The author of Jeff Bezos’ favorite novel wins Nobel

The author of Jeff Bezos’ favorite novel wins Nobel

There are several reasons why

Kazuo Ishiguro (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

being announced as the recipient of the

Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017

is interesting.

One is that Ishiguro is reportedly Jeff Bezo’s (Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Amazon) favorite author, or at least the author of Jeff’s favorite book, The Remains of the Day**:

Marketwatch article by Tom Teodorczuk

However, another “debate” is whether or not Ishiguro is a science fiction/fantasy author.

Of course yes.

The Buried Giant is a fantasy novel. Never Let Me Go is a science fiction novel.

There are literati who just aren’t going to accept that, though. They don’t think science fiction/fantasy can be great literature. There may even be a “class ceiling” which functions as a Catch-22. If science fiction can’t be great literature, than once a science fiction novel becomes too good, it is no longer science fiction, but “literary fiction” which winks/nods at science fiction.

I think that’s what is happening here for some of those who are even debating it.

Pretend it’s the end of the semester in a college literature class.

Student 1: “Which one was your favorite author?”

Student 2: “I liked the ghost story.”

Student 3: “I liked the post-apocalyptic super plague story.”

Student 4: “My favorite was the time travel comedy.”

Student 1: “I liked that one who did the story with the witches, the ghost Dad, and the Fae-shifter one.”

Who are they talking about?

The ghost story is Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)…who also mentions SHC (Spontaneous Human Combustion) in Bleak House.

The post-apocalyptic super plague is Jack London (The Scarlet Plague).

The time travel comedy is Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court).

All those last ones are William Shakespeare: the Scottish play, Hamlet, and .

Eventually, I hope to have all of the above authors in

The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip

That’s one of the points of TMCGTT…I want to show how diverse geeky works actually are, in the perhaps vain hope of removing some of the stigma.

It’s worth noting, though, that the stigma is eroding in many fields.

TV is increasingly recognizing geeky shows as art, as I pointed out here:

The Emmys are really geeky this year…but is that new?

The Oscars are seeing more nominations for geeky movies.

It seems that, for some reason, classical music and opera have never seen fantasy elements as a disqualifier for being quality.

I do find the selection of Ishiguro, following Bob Dylan’s pick last year, fascinating. It perhaps suggest some evolution in the selection process, although this is certainly not the first Nobel laureate who has written small “f” fantasy (Rudyard Kipling won, for example, whose works include not only Fantasy, but works that are clearly science fiction, set in the future and exploring the impact of technology).

Still, it is an interesting choice and may get more people to try Kazuo Ishiguro’s unique fiction…however they categorize it.

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My current Amazon giveaway:

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

Start:Sep 25, 2017 5:46 AM PDT

End:Oct 25, 2017 11:59 PM PDT

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

**I am not linking to this book because the publisher has chosen to block text-to-speech access. A Kindle with text-to-speech can read any text downloaded to it…unless that access is blocked by the publisher inserting code into the file to prevent it. That’s why you can have the device read personal documents to you (I’ve done that). I believe that this sort of access blocking disproportionately disadvantages the disabled, although I also believe it is legal (provided that there is at least one accessible version of each e-book available, however, that one can require a certification of disability). For that reason, I don’t deliberately link to books which block TTS access here (although it may happen accidentally, particularly if the access is blocked after I’ve linked it). I do believe this is a personal decision, and there  are legitimate arguments for purchasing those books. 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

 

Prime members: $30 off Kindle EBRs!

Prime members: $30 off Kindle EBRs!

This is a limited time offer, and yes, I think they may be clearing out stock before something interesting connected to the 10th anniversary of the Kindle on November 20th.

All of the current Kindle EBR (E-Book Readers…not tablets) models (although not necessarily every “flavor”) are on sale right now for

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members only.

That’s right:

Kindle, 6″ Glare-Free Touchscreen Display, Wi-Fi – Includes Special Offers (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) $49.99 instead of $79.99

All-New Kindle Paperwhite, 6″ High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi – Includes Special Offers (at AmazonSmile*) $89.99 instead of $119.99

Kindle Voyage (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) $169.99 instead of $199.99

The Kindle Oasis is also $30 off.

Check the price before you click, tap, or eye gaze (the last in virtual/augmented reality) that Buy button…this is a limited time offer, and may not apply in your country.

They say:

“This offer is valid for $30 off Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, Kindle Oasis Wi-Fi + Free 3G and Kindle for Kids Bundles sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC. • This is a limited time offer. • Offer does not apply to digital content. • Offer good while supplies last. •…”

It’s interesting that they say, “…while supplies last…” but that might just be boilerplate for promotions.

These are bargains…but be aware that there may be something on the horizon, which could also result in a lowering of prices for these models.

---

My current Amazon giveaway:

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

Start:Sep 25, 2017 5:46 AM PDT

End:Oct 25, 2017 11:59 PM PDT

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

 

Round up #164: taking names, tax bill

Round up #164: taking names, tax bill

The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.

“With tax, that comes to…$294 million”

I’ve written a lot about the issue of sales tax collection and Amazon in the USA. That eventually got settled (Amazon is now collecting sales tax in every state that has it).

However, Amazon is an international company, and they haven’t been without tax issues in other parts of the world.

As noted in this

recode post by Jason Del Rey and Tony Romm

and other sources, the European Union (EU) basically just said that Amazon owes about $294 million in “back taxes”.

Now, this one is a little weird and Amazon is looking at its options.

The EU isn’t saying that Amazon did something wrong…it’s saying that Luxembourg gave Amazon an illegal deal, from which the e-tailer benefited. This is roughly parallel to Amazon having bought illegal goods, and then they found the owner and they had to give them back.

This does happen with Kindle owners, and it’s one reason I’ve cautioned people against buying used Kindles in most cases. I have said that if you were buying a Kindle at, say, a garage sale, the seller should be able to turn it on for you and show that it can go to the Kindle store.

If they can’t do that, it may have been reported lost or stolen. If you buy it, first, you likely would not be able to register it. Second, if there is a police report, you might be required to surrender it with no compensation to you.

While about $300 million is a lot of money to most of us, it’s not a big problem for Amazon. Operating income in the second quarter of 2017 was $628 million, so this is less than half that. To be clear, that’s income, not profit…but Amazon isn’t a profit machine anyway. They reportedly spent $13.7 billion on Whole Foods, so this is less than 3%.

My guess is that they probably will end up paying the money eventually, but it’s not a big deal. Amazon has already gotten a market advantage out of the deal, and this doesn’t make that go away…

“Next stop…Amazon, Georgia!”

Amazon has a much publicized search going on for the site of its second headquarters. There is a lot of bidding going on, a lot of offers being made.

One city in Georgia, according to this

The Verge article by Shannon Liao

and other sources, has offered to rename itself “Amazon” if they get it.

There are certainly cities and towns named after businesses around the world. They’ve been named after a lot of things…Tarzana, California is named after the character Tarzan (author Edgar Rice Burroughs ((at AmazonSmile*)) used to own the property).

Then, of course, there is Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, which renamed itself after the popular game show because the host said that they would broadcast the 10th anniversary show from the first town which did so.

It will be interesting to see how this “competition” ends…

51 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Choose From in October

One interesting thing about flipping articles into my

ILMK magazine at Flipboard

is that I can see how many times something gets “reflipped”. That gives me some gauge of interest, although creatives (which I consider Flipboarders to be) aren’t necessarily the same as consumers.

People do tend to reflip interesting lists of books (putting a number in the title seems to help).

I thought this one:

Here Are 51 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Choose From in October by Cheryl Eddy in io9

was quite good, and it did get reflips.

It gives you a sense of the books…and this is a broad category, which can contain comedies, dramas, military-themed fiction, light fantasy…I would guess that small “f” fantasy (including science fiction) covers all of the themes that mainstream fiction does.

What do you think? Would you like an Amazon headquarters to come to your town? What would be the risks and benefits? What would you think of a town named Amazon? I have to say, I wouldn’t immediately assume it was because of the e-tailer…what if it was named “Amazon.com”? Is this different from naming a stadium? The New Mexico town outlasted the radio show…could that happen here? Is Amazon in any real trouble with the EU tax bill? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

My current Amazon giveaway:

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

Start:Sep 25, 2017 5:46 AM PDT

End:Oct 25, 2017 11:59 PM PDT

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Monthly Kindle Deals up to 80% off: October 2017

Monthly Kindle Deals up to 80% off: October 2017 

Amazon does the Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile…benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*), which used to discount four books a day (often general fiction, a romance, a science fiction/fantasy book, and a kids’ book). Now, it seems like it is generally more books than that, and not categorized…although they have been doing themes this year as well.

They also do Monthly Kindle Book Deals up to 80% off (at AmazonSmile*). There used to be about 100 of them, but there are many times that now: 1,103 at the time of writing…221 fewer than last month, which makes close to 500 fewer than two months ago.

Those prices only apply to the USA, and one weird thing is that sometimes some of the books seem to sell out at that price (or become unavailable for some other reason).

