribution to people outside the traditional publishers. Don’t get me wrong…I don’t have a problem with the tradpubs. I expect some of them will adapt well to e-distribution and maintain prominence.
However, I like there being more choices as well.
Amazon’s KDP is one of ways that non-tradpubbed authors can succeed…if it succeeds. Clearly, it is this year, with KDP authors having books on the USA Today list, and top-selling books at Amazon.
They mention some specific names:
- Darcie Chan The Mill River Recluse
- Chris Culver The Abbey
- Catherine Bybee Wife by Wednesday
- CJ Lyons CJ Lyons in the Kindle Store (they didn’t list just one title)
I also thought we might hear about the success of Amazon’s own traditional publishing imprints…but I don’t think those have really taken off yet.
There are a lot of other holiday facts for Amazon in there…and some pretty goofy ones (on purpose).
It’s worth reading…
BaltTech: “Maryland maker of Kindle cases sues Amazon”
However, all is not merry in the land of Amazon.
I’ve written before about Kindle covers from M-Edge…and I’ve been a bit disappointed that they haven’t been available for my later model Kindles. I’ve found good alternatives, but it seemed odd.
Well, here is apparently why:
M-Edge has sued Amazon.
It’s quite the suit…I’m always surprised people can make accusations like they do in lawsuits.
Here’s the “Nature of the Case” paragraph:
“This case presents a classic example of unlawful corporate bullying. M-Edge developed a very successful product line: personal electronic device jackets with multiple features for the Kindle and other e-readers. Amazon thereafter repeatedly sought to hijack the product through threats, deceit, interference with M-Edge’s customer relationships,and patent infringement. M-Edge now asserts claims for patent infringement, unfair competition,intentional interference with contracts and economic relations,and false advertising.”
Looking at the suit, I’m guessing this is settled out of court, and they become business partners again.
We’ll see, though… 🙂
Half of the top ten Kindle sellers are KOLL titles
After Amazon introduced the Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL), from which paid Prime members can borrow up to a book a month for free, they opened it up to Kindle Direct Publishers to put their books in the system.
I’ve done it with a couple of mine
- The Collected I Love My Kindle Blog Volume 1
- The Kindle Kollection: Three Early Books about the Kindle
I’m proud to say they’ve both been borrowed multiple times.
One obvious question is how being the KOLL affects sales…does it help? Does it hurt?
Well, I just checked: half of the top ten paid Kindle e-books are in the KOLL as well.
That’s a much higher percentage than the general Kindle store.
That’s only a small sample, but it does suggest that being in the KOLL may help sales.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
December 30, 2011 at 4:17 pm |
M-Edge makes good covers, but appears to need better legal representation and business negotiators IMHO. I read the entire filing and it looks like the standard cookie-cutter “Goliath made David sign the contract” verbiage.
On another note: I cannot verify the accuracy of what I read on one of the publishing blogs which stated that if you stacked every copy of the Steve Jobs biography sold at Amazon the stack would be taller than Mt. Everest. In any event, that’s a lot of books.
December 30, 2011 at 4:57 pm |
Thanks for writing, Harold!
That Mt. Everest stat came from the press release linked in the post you commented.
I didn’t comment on it, partially because that book blocks text-to-speech access.
However, I also found it odd, since e-books have no height or depth. It just seems…old-fashioned to measure your book sales by the amount of physical space they consume in the world…
December 30, 2011 at 9:26 pm |
Speaking of the Kindle Lending Library, does anybody know how to access it from a Kindle 1? Even though I have a Kindle 3 (keyboard?) I still prefer to do my browsing in the Kindle Store from my Kindle 1 because it’s faster in the Kindle store and because I can still use annotation in samples. (Sure wish the K3 used the same G3 network as the K1.) I guess Amazon got tired of people complaining about losing annotations in samples so they just turned it off, but I found it useful to make comments to myself about a book that I might have liked from the sample but wanted to delay purchasing for whatever reason.
December 30, 2011 at 11:32 pm |
Thanks for writing, Lady!
My understanding with a K1 is that there isn’t a menu choice to go to Prime lending eligible books, but that the borrow button does appear.
So, if you identify a book that’s borrowable on your computer or K3, then you can look it up on the K1 and borrow it.
Here’s a link:
Prime Eligible Kindle Books