Special offer: get one of 25 award-winning books for $1
Here’s the latest Special Offer on books from Amazon.
First, a word on that. If you have a wi-fi capable Kindle* (that seems to be the determining factor), you can turn Special Offers on, get the offer, and then just turn them off again if you want.
You do that at
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
then click on
Manage Your Devices
You’ll see a place to subscribe or unsubscribe. If you paid less for your Kindle because it has Special Offers, it costs you to unsubscribe. If you didn’t, it costs nothing to subscribe and then unsubscribe again.
The deadline to accept this offer is 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time), January 7, 2012 (Saturday). You have to click it on your Kindle by then.
You’ll then get an e-mail, and you’ll enter a code (you can copy and paste it from the e-mail). You must select your book by February 7, 2012.
* At this point, the Kindle Fire (which is wi-fi capable) doesn’t let you subscribe to Special Offers. While the mechanism would probably different (since there isn’t a sleep mode picture…”screensaver” on a Kindle Fire), I suspect we’ll get the option to opt into Special Offers on the device. The ad might be a “splash screen” before going to the homescreen, or might be tied into the Silk web browser. That could have the advantage of stopping the ads from showing for children…if you’ve blocked web access without a PIN (Personal Identification Number) which you can do. Since I don’t think they would reduce the price of the Kindle Fire in exchange for the ads, I think the advertisers could be okay with that.
The theme this time is “award-winning” novels…it is award season in the movies, after all (the Oscar nominations will be announced January 24, and we’ll have the Golden Globes before that on January 15).
A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
Pulitzer Prize
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes
Hugo for the novella; Nebula for the novel
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread
by Kate DiCamillo, Timothy Basil Ering (Illustrator)
Newbery Medal
The Windup Girl
by Paolo Bacigalupi
Nebula and Hugo awards, Locus award
The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award
Tinkers
by Paul Harding
Pulitzer Prize
Battle Cry of Freedom : The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)
by James M. McPherson
Pulitzer Prize
The Gathering (Man Booker Prize)
by Anne Enright
Man Booker Prize
The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
Man Booker Prize
History of the Civil War, 1861 – 1865 [Illustrated]
by James Ford Rhodes
Pulitzer Prize
The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway)
by Elly Griffiths
Mary Higgins Clark Award (Edgars)
The Spirit Ring
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Locus Fantasy Award
A Year Down Yonder
by Richard Peck
Newbery Medal
The Confessions of Nat Turner
by William Styron
Pulitzer Prize
The Siege of Krishnapur (New York Review Books Classics)
by J.G. Farrell
Man Booker Prize
Troubles (New York Review Books Classics)
by J.G. Farrell
Lost Man Booker Prize
Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity
by Ken Armstrong, Nick Perry
Edgar Award
Powers (Annals of the Western Shore)
by Ursula K. LeGuin
Nebula Award
The Best of It: New and Selected Poems
by Kay Ryan
Pulitzer Prize
The Edge of Sadness (Loyola Classics)
by Edwin O’Connor
Pulitzer Prize
You might have noticed there aren’t 25 here: some of them blocked text-to-speech access, and intriguingly, some of them weren’t available in the USA. My guess in the latter case is that the publisher only allows a certain number to be sold at this price…that’s just speculation, though.
For more information on literary prizes, see this earlier post.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog
I Love My Kindle 
January 5, 2012 at 5:05 am |
Went for Wind Up Girl myself. Found it odd when they specified the number of books you could choose from, and when you click on the link, some of them were not available. I’m not usually critical of Amazon, but this was weird to me. Shouldn’t complain, because of their generosity my archive has gone from 2,000 to just under 7,000 since the beginning of december, and I’ve spent about $2 total.
January 5, 2012 at 12:43 pm |
Thanks for writing, Zebras!
Yep…I suggested in the article that’s because the publisher limits the number available somehow. It could be that, say, Life of Pi was a special edition (maybe created for the promotion) that ran out. Don’t know, though..
January 5, 2012 at 1:16 pm |
Do you have to have a credit card on file in order to switch to special offers? I ask because I only use gift cards on my account. If you want to switch back & forth (special offers or dead authors) will a prepaid credit card work?
January 5, 2012 at 1:54 pm |
Thanks for writing, Rose!
I wouldn’t think that would matter. It’s not like doing a pre-order…in the case of the books, you are buying them, just at a reduced price. You might want to check with Kindle Support at
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport
though. If they tell you that you need one, I’d appreciate hearing that.
January 5, 2012 at 9:08 pm |
I did try to manage my Kindle, then manage device (edit special offers) but get stuck at the 1-click payment method step. It seems to require a credit card on file. I have a credit card but prefer to keep gift cards on the account. So I guess no special offers without a credit card.
January 5, 2012 at 9:25 pm |
I retract my previous statement. It did let me go past that step when I clicked on an old expired cc. Have to wait for wifi I guess before I can see offers.