Another thing is that 310 of them (17 more than last month…and when you consider that there are a lot fewer books, it does seem to me like the percentage of books in KU has been increasing in the past month) are available through

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Amazon lists that information prominently…and it’s now commonly a filter in search results. If they are, then you need to consider whether it is worth buying them…even at these low prices. While they are in KU, you can, if you are a subscriber (and there’s a free month available right now), read them at no additional cost. There are, of course, advantages to owning books, especially if you want to re-read them. A book could move out of KU at any time. Even if you think you want to own it, if you are a KU member, you could always read it first to make sure. 😉 I will mark them with KU.

By the way, in the new version of the

eReaderIQ advanced search

you can make KU a filter. So, you can search for books by an author, a keyword, an average customer review which you can read as part of your KU membership…nice! I’m not associated with eReaderIQ except as a user (we have had some correspondence), but I do think it is the most valuable website for Kindleers.

In terms of which ones are

Prime Reading (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

eligible, which is Amazon’s new benefit for Prime members, a rotating list of books you can borrow each month, this month there is 5, which is 4 morethan last month. I can see an argument that not discounting (as much?) a book which is available to borrow for free makes that look like more of an advantage.

I’m going to list some of the books in this sale that caught my eye…I’m not necessarily recommending them, but I do think they are interesting.

The ones I link (if I actually link to specific books) also don’t block text-to-speech access…but I think blocking has become pretty unusual.

Okay, books!

• The Man of Legends by Kenneth Johnson (KU)
• House Rules by Jodi Picoult
• Hitler’s Children: Sons and Daughters of Third Reich Leaders by Gerald Posner
• Accidentally Hers (Sterling Canyon #1) by Jamie Beck (KU)
• Wives of War by Soraya M. Lane (KU)
• Zero Sum (John Rain) by Barry Eisler (KU)
• The Power of Time Perception: Control the Speed of Time to Slow Down Aging, Live a Long Life, and Make Every Second Count by Jean Paul Zogby (KU)
• Abducted (Lizzy Gardner #1) by T.R. Ragan (KU)
• Code Breakers (complete series, four books in one) | 4.2 stars | 583 reviews $1.20 (KU) (quite the bargain for a well-reviewed series)
• Good Behavior by Blake Crouch (Kindle in Motion) (KU)
• Death Around the Bend (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery #3) by T.E. Kinsley
• Stone Song: A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse by Win Blevin (KU)
• The Man Who Could Be King by John Ripin Miller (KU)
• Company Commander by Charles B. MacDonald (KU)
• How Dogs Love Us by Gregory Berns (KU) (I recommend this one)
• Time of the Celts by Jane Stain (KU)
• Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth #5) by Terry Goodkind
• Glory Box (Road to Babylon #1) by Sam Sisavath (KU)
• His Bloody Project by Graeme MaCrae Burnet
• The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg (KU)
• The Player (The Player Duet #1) by K. Bromberg (4.7 stars out of 5 | 470 customer reviews)
• Moon Angel (Vampire for Hire #14) by J.R. Rain (4.8 stars | 113 reviews) KU
• In Another World with My Smartphone #1 (4.4 stars | 37 reviews)
• Beautiful Bodies by Kimberly Rae Miller (KU)
• A Goblin’s Tale (The Iron Teeth #1) by Scott Straughan
• Ripper by Patricia Cornwell (Kindle in Motion) $1.99 (KU) (I’ve been slowly reading this one..I find it quite convincing)

Remember that you can buy them now as gifts and delay the delivery for the appropriate gift-giving occasion, or print them out and wrap them for whenever you want.

It makes a lot of sense to have so many series starters, but I should also mention that there may be other books in the series in the group…I didn’t list two book in the same series.

If there were others you’d like to mention for me and my readers, please comment on this post.

Prime members, don’t forget to pick up your

Kindle First books (at AmazonSmile*)

You can get one of the six (same as last month) books to own (not borrow) for free…these are books which will be actually released next month. This line was at the bottom of the listings this time (I changed the link): “Please note: Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) subscribers can borrow these Kindle First books when they are officially released on November 1, 2017″. The choices this month are:

• A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake (book club fiction)
• The Extraditionist (Benn Bluestone #1) by Todd Merer (legal thriller)
• The Unremembered  Girl by Eliza Maxwell (suspense)
• Mark of Fire (The Endarian Prophecy #1) by Richard Phillips (fantasy)
• The Honest Spy by Andreas Kollender (translated by Steve Anderson) (historical fiction)
• The House by the River by Lena Manta (translated by Gail Holst-Warhaft

People like to know which one I pick…and nothing is grabbing me yet. 😦 My experiences with translated books from Amazon have not been good, so that makes me unlikely to pick one of the last two. The fantasy, which would be sort of my fall back, has reviews that concern me (even though there aren’t that many). Something new that I’m seeing is ratings filtered by “customers interested in” genres. According to that, people who are interested in science fiction books rated it 3.6 out of 5…hm, but there are only four reviews altogether. That’s what can be misleading sometimes…the one sub 4 review is actually pretty positive and the reviewer intends to read the whole series, so I think I will go with Mark of Fire.

By the way, I did want to say (even if my readers don’t particularly want reviews in this blog), that the Kindle First book I got last month

The Naturalist (Theo Cray #1) by Andrew Mayne (at AmazonSmile*)

is the best Kindle First book I’ve gotten…and so far, a good book regardless. 🙂 The science has been reasonable and it is hasn’t been too dark or graphically violent. I’m enjoying the characters and the plot…the main character reminds me a bit of Don Tillman of The Rosie Project (which was a book I really enjoyed, as did my Significant Other…we were quite disappointed when, after we’d purchased it, the publisher chose to block text-to-speech access. The way that works is it doesn’t take away the access from us, but does from new purchasers. I just double-checked, and it is still blocked). It’s a somewhat light murder mystery, although there is violence…maybe The Rosie Project meets Stephanie Plum. 😉

Enjoy!

===

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

Snapshot: October 1, 2017

Snapshot: October 1, 2017

Note: thanks to reader feedback, especially from Edward Boyhan, I moved the older data (generally, more than two years old) to a page (Historical Snapshot) rather than a post. However, it appears I have to re-think this again, because apparently, even this version is too big. I’ll reconsider what I’ll do.

Summary:

The New York Times bestseller hardback fiction equivalents shot up…$0.66 cents on average. That makes it the highest it’s been since February. The percentage of books priced from one penny to fifty dollars which are under $10 fell two tenths of a percentage. The number of books in Prime Reading is as low as it’s ever been. The number of books in the Kindle Matchbook Program hasn’t been this low since 2014. My sense here is that some prices are really creeping up, but we’ll keep an eye on it.

Titles in Kindle Store

October 1, 2017: 5,608,214
September 1, 2017: 5,526,342
August 1, 2017: 5,454,920
July 1, 2017: 5,347,117
June 1, 2017: 5,256,676
May 1, 2017: 5,191,246
April 1, 2017: 5,129,972
March 1, 2017: 5,081,365
February 1, 2017: 5,030,914
January 1, 2017: 4,972,110
December 1, 2016: 4,908,904
November 1, 2016: 4,861,264
October 1, 2016: 4,790,218
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed their search results): Update 4,742,587
August 1, 2016: 4,673,290
July 1, 2016: 4,606,532
June 1, 2016: 4,535,673
May 1, 2016: 4,466,976
April 1, 2016: 4,433,082
March 1, 2016: 4,356,852
February 1, 2016: 4,260,301
January 1, 2016: 4,168,071
December 1, 2015: 4,046,825 (note: as I projected, the USA Kindle store broke 4 million titles)
November 1, 2015: 3,961,896
October 1, 2015: 3,875,694
September 1, 2015: 3,799,009
August 1, 2015: 3,714,509
July 1, 2015: 3,636,269
June 1, 2015: 3,530,378
May 1, 2015: 3,457,009
April 1, 2015: 3,378,436
March 1, 2015: 3,288,124
February 1, 2015: 3,178,962
January 1, 2015: 3,104,677
December 1, 2014: 3,027,234
November 1, 2014: 2,958,430
October 1, 2014: 2,888,225
September 1, 2014: 2,801,221
August 1, 2014: 2,724,012
July 1, 2014: 2,655,727
June 1, 2014: 2,596,747 (2,597,112 for second run)
May 1, 2014: 2,576,453
May 16 2009: 284,491

Approximate average of titles added per day:

October 1, 2017: 2,729
September 1, 2017: 2,304
August 1, 2017: 3,478
July 1, 2017: 2,917
June 1, 2017: 2,111
May 1, 2017: 2,042
April 1, 2017: 1,568
March 1, 2017: 1,627
February 1, 2017: 1,897
January 1, 2017: 2,039
December 1, 2016: 1,537
November 1, 2016: 2,292
October 1, 2016: 1,536
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed their search results) Update: 2,235
August 1, 2016: 2,153
July 1, 2016: 2,286
June 1, 2016: 2,216
May 1, 2016: 1,130
April 1, 2016: 2,459
March 1, 2016: 3,329
February 1, 2016: 2,975
January 1, 2016: 3,911
December 1, 2015: 2,831
November 1, 2015: 2,873
October 1, 2015: 2,556
September 1, 2015: 2,726
August 1, 2015: 2,524
July 1, 2015: 3,530
June 1, 2015: 2,446
May 1, 2015: 2,619
April 1, 2015: 3,225
March 1, 2015: 3,899
February 1, 2015: 2,396
January 1, 2015: 2,581
December 1, 2014: 2,293
November 1, 2014: 2,265
October 1, 2014: 2,900
September 1, 2014: 2,491
August 1, 2014: 2,276
July 1, 2014: 1954
June 1, 2014: 655 (2nd run: 689)
May 1, 2014: 2,131

Newsstand: 

October 1, 2017: 2,279 (+15)
September 1, 2017: 2,264 (-6)
August 1, 2017: 2,270 (+12)
July 1, 2017: 2,258 (-31)
June 1, 2017: 2,289 (+40)
May 1, 2017: 2,249 (+79)
April 1, 2017: 2,170 (+160)
March 1, 2017: 2,010 (for March 1, 2017, Amazon combined Magazines & Newspapers into Newsstand) (+120)

February 1st: Magazines=1,732+Newspapers=158 for a total of 1,890

Magazines:

March 1, 2017: combined into Newsstand
February 1, 2017: 1,732 (+354!)
January 1, 2017: 1,378 (+97)
December 1, 2016: 1,281 (+106)
November 1, 2016: 1,175
October 1, 2016: 1,172
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed their search results) Update: 975
August 1, 2016: 788
July 1, 2016: 758
June 1, 2016: 741
May 1, 2016: 714
April 1, 2016: 711
March 1, 2016: 699
February 1, 2016: 685
January 1, 2016: 684
December 1, 2015: 667
November 1, 2015: 646
October 1, 2015: 632
September 1, 2015: 638
August 1, 2015: 636
July 1, 2015: 632
June 1, 2015: 631
May 1, 2015: 630
April 1, 2015: 643
March 1, 2015: 647
February 1, 2015: 638
January 1, 2015: 638
December 1, 2014: 643
November 1, 2014: 646
October 1, 2014: 652
September 1, 2014: 652
August 1, 2014: 649
July 1, 2014: 650
June 1, 2014: 668
May 1, 2014: 671

Newspapers:

March 1, 2017: combined into Newsstand
February 1, 2017: 158
January 1, 2017: 158
December 1, 2016: 157
November 1, 2016: 158
October 1, 2016: 158
September 1, 2016: 159
August 1, 2016: 160
July 1, 2016: 166
June 1, 2016: 167
May 1, 2016: 168
April 1, 2016: 168
March 1, 2016: 172
February 1, 2016: 172
January 1, 2016: 169
December 1, 2015: 168
November 1, 2015: 168
October 1, 2015: 168
September 1, 2015: 172
August 1, 2015: 173
July 1, 2015: 173
June 1, 2015: 173
May 1, 2015: 172
April 1, 2015: 173
March 1, 2015: 172
February 1, 2015: 170
January 1, 2015: 175
December 1, 2014: 174
November 1, 2014: 174
October 1, 2014: 174
September 1, 2014: 175
August 1, 2014: 174
July 1, 2014: 175
June 1, 2014: 177
May 1, 2014: 178

Blogs:

October 1, 2017: ILMK rank #12
September 1, 2017: ILMK rank #9
August 1, 2017: 16,217 (nice to see the numbers back!) (ILMK rank #10)
July 1, 2017: ILMK rank #9
June 1, 2017: ILMK rank #9 (blogs no longer appear separately in Newsstand…and searching for one of my own blogs, it did find it, but it said there were no results in the Kindle store)
May 1, 2017: I wasn’t able to find a number this time (ILMK rank #8)
April 1, 2017: 16,046 (ILMK rank #12) (+34)
March 1, 2017: 16,012 (ILMK rank: #8) (+19)
February 1, 2017: 15,993 (ILMK rank: #8)
January 1, 2017: 15,969 (ILMK rank: #11)
December 1, 2016: 15,942 (ILMK rank: #11)
November 1, 2016: 15,883 (ILMK rank: #10)
October 1, 2016: 15,864 (ILMK rank: #16)
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed their search results) (ILMK rank: #10) Update 15,850
August 1, 2016: 15,792 (ILMK rank: #9)
July 1, 2016: 15,746 (ILMK rank: #8)
June 1, 2016: 15,708 (ILMK rank: #8)
May 1, 2016: 15,669 (ILMK rank: #14)
April 1, 2016: 15,351 (ILMK rank: I could not find a ranking for bestselling blogs)
March 1, 2016: 15,144 (ILMK rank: #9)
February 1, 2016: 15,156 (ILMK rank: #10)
January 1, 2016: 15,122 (ILMK rank: #8)
December 1, 2015: 15,071 (ILMK rank: #8)
November 1, 2015: 15,030 (ILMK rank: #8)
October 1, 2015: 14,983 (ILMK rank: #8)
September 1, 2015: 14,923 (ILMK rank: #8)
August 1, 2015: 14,883 (ILMK rank: #8)
July 1, 2015: 14,837 (ILMK rank:#8)
June 1, 2015: 14,768 (ILMK rank: #8)
May 1, 2015: 14,679 (ILMK rank: #8)
April 1, 2015: 14,648 (ILMK rank: #9)
March 1, 2015: 14,588 (ILMK rank: #8)
February 1, 2015: 14,419 (ILMK rank: #8)
January 1, 2015: 14,392 (ILMK rank: #10)
December 1, 2014: 14,337 (ILMK rank: #14)
November 1, 2014: 14,267
October 1, 2014: 14,189 (ILMK rank: #11)
September 1, 2014: 14,151 (ILMK rank: #12)
August 1, 2014: 14,089 (ILMK rank: #13)
July 1, 2014: 13,985 (ILMK rank: #13)
June 1, 2014: 13,924 (ILMK rank: #8)
May 1, 2014: 13,811 (ILMK rank: #10)

Percentage of books priced from one penny to $50 that are under ten dollars

September 2017 (taken October 1, 2017): 86.3% (4,555,617 of 5,278,582)
August 2017 (taken September 1, 2017): 86.5% (4,505,672 of 5,208,707)
July 2017 (taken August 1, 2017): 86.5% (4,444,889 of 5,454,920)
June 2017 (taken July 1, 2017): 86.6% (4,363,029 of 5,041,034)
May 2017 (taken June 1, 2017): 86.7% (4,313,259 of 4,973,278)
April 2017 (taken May 1, 2017): 86.7% (4,250,404 of 4,901,506)
March 2017 (taken April 1, 2017): 86.6% (4,196,608 of 4,843,952)
February 2017 (taken March 1, 2017): 86.6% (4,144,877 of 4,784,032)
January 2017 (taken February 1, 2017): 86.7% (4,099,841 of 4,731,096)
December 2016 (taken January 1, 2017): 86.9% (4,109,227 of 4,730,019)
November 2016 (taken December 1, 2016): 86.6% (4,603,953 of 3,989,241)
October 2016 (taken November 1, 2016): 86.3% (3,940,811 of 4,567,105)
September 2016,(taken October 1, 2016): 86.2% (3,881,084 of 4,499,991)
August 2016, (taken September 1, 2016): number unavailable Update: $0.01 to $50=4,470,630 | $0.01 to $9.99=3,853,639 | 86.2%
July 2016, (taken August 1, 2016): 85.6% (3,800,960 of 4,441,416)
June, 2016 (taken July 1, 2016): 86.1% (3,747,972 of 4,606,532)
May 2016, (taken June 1, 2016): 85.6% (4,26,357 of 3,678,86)
April, 2016 (taken May 1, 2016): 85.2% (3,598,659 of 4,225,884)
March, 2016 (taken April 1, 2016): 85.4% (3,587,825 of 4,203,311)
February, 2016 (taken March 1, 2016): 85.2% (3,522,742 of 4,133,304)
January, 2016 (taken February 1, 2016): 85.2% (3,440,910 of 4,038,776)
December, 2016 (taken January 1, 2016): 85.0% (3,350,232 of 3,490,070)
November, 2015 (taken December 1, 2015): 84.9% (3,242,119 of 3,818,499)
October, 2015 (taken November 1, 2015): 84.7% (3,166,691 of 3,736,839)
September, 2015 (taken October 1, 2015): 84.8% (3,096,037 of 3,652,166)
August, 2015: (taken September 1, 2015): 85.3% (3,048,620 of 3,575,587)
July, 2015 (taken August 1, 2015): 85.3% (2,969,714 of 3,482,960)
June, 2015 (taken July 1, 2015: 83.9% (2,893,481 of 3,408,090)
May, 2015 (taken June 1, 2015): 84.7% (2,800,318 of 3,306,054)
April, 2015 (taken May 1, 2015): 84.6% (2,736,106 of 3,232,290)
March, 2015 (taken April 1, 2015): 88.4% (2,802,470 of 3,171,379)
February, 2015 (taken March 1, 2015): 88.3% (2,721,649 of 3,083,344)
January, 2015 (taken February 1, 2015): 88.4% (2,630,162 of 2,976,291)
December, 2014 (taken January 1, 2015): 88.3% (2,567,412 of 2,907,638)
November, 2014 (taken December 1, 2014):88.3% (2,506,715 of 2,838,606)
October, 2014 (taken November 1, 2014): 88.4% (2,451,370 of 2,774,474)
September, 2014: (taken October 1, 2014): 88.2% (2,387,727 of 2,707,622)
August, 2014: (taken September 1, 2014): 87.9% (2,304,717 of 2,621,516)
July, 2014 (taken August 1, 2014): 87.7% (2,232,131 of 2,544,623)
June, 2014 (taken July 1, 2014): 87.7% (2,172,079 of 2,477,343)
May, 2014 (taken June 1, 2014): 74.6% (294,759 of 395,137) | Second run (to account for possible Amazon glitching): 87.6% (2,121,022 of 2,422,630)

Percentage of books with a publication date of the previous month priced from one penny to $50 that are under ten dollars

Books for July, 2017: 89.7% (95,336 of 106,241)
Books for June, 2017: 91.7% (88,860 of 96,928)
Books for May, 2017: 90.6% (83,527 of 92,179)
Books for April, 2017: 92.5% (79,847 of 86,318)
Books for March, 2017: 92.0% (85,450 of 92,905)
Books for February, 2017: 92.7% (78,288 of 84,493)
Books for January, 2017: 92.3% (81,965 of 88,810)
Books for December, 2016: 90.4% (78,386 of 86,689)
Books for November, 2016: 92.3% (80,218 of 86,941)
Books for October, 2016: 87.1% (80,417 of 92,350)
Books for September, 2016: 84.8% (77,656 of 91,542)
Books for August, 2016: 85.6% (83,972 or 98,113)
Books for July, 2016: 88.6% (81,803 of 92,207)
Books for June, 2016: 93.2% (82,227 of 88,180)
Books for May, 2016: 93.1% (82,022 of 88,070)
Books for April, 2016: 92.2% (80,910 of 87,717)
Books for March, 2016: 94.% (95,732 of 101,747)
Books for February 2016: 95.4% (112,307 of 117,729)
Books for January, 2016: 94.2% (87,774 of 93,160)
Books for December, 2016: 94.9% (96,092 of 101,225)
Books for November, 2015: 92.6% (79,061 of 85,397)
Books for October, 2015: 92.2% (76,789 of 83,244)
Books for September, 2015: 92.7% (78,419 of 84,314)
Books for August, 2015: 94.2% (83,159 of 88,243)
Books for July, 2015: 94.3% (81,843 of 86,827)
Books for June, 2015: 94.0% (80,396 of 85,535)
Books for May, 2015: 93.5% (74,211 of 79,388)
Books for April, 2015: 93.3% (76,455 of 81,914)
Books for March, 2015: 93.6% (85,581 of 91,471)
Books for February, 2015: 94.7% (74,806 of 78,979)
Books for January, 2015: 94.6% (73,166 of 77,329)
Books for December, 2014: 95.1% (72,247 of 77,048)
Books for November, 2014: 93.2% (72,264 of 77,550)
Books for October, 2014: 94.0% (72,051 of 76,646)
Books for September, 2014: 95.0% (77,730 of 81,864)
Books for August, 2014: 95.8% (72,127 of 75,293)
Books for July, 2014: 95.8% (72,543 of 75,750)
Books for June, 2014: 94.4% (63,104 of 66,856)
Books for May, 2014: 81.4% (3,177 of 3,905) | 2nd run to account for Amazon possibly glitching: 94.7% (65,080 of 68,713)

Books in the Seventy Percent Royalty Range ($2.99 – $9.99)

October 1, 2017: 61.2% (3,432,265 of 5,608,214)
September 1, 2017: 61.4% (3,396,287 of 5,526,342)
August 1, 2017: 61.3% (3,341,491 of 5,454,920)
July 1, 2017: 61.2% (3,273,547 of 5,347,117)
June 1, 2017: 61.5% (3,234,390 of 5,256,676)
May 1, 2017: 61.3% (3,184,293 of 5,191,246)
April 1, 2017: 61.3% (3,143,297 of 5,129,972)
March 1, 2017: 61.2% (3,108,757 of 5,081,365)
February 1, 2017: 61.1% (3,073,787 of 5,030,914)
January 1, 2017: 60.9% (3,030,096 of 4,972,110)
December 1, 2016: 60.8% (2,987,081 of 4,908,984)
November 1, 2016: 60.8% (2,956,217 of 4,861,264)
October 1, 2016: 60.6% (2,902,687 of 4,790,218)
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed their search results) | Update on 9/3: 61.1% (2,897,126 of 4,742,587)
August 1, 2016: 61.2% (2,860,965 of 4,673,290)
July 1, 2016: 61.3% (2,821,664 of 4,606,532)
June 1, 2016: 61.0% (2,767,757 of 4,535,673)
May 1, 2016: 60.5% (2,704,477 of 4,466,976)
April 1, 2016: 61.1% (2,707,775 of 4,433,082)
March 1, 2016: 60.8% (2,647,699 of 4,356,852)
February 1, 2016: 60.7% (2,587,810 of 4,20,301)
January 1, 2016: 60.2% (2,507,452 of 4,168,071)
December 1, 2015: 60.5% (2,447,446 of 4,046,825)
November 1, 2015: 60.5% (2,398,461 of 3,961,896)
October 1, 2015: 60.3% (2,338,287 of 3,75,694)
September 1, 2015: 60.7% (2,306,295 of 3,799,099)
August 1, 2015: 60.6% (2,251,364 of 3,714,509)
July 1, 2015: 60.4% (2,195,452 of 3,636,269)
June 1, 2015: 60.5% (2,134,639 of 3,530,378)
May 1, 2015: 60.4% (2,088,376 of 3,457,009)
April 1, 2015: 64.1% (2,164,454 of 3,378,436)
March 1, 2015: 64.2% (2,111,025 of 3,288,124)
February 1, 2015: 64.3% (2,043,564 of 3,178,962)
January 1, 2015: 64.2% (1,992,162 of 3,104,677)
December 1, 2014: 64.2% (1,943,782 of 3,027,234)
November 1, 2014: 64.6% (1,909,982 of 2,958,430)
October 1, 2014: 64.3% (1,857,411 of 2,888,225)
September 1, 2014: 63.9% (1,778,889 of 2,801,221)
August 1, 2014: 63.6% (1,731,841 of 2,724,012)
July 1, 2014: 63.4% (1,684,876 of 2,655,727)
June 1, 2014: 8.7% (225,848 of 2,597,747) | second run to account for Amazon possibly glitching 63.4% (1,647,127 of 2,597,112)
May 1, 2014: 63.8% (1,644,029 of 2,576,453)

Books from one penny to $2.98

October 1, 2017: 20.9% (1,173,540 of 5,608,214)
September 1, 2017: 20.9% (1,157,324 of 5,526,342)
August 1, 2017: 20.8% (1,151,510 of 5,526,342)
July 1, 2017: 21.2% (1,136,108 of 5,347,117)
June 1, 2017: 21.4% (1,125,075 or 5,256,676)
May 1, 2017: 21.4% (1,111,527 of 5,191,246)
April 1, 2017: 21.4% (1,0975,88 of 5,129,972)
March 1, 2017: 21.2% (1,078,862 of 5,081,365)
February 1, 2017: 21.2% (1,067,995 of 5,030,914)
January 1, 2017: 21.3% (1,057,373 of 4,972,110)
December 1, 2016: 21.2% (1,042,980 of 4,908,984)
November 1, 2016: 21.1% (1,024,995 of 4,861,264)
October 1, 2016: 21.3% (1,018,083 of 4,790,218)
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed their search results) Update 9/3: 21.1% (999,067 of 4,742,587)
August 1, 2016: 20.9% (977,901 of 4,673,290)
July 1, 2016: 20.9% (963,039 of 4,606,532)
June 1, 2016: 20.9% (947,387 of 4,535,673)
May 1, 2016: 20.8% (929,532 of 4,466,976)
April 1, 2016: 20.6% (914,517 of 4,433,082)
March 1, 2016: 20.8% (907,912 of 4,356,852)
February 1, 2016: 20.8% (884,290 of 4,260,301)
January 1, 2016: 20.8% (868,268 of 4,168,071)
December 1, 2015: 20.3% (819,885 of 4,046,825)
November 1, 2015: 20.0% (791,777 of 3,961,896)
October 1, 2015: 20.1% (780,371 of 3,875,694)
September 1, 2015: 20.1% (764,280 of 3,799,009)
August 1, 2015: 19.9% (739,684 of 3,714,509)
July 1, 2015: 19.8% (718,584 of 3,636,269)
June 1, 2015: 20.5% (685,609 of 3,350,378)
May 1, 2015: 19.3% (6,671,179 of 3,457,009)
April 1, 2015: 19.5% (657,728 of 3,378,436)
March 1, 2015: 21.3% (699,221 of 3,288,124)
February 1, 2015: 19.0% (603,638 of 3,178,962)
January 1, 2015: 19.1% (591,610 of 3,104,677)
December 1, 2014: 19.1% (579,121 of 3,027,234)
November 1, 2014: 18.8% (556,881 of 2,958,430)
October 1, 2014: 18.9% (545,350 of 2,888,225)
September 1, 2014: 18.9% (529,976 of 2,801,221)
August 1, 2014: 18.9% (513,541 of 2,724,012)
July 1, 2014: 18.8% (499,756 of 2,655,727)
June 1, 2014: 2.7% (70,679 of 2,596,747) | second run to account for Amazon possibly glitching: 18.7% (485,799 of 2,597,112)
May 1, 2014: 18.4% (474,202 of 2,576,453)

Price Point Analysis of New York Times Hardback Fiction Equivalents

October 1, 2017

15.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 12.99
14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 13.99

Average: $14.52 (+$0.66) 0 titles under $10

September 1, 2017

14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 12.99 13.99
13.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 12.99

Average: $13.86 (-$0.49) 0 titles under $10

August 1, 2017

14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 14.99
13.99 N/A 14.99 14.99 11.99 14.99 12.99 13.99

Average: $14.35 (+$0.03) 0 titles under $10 (first time in a long time a title hasn’t been available in Kindle format)

July 1, 2017

14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 14.99
14.99 14.99 17.99 13.99 14.99 7.99 12.99

Average: $14.32 (+$0.53) 1 title under $10

June 1, 2017

14.99 13.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 6.99 14.99
14.99 12.99 13.99 14.99 13.99 11.99 13.99

Average: $13.79 (+$0.31) 1 title under $10

May 1, 2017

14.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 13.99 9.32 12.99
12.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 12.99

Average: $13.48 (+$0.03) 1 title under $10

April 1, 2017

14.99 14.99 9.32 12.99 12.99 9.45 13.99 13.99
12.99 13.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 13.99 14.99

Average: $13.44 (-0.68) 2 titles under $10

March 1, 2017

13.99 12.98 12.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99
13.99 13.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99

Average: $14.12 (-0.60) 0 titles under $10

February 1, 2017:

14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99
14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99

Average: $14.72 (+0.28) 0 titles under $10 ($1.28 higher than one year ago)

January 1, 2017:

14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99
14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 9.99

Average: $14.44 (+.05) 1 title under $10

December 1, 2016:

14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 10.99 14.99 14.99
12.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 12.99

Average: $14.39 (+0.50) 0 titles under $10

November 1, 2016

14.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 13.99 13.99
13.99 13.99 14.99 11.99 13.99 9.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 12.99

Average: $13.89 (-.04) 1 title under $10

October 1, 2016

13.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 14.99 13.99
12.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 12.99 9.99 12.99 14.99 16.86

Average: $13.93 (+0.29) 1 title under $10

September 1, 2016

13.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99
13.99 14.99 9.99 14.99 13.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 12.99

Average: $13.64 (-0.10) 1 title under $10

August 1, 2016

14.99 9.99 13.99 10.99 14.99 9.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 13.99
14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 11.99 13.99

Average: $13.54 (-0.30) 2 titles under $10

July 1, 2016

14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 14.99 14.99
14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 12.99 9.99

Average: $13.84 (+0.45) 1 title under $10

June 1, 2016

14.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 10.99
13.99 12.99 14.99 9.99 12.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 12.99 8.99

Average: $13.39 (-0.10) 2 titles under $10

May 1, 2016:

14.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 9.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 12.99
13.99 13.99 12.99 $12.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 13.99

Average: $13.49 (+0.01) 1 title under $10

April 1, 2016

14.99 14.99 13.99 9.99 13.99 12.99 13.99 14.99 13.99 14.99
13.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 10.99 12.99 14.74 11.99

Average: $13.48 (+0.04) 1 title under $10

March 1, 2016

12.99 13.99 12.99 9.99 13.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 12.99
13.99 12.99 13.99 10.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 13.99 14.99 13.99

Average: $13.44 (+0.17) 1 title under $10

February 1, 2016

12.99 13.99 12.99 13.99 13.99 9.99 12.99 N/A 12.99 12.99
12.99 13.99 14.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 N/A 12.99 11.99 13.99

Average: $13.27 (-.52) 1 title under $10

January 1, 2016

12.99 13.99 12.99 14.99 14.99 11.99 12.99 14.99 12.99 14.99
9.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 12.99

Average: $13.79 (+.70) 1 title under $10

December 1, 2015

13.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 13.99 14.99 10.99 12.99
13.99 9.99 11.99 13.99 4.99 14.99 11.99 13.99 14.99 12.99

Average: $13.09 (-.50) 2 titles under $10

November 1, 2015

12.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 12.99 11.99 14.99
13.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 14.99 9.99 12.99 13.99 12.99

Average: $13.59 (+.03) 1 title under $10

October 1, 2015

14.99 13.99 13.99 14.99 13.99 7.99 12.99 14.99 12.99 13.99
12.99 9.45 12.99 14.99 13.99 13.99 13.99 13.99 13.99 14.99

Average: $13.56 (+$0.72) 2 titles under $10

September 1, 2015

13.99 7.99 13.99 12.99 14.99 14.99 13.99 12.99 12.99 8.99
11.99 12.99 14.99 12.99 14.99 9.99 12.99 12.99 11.99 12.99

Average: $12.84 (+$1.33) 3 titles under $10

August 1, 2015

13.99 6.99 13.99 9.99 14.99 9.99 10.99 8.99 8.99 11.43
9.99 11.99 14.99 10.99 10.99 10.99 12.99 10.99 12.99 12.99

Average; $11.51 (-$0.62) 6 titles under $10

July 1, 2015

13.99 6.99 8.99 14.99 10.99 11.99 8.99 9.99 12.99 16.99
11.84 12.99 13.99 11.99 9.99 14.99 14.99 10.99 12.99 10.99

Average: $12.13 (+$0.16) 5 titles under $10

June 1, 2015

6.99 13.99 16.99 9.99 9.99 12.99 10.99 8.99 12.99 12.99
11.43 11.99 12.99 12.99 9.99 12.99 11.84 12.31 14.99 10.99

Average: $11.97 (+$1.69) 5 titles under $10

May 1, 2015

6.99 12.31 8.99 8.99 8.97 8.99 12.99 11.84 10.99 11.84
12.99 6.99 11.84 9.99 12.99 12.99 5.99 9.10 12.99 6.86

Average: $10.28 (-$1.40) 10 titles under $10

April 1, 2015

6.99 12.99 9.99 13.59 10.99 10.99 10.99 12.99 11.99 10.99
12.99 12.99 11.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 12.99 9.99 9.19 11.99

Average: $11.68 (+$0.57) 4 titles under $10

March 1, 2015

8.99 11.99 10.49 10.99 12.99 14.99 9.99 9.99 9.99 11.99
12.99 11.99 9.79 11.99 11.99 10.99 9.99 10.99 5.99 12.99

Average: $11.11 (+$1.34) 7 titles under $10

February 1, 2015

8.99 11.99 9.79 12.99 9.79 9.99 11.99 7.99 9.99 3.99
12.99 11.99 8.99 5.99 3.99 10.99 6.99 10.99 12.99 11.99

Average: $9.77 (+$0.11) 11 titles under $10

January 1, 2015

9.99 7.69 9.99 7.19 10.99 11.99 10.99 3.99 11.99 7.49
10.99 11.89 6.99 10.99 9.99 10.99 10.99 5.99 10.99 10.99

Average: $9.66 (+$0.09) 9 titles under $10

December 1, 2014

10.99 12.74 3.25 9.78 4.99 10.99 12.99 6.99 11.84 10.99
10.99 5.00 9.99 9.78 9.09 10.99 10.99 10.99 6.99 10.99

Average: $9.57 (-$0.65) 9 titles under $10

November 1, 2014

10.99 9.99 11.99 6.50 10.99 10.99 6.99 10.99 10.99 10.99
10.99 6.99 10.99 10.99 10.99 11.99 10.99 10.99 7.99 9.99

Average: $10.22 (-$0.86) 6 titles under $10

October 1, 2014

10.99 10.99 11.99 10.99 12.99 10.99 11.99 12.74 11.99 9.99
10.99 10.99 8.99 6.99 10.99 11.99 10.99 12.99 7.99 12.99

Average: $11.08 (-$0.43) 4 titles under $10

September 1, 2014

9.99 10.99 13.99 10.99 6.99 13.99 10.99 10.99 12.99 11.99
10.99 14.99 11.84 11.99 9.99 11.84 8.99 11.99 12.74 10.99

Average: $11.51 (+$0.56) 4 titles under $10

August 1, 2014

8.99 8.99 10.99 11.99 11.84 6.99 11.99 10.99 10.99 10.99
10.99 8.52 12.99 14.99 10.99 N/A 12.74 10.99 10.99 9.99

Average: $10.95 (+$0.30) 5 titles under $10

July 1, 2014

11.84 8.99 11.99 11.99 10.99 6.99 11.99 11.84 12.99 10.49
10.99 7.99 11.99 10.99 7.99 11.99 5.99 11.84 12.99 9.99

Average: $10.64 (+$0.22) 6 titles under $10

June 1, 2014

8.99 7.50 8.99 8.99 12.99 10.99 10.99 9.99 10.99 14.44
10.99 10.99 9.99 11.84 10.99 8.99 11.84 10.99 5.99 10.99

Average: $10.42 (-$0.16) 8 titles under $10

May 1, 2014

10.99 11.04 10.99 7.50 8.99 10.99 10.99 10.99 12.99 12.99
11.04 5.99 10.99 9.10 12.99 8.55 10.99 13.99 9.99 9.45

Average: $10.58 (-$0.27) 7 titles under $10

Textbooks in the Kindle Store

October 1, 2017: 54,262 (+1,005)
September 1, 2017: 53,257 (+661)
August 1, 2017: 52,596 (+1,089)
July 1, 2017: 51,507 (+930)
June 1, 2017: 50,577 (+603)
May 1, 2017: 49,974 (+375)
April 1, 2017: 49,599
March 1, 2017: 48,854
February 1, 2017: 48,037
January 1, 2017: 47,568
December 1, 2016: 47,079
November 1, 2016: 59,790
October 1, 2016: 58,158
September 1, 2016: number unavailable (Amazon has changed its search results)| 9/3: 58,033
August 1, 2016: 64,027
July 1, 2016: 63,869
June 1, 2016: 63,301
May 1, 2016: 62,577
April 1, 2016: 61,867
March 1, 2016: 61,532
February 1, 2016: 60,985
January 1, 2016: 59,826
December 1, 2015: 59,953
November 1, 2015: 58,582
October 1, 2015: 58,203
September 1, 2015: 48,650
August 1, 2015: 48,063
July 1, 2015: 47,977
June 1, 2015: 47,388
May 1, 2015: 46,799
April 1, 2015: 46,482
March 1, 2015: 46,145
February 1, 2015: 46,265
January 1, 2015: 45,345
December 1, 2014: 44,787
November 1, 2014: 44,250
October 1, 2014: 43,910
September 1, 2014: 43,385
August 1, 2014: 42,643
July 1, 2014: 42,114
June 1, 2014: 40,810
May 1, 2014: 39,687

Free books (including public domain)

October 1, 2017: 91,931 (-2%)
September 1, 2017: 93,748 (+2%)
August 1, 2017: 92,344 (-2%)
July 1, 2017: 94,294 (+2%)
June 1, 2017: 92,274 (+1%)
May 1, 2017: 91,043 (-2%)
April 1, 2017: 92,489 (+3%)
March 1, 2017: 90,113 (+0%)
February 1, 2017: 89,546 (-1%)
January 1, 2017: 90,706 (+0%)
December 1, 2016: 90,637 (+1%)
November 1, 2016: 88,973 (-1%)
October 1, 2016: 90,005 (-0%)
September 1, 2016: number not available (Amazon has changed its search results) 9/3: 90,180 (+3%)
August 1, 2016: 87,789 (-2%)
July 1, 2016: 89,564 (+5%)
June 1, 2016: 85,502 (-0%)
May 1, 2016: 85,895 (+3%)
April 1, 2016: 83,725 (-1%)
March 1, 2016: 84,422 (+2%)
February 1, 2016: 82,583 (-0%)
January 1, 2016: 82,656 (+2%)
December 1, 2015: 81,264 (+1%)
November 1, 2015: 80,629 (+1%)
October 1, 2015: 79,676 (+2%)
September 1, 2015: 77,976 (-1%)
August 1, 2015: 78,922 (+1%)
July 1, 2015: 77,735 (+1%)
June 1, 2015: 76,688 (-1%)
May 1, 2015: 77,248 (+3%)
April 1, 2015: 74,974 (-0%)
March 1, 2015: 75,030 (+2%)
February 1, 2015: 73,489 (+0%)
January 1, 2015: 73,041 (+13%)
December 1, 2014: 64,805
November 1, 2014: 63,897
October 1, 2014: 61,828
September 1, 2014: 61,787
August 1, 2014: 61,381
July 1, 2014: 60,103
June 1, 2014: 59,848
May 1, 2014: 59,957

Free books (without public domain)

October 1, 2017: 47,796 (-4%)
September 1, 2017: 49,646 (+3%)
August 1, 2017: 48,155 (-4%)
July 1, 2017: 50,095 (+4%)
June 1, 2017: 48,021 (+3%)
May 1, 2017: 46,786 (-3%)
April 1, 2017: 48,235 (+5%)
March 1, 2017: 45,836 (+1%)
February 1, 2017: 45,278 (-2%)
January 1, 2017: 46,345 (-1%)
December 1, 2016: 46,627 (+4%)
November 1, 2016: 44,710 (-2%)
October 1, 2016: 45,792 (-0%)
September 1, 2016: number not available (Amazon has changed its search results) | 9/3: 45,975 (+5%)
August 1, 2016: 43,638 (-5%)
July 1, 2016: 45,814 (+11%)
June 1, 2016: 41,428
May 1, 2016: 41,755
April 1, 2016: 39,760
March 1, 2016: 41,277
February 1, 2016: 38,516 (-0%)
January 1, 2016: 38,550 (+4%)
December 1, 2015: 37,191 (+55%)
November 1, 2015: 23,872 (+2%)
October 1, 2015: 23,307 (+8%)
September 1, 2015: 21,575 (-3%)
August 1, 2015: 22,154 (+3%)
July 1, 2015: 21,572 (+4%)
June 1, 2015: 20,740 (-3%)
May 1, 2015: 21,362 (+9%)
April 1, 2015: 19,508 (+1%)
March 1, 2015: 19,232 (+4%)
February 1, 2015: 18,489 (+3%)
January 1, 2015: 17,983 (+5%)
December 1, 2014: 17,160
November 1, 2014: 16,735
October 1, 2014: 15,099
September 1, 2014: 15,190
August 1, 2014: 14,717
July 1, 2014: 13,300
June 1, 2014: 12,490
May 1, 2014: 13,191

Spanish edition books*

October 1, 2017: 244,297 (1%)
September 1, 2017: 241,358 (+2%)
August 1, 2017: 236,925 (+2%)
July 1, 2017: 233,077 (+2%)
June 1, 2017: 229,099 (+2%)
May 1, 2017: 225,114 (+2%)
April 1, 2017: 221,410 (+2%)
March 1, 2017: 217,055 (+2%)
February 1, 2017: 212,667 (+2%)
January 1, 2017: 208,843 (+2%)
December 1, 2016: 204,709 (+2%)
November 1, 2016: 201,195
October 1, 2016: 197,286 (+1)
September 1, 2016: number not available (Amazon has changed its search results) | 9/3: 194,747 (+0%)
August 1, 2016: 193,784 (+2%)
July 1, 2016: 190,183 (+2%)
June 1, 2016: 186,750 (+2%)
May 1, 2016: 183,132 (+1)
April 1, 2016: 180,538 (+2%)
March 1, 2016: 176,351 (+3%)
February 1, 2016: 172,246 (+5%)
January 1, 2016: 168,253 (+3%)
December 1, 2015: 163,218 (+2%)
November 1, 2015: 160,225 (+3%)
October 1, 2015: 156,158 (+2%)
September 1, 2015: 152,538 (+3%)
August 1, 2015: 148,388 (+4%)
July 1, 2015: 143,665 (+3%)
June 1, 2015: 139,519 (+2%)
May 1, 2015: 137,022 (+3%)
April 1, 2015: 132,496 (+3%)
March 1, 2015: 128,918 (+3%)
February 1, 2015: 125,505 (+2%)
January 1, 2015: 123,171 (+3%)
December 1, 2014: 119,963
November 1, 2014: 116,680
October 1, 2014: 113,491
September 1, 2014: 109,395
August 1, 2014: 101,643
July 1, 2014: 98,048
June 1, 2014: 95,632
May 1, 2014: 92,954

Books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL)

October 1, 2017: 1,699,485 (30.3%)
September 1, 2017: 1,657,169 (30.0%)
August 1, 2017: 1,624,853 (31.6%)
July 1, 2017: 1,585,197 (29.6%)
June 1, 2017: 1,543,502 (29.3%)
May 1, 2017: 1,515,616 (29%)
April 1, 2017: 1,489,789 (29.0%)
March 1, 2017: 1,470,956 (28.9%)
February 1, 2017: 1,462,182 (29.1%)
January 1, 2017: 1,444,685 (29.1%)
December 1, 2016: 1,429,581 (29.1%)
November 1, 2016: 1,396,901 (28.7%)
October 1, 2016: 1,377,307 (+0%)
September 1, 2016: number not available (Amazon has changed its search results) | 9/3: 1,371,701 (+2%)
August 1, 2016: 1,338,554 (29.6%)
July 1, 2016: 1,340,583 (29.1%)
June 1, 2016: 1,298,473 (28.1%)
May 1, 2016: 1,262,989 (28.3%)
April 1, 2016: 1,277,964 (28.8%)
March 1, 2016: 1,250,894
February 1, 2016: 1,199,281 (26%)
January 1, 2016: 1,168,736 (28.0%)
December 1, 2015: 1,132,942 (28.0%)
November 1, 2015: 1,109,339 (28.0%)
October 1, 2015: 1,084,779 (27.9%)
September 1, 2015: 1,057,291 (27.9%)
August 1, 2015: 1,022,270 (27.5%)
July 1, 2015: 995,047 (27.4%)
June 1, 2015: 957,481 (27.1%)
May 1, 2015: 920,564 (26.6%)
April 1, 2015: 890,629 (24.3%)
March 1, 2015: 853,036 (25.9%)
February 1, 2015: 823,258 (25.9%)
January 1, 2015: 794,093 (25.6%)
December 1, 2014: 764,249 (25.2%)
November 1, 2014: 724,218 (25.1%)
October 1, 2014: 710,979 (24.6%)
September 1, 2014: 673,206 (24.0%)
August 1, 2014: 638,545 (23.4%)
July 1, 2014: 604,950 (22.8%)
June 1, 2014: 586,812 (22.6%)
May 1, 2014: 566,893 (22.0%)

Books in Kindle Unlimited

October 1, 2017: 1,737,958 (30.9% of total)
September 1, 2017: 1,696,181 (30.7% of total)
August 1, 2017: 1,663,861 (32.4% of total)
July 1, 2017: 1,624,927 (30.3% of total)
June 1, 2017: 1,582,899 (30.1% of total)
May 1, 2017: 1,554,536 (29.9% of total)
April 1, 2017: 1,528,441 (29.8% of total)
March 1, 2017: 1,510,746 (29.7% of total)
February 1, 2017: 1,499,100 (29.8% of total)
January 1, 2017: 1,476,314 (29.7% of total)
December 1, 2016: 1,460,545 (29.8% of the total)
November 1, 2016: 1,423,511
October 1, 2016: 1,404,125 (29.3% of the total)
September 1, 2016: 1,387,593
August 1, 2016: 1,361,620
July 1, 2016: 1,340,737 (29.1% of total)
June 1, 2016: 1,311,185
May 1, 2016: 1,282,695 (28.7% of total)
April 1, 2016: 1,295,483 (29.2% of total)
March 1, 2016: 1,268,842 (29.1% of total)
February 1, 2016: 1,217,059 (28.5% of total)
January 1, 2016: 1,189,911 (28.5% of total)
December 1, 2015: 1,156,686 (28.6% of total)
November 1, 2015: 1,133,293 (28.6% of total)
October 1, 2015: 1,108,762 +2%) (28.6% of total)
September 1, 2015: 1,084,510 (+3%) (28.5% of total)
August 1, 2015: 1,050,688 (+3%) (28.3% of total)
July 1, 2015: 1,023,395 (+4%) (28.1% of total)
June 1, 2015: 984,701 (+4%) (27.9% of total)
May 1, 2015: 948,638 (+3%) (27.4% of total)
April 1, 2015: 918,839 (+4%) (27.2% of total)
March 1, 2015: 880,916 (+4%)
February 1, 2015: 850,027 (+4%)
January 1, 2015: 820,865 (+4%)
December 1, 2014: 791,011 (+3%)
November 1, 2014: 765,236 (+4%)
October 1, 2014: 733,167 (+5%)
September 1, 2014: 696,171 (+5%)
August 1, 2014: 661,111 (new measurement)

Books in Prime Reading

October 1, 2017: 979 (-56)
September 1, 2017: 1,035 (+9)
August 1, 2017: 1,026 (-5)
July 1, 2017: 1,031 (-50)
June 1, 2017: 1,081 (+36)
May 1, 2017: 1,045 (-61)
April 1, 2017: 1,106 (+20)
March 1, 2017: 1,086 (+106)
February 1, 2017: 980 (-552)
January 1, 2017: 1,532 (+504)
December 1, 2016: 1,028
November 1, 2016: 1,013 (new measurement)

Books in the Kindle Matchbook program

October 1, 2017: 72,692 (-80)
September 1, 2017: 72,889 (-145)
August 1, 2017: 73,034 (-214)
July 1, 2017: 73,248 (-121)
June 1, 2017: 73,369 (-177)
May 1, 2017: 73,546 (-246)
April 1, 2017: 73,792 (-236)
March 1, 2017: 74,028
February 1, 2017: 74,252
January 1, 2017: 74,441
December 1, 2016: 74,452
November 1, 2016: 74,747
October 1, 2016: 75,067
September 1, 2016: number not available (Amazon has changed its search results) | 9/3: 75,242
August 1, 2016: 75,478
July 1, 2016: 75,794 (-0%)
June 1, 2016: 75,937
May 1, 2016: 76,194 (-0%)
April 1, 2016: 76,497 (-1%)
March 1, 2016: 77,175 (-1%)
February 1, 2016: 77,613 (-0%)
January 1, 2016: 77,877 (-0%)
December 1, 2015: 78,148 (-0%)
November 1, 2015: 78,422 (-0%)
October 1, 2015: 78,677 (-0%)
September 1, 2015: 78,940 (-0%)
August 1, 2015: 79,174 (-1%)
July 1, 2015: 79,656 (-0%)
June 1, 2015: 79,917 (-0%)
May 1, 2015: 80,311 (-0%)
April 1, 2015: 80,594 (-1%)
March 1, 2015: 81,045 (-0%)
February 1, 2015: 81,515 (-0%)
January 1, 2015: 82,228 (-1%)
December 1, 2014: 82,643 (+1%)
November 1, 2014: 81,969 (+81%)
October 1, 2014: 45,267 (-39%)
September 1, 2014: 73,820 (+8%)
August 1, 2014: 68,453 (+1%)
July 1, 2014: 67,466 (-1%)
June 1, 2014: 67,787 (-1%)
May 1, 2014: 68,240 (-16%)

Price Point Analysis

April 1, 2010 was “Agency Day”, when the pricing system for some of the largest trade publishers in the US changed. I’ve started tracking price points, to see how that is affecting things. These are not ranges: it’s how many books are at a specific price point.

10/1/2017
Total	5,608,214
Prime	5,278,582
Under $10	4,555,617
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	667,669	11.91%	-0.42%
$1.99	263,786	4.70%	0.30%
$2.99	1,045,456	18.64%	-0.14%
$3.99	401,284	7.16%	-0.27%
$4.99	316,560	5.64%	0.02%
$5.99	170,480	3.04%	0.01%
$6.99	112,985	2.01%	-0.04%
$7.99	139,580	2.49%	-0.10%
$8.99	71,840	1.28%	-0.06%
$9.99	416,188	7.42%	0.33%
$10.99	48,065	0.86%	0.02%
$11.99	48,596	0.87%	0.01%
$12.99	37,477	0.67%	-0.02%
$13.99	22,961	0.41%	0.00%
$14.99	44,160	0.79%	-0.01%
$15.99	16,946	0.30%	-0.01%
$16.99	15,865	0.28%	0.00%
$17.99	10,314	0.18%	0.02%
$18.99	11,284	0.20%	-0.02%
$19.99	19,653	0.35%	0.01%
$20.99	3,842	0.07%	0.00%
$21.99	4,978	0.09%	0.01%
$22.99	4,763	0.08%	0.00%
$23.99	5,547	0.10%	0.00%
$24.99	5,517	0.10%	-0.01%

—

9/1/2017
Total	5,526,342
Prime	5,208,707
Under $10	4,505,672
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	681,140	12.33%	-0.47%
$1.99	243,337	4.40%	-0.70%
$2.99	1,038,037	18.78%	-1.08%
$3.99	410,417	7.43%	-0.44%
$4.99	310,821	5.62%	-0.32%
$5.99	167,636	3.03%	-0.15%
$6.99	113,466	2.05%	-0.05%
$7.99	143,045	2.59%	-0.21%
$8.99	74,161	1.34%	-0.08%
$9.99	392,039	7.09%	-0.49%
$10.99	46,380	0.84%	-0.02%
$11.99	47,356	0.86%	-0.06%
$12.99	37,788	0.68%	0.00%
$13.99	22,531	0.41%	-0.03%
$14.99	44,136	0.80%	-0.06%
$15.99	17,317	0.31%	-0.02%
$16.99	15,601	0.28%	-0.01%
$17.99	8,801	0.16%	-0.02%
$18.99	12,032	0.22%	0.00%
$19.99	18,579	0.34%	-0.03%
$20.99	3,574	0.06%	0.00%
$21.99	4,570	0.08%	0.00%
$22.99	4,714	0.09%	-0.01%
$23.99	5,455	0.10%	-0.01%
$24.99	5,794	0.10%	0.00%

—

8/1/2017
Total	5,137,014
Prime	4,444,889
Under $10	3,341,191
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	657,304	12.80%	0.64%
$1.99	261,901	5.10%	0.31%
$2.99	1,020,409	19.86%	1.18%
$3.99	404,288	7.87%	0.46%
$4.99	305,470	5.95%	0.36%
$5.99	163,729	3.19%	0.19%
$6.99	108,245	2.11%	0.13%
$7.99	143,562	2.79%	0.19%
$8.99	73,269	1.43%	0.08%
$9.99	389,717	7.59%	0.44%
$10.99	44,246	0.86%	0.08%
$11.99	47,249	0.92%	0.03%
$12.99	35,184	0.68%	0.03%
$13.99	22,466	0.44%	0.02%
$14.99	43,930	0.86%	0.05%
$15.99	17,103	0.33%	0.03%
$16.99	15,181	0.30%	0.02%
$17.99	9,085	0.18%	0.02%
$18.99	11,243	0.22%	0.02%
$19.99	19,035	0.37%	0.02%
$20.99	3,408	0.07%	0.01%
$21.99	4,310	0.08%	0.00%
$22.99	4,943	0.10%	0.01%
$23.99	5,341	0.10%	0.01%
$24.99	5,543	0.11%	0.01%

---

 

7/1/2017
Total	5,347,117
Prime	5,041,034
Under $10	4,363,029
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	649,839	12.15%	-0.05%
$1.99	255,881	4.79%	-0.03%
$2.99	998,962	18.68%	0.00%
$3.99	395,977	7.41%	0.02%
$4.99	298,607	5.58%	-0.04%
$5.99	160,294	3.00%	-0.01%
$6.99	105,569	1.97%	0.02%
$7.99	139,279	2.60%	-0.08%
$8.99	72,150	1.35%	0.02%
$9.99	382,278	7.15%	-0.09%
$10.99	41,910	0.78%	0.10%
$11.99	47,782	0.89%	0.01%
$12.99	35,168	0.66%	-0.01%
$13.99	22,222	0.42%	0.02%
$14.99	43,122	0.81%	0.00%
$15.99	16,120	0.30%	0.02%
$16.99	14,511	0.27%	-0.01%
$17.99	8,158	0.15%	0.01%
$18.99	10,812	0.20%	0.03%
$19.99	18,716	0.35%	0.00%
$20.99	3,245	0.06%	0.01%
$21.99	4,247	0.08%	0.01%
$22.99	4,751	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	4,827	0.09%	0.01%
$24.99	5,478	0.10%	0.00%

—

6/1/2017
Total	5,256,676
Prime	4,973,278
Under $10	4,313,259
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	641,542	12.20%	-0.16%
$1.99	253,102	4.81%	-0.13%
$2.99	981,919	18.68%	-0.15%
$3.99	388,319	7.39%	-0.11%
$4.99	295,549	5.62%	-0.08%
$5.99	158,218	3.01%	-0.03%
$6.99	102,680	1.95%	-0.03%
$7.99	141,208	2.69%	0.02%
$8.99	69,623	1.32%	-0.01%
$9.99	380,448	7.24%	-0.14%
$10.99	35,989	0.68%	0.00%
$11.99	46,244	0.88%	0.16%
$12.99	35,259	0.67%	-0.01%
$13.99	20,850	0.40%	-0.01%
$14.99	42,542	0.81%	-0.03%
$15.99	15,030	0.29%	-0.01%
$16.99	14,549	0.28%	-0.01%
$17.99	7,706	0.15%	0.00%
$18.99	9,201	0.18%	0.00%
$19.99	18,160	0.35%	0.00%
$20.99	2,907	0.06%	0.00%
$21.99	3,595	0.07%	0.00%
$22.99	4,762	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	4,430	0.08%	0.00%
$24.99	5,539	0.11%	0.00%

—

5/1/2017
Total	5,191,246
Prime	4,901,506
Under $10	4,250,404
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	634,147	12.36%	0.16%
$1.99	253,490	4.94%	0.06%
$2.99	966,086	18.83%	0.20%
$3.99	384,583	7.50%	0.07%
$4.99	292,331	5.70%	0.12%
$5.99	156,102	3.04%	0.09%
$6.99	101,960	1.99%	0.03%
$7.99	136,778	2.67%	0.05%
$8.99	68,397	1.33%	-0.07%
$9.99	378,484	7.38%	0.08%
$10.99	35,343	0.69%	0.00%
$11.99	36,934	0.72%	-0.16%
$12.99	34,747	0.68%	0.00%
$13.99	21,019	0.41%	-0.03%
$14.99	43,118	0.84%	-0.02%
$15.99	15,028	0.29%	0.00%
$16.99	14,506	0.28%	0.00%
$17.99	7,763	0.15%	-0.01%
$18.99	9,026	0.18%	0.01%
$19.99	17,894	0.35%	0.00%
$20.99	2,858	0.06%	0.00%
$21.99	3,470	0.07%	0.00%
$22.99	4,802	0.09%	0.01%
$23.99	4,343	0.08%	-0.01%
$24.99	5,552	0.11%	0.00%

—

4/1/2017
Total	5,129,972
Prime	4,843,952
Under $10	4,196,608
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	626,052	12.20%	0.06%
$1.99	250,240	4.88%	0.01%
$2.99	955,627	18.63%	0.06%
$3.99	380,806	7.42%	0.01%
$4.99	286,425	5.58%	0.06%
$5.99	151,245	2.95%	0.03%
$6.99	100,324	1.96%	0.00%
$7.99	134,358	2.62%	-0.01%
$8.99	71,961	1.40%	-0.08%
$9.99	374,414	7.30%	-0.10%
$10.99	35,249	0.69%	-0.05%
$11.99	45,245	0.88%	-0.02%
$12.99	34,679	0.68%	-0.02%
$13.99	22,418	0.44%	-0.02%
$14.99	44,099	0.86%	-0.01%
$15.99	14,892	0.29%	-0.02%
$16.99	14,294	0.28%	-0.01%
$17.99	8,020	0.16%	-0.02%
$18.99	8,340	0.16%	0.00%
$19.99	17,957	0.35%	-0.02%
$20.99	2,701	0.05%	0.00%
$21.99	3,320	0.06%	0.00%
$22.99	4,479	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	4,935	0.10%	-0.02%
$24.99	5,548	0.11%	-0.01%

—

3/1/2017
Total	5,081,365
Prime	4,784,032
Under $10	4,144,877
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	617,306	12.15%	0.01%
$1.99	247,218	4.87%	0.00%
$2.99	943,631	18.57%	0.01%
$3.99	376,521	7.41%	0.01%
$4.99	280,748	5.53%	0.01%
$5.99	148,511	2.92%	0.01%
$6.99	99,129	1.95%	0.02%
$7.99	133,567	2.63%	0.02%
$8.99	75,480	1.49%	0.02%
$9.99	375,725	7.39%	-0.05%
$10.99	37,504	0.74%	0.01%
$11.99	45,652	0.90%	-0.02%
$12.99	35,121	0.69%	-0.01%
$13.99	23,266	0.46%	0.00%
$14.99	44,376	0.87%	0.01%
$15.99	15,580	0.31%	0.00%
$16.99	14,691	0.29%	0.00%
$17.99	8,707	0.17%	0.00%
$18.99	8,076	0.16%	0.00%
$19.99	18,962	0.37%	0.00%
$20.99	2,830	0.06%	0.00%
$21.99	3,388	0.07%	0.00%
$22.99	4,593	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	5,754	0.11%	0.00%
$24.99	5,847	0.12%	0.00%

—

2/1/2017
Total	5,030,914
Prime	4,731,096
Under $10	4,099,841
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	610,715	12.14%	-0.19%
$1.99	244,770	4.87%	0.15%
$2.99	933,874	18.56%	0.14%
$3.99	372,344	7.40%	0.06%
$4.99	277,330	5.51%	-0.09%
$5.99	146,309	2.91%	0.01%
$6.99	97,252	1.93%	0.00%
$7.99	131,445	2.61%	-0.01%
$8.99	73,745	1.47%	0.01%
$9.99	374,666	7.45%	0.07%
$10.99	36,565	0.73%	0.03%
$11.99	45,970	0.91%	0.00%
$12.99	35,339	0.70%	-0.01%
$13.99	23,191	0.46%	-0.01%
$14.99	43,217	0.86%	0.00%
$15.99	15,411	0.31%	-0.02%
$16.99	14,441	0.29%	0.00%
$17.99	8,561	0.17%	0.01%
$18.99	7,952	0.16%	0.00%
$19.99	18,595	0.37%	0.01%
$20.99	2,757	0.05%	0.00%
$21.99	3,335	0.07%	0.01%
$22.99	4,439	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	5,540	0.11%	0.00%
$24.99	5,655	0.11%	0.00%

---

1/1/2017
Total	4,972,110
Prime	4,730,019
Under $10	4,109,227
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	613,271	12.33%	0.12%
$1.99	234,236	4.71%	-0.11%
$2.99	916,038	18.42%	0.04%
$3.99	365,034	7.34%	-0.01%
$4.99	278,443	5.60%	0.01%
$5.99	143,880	2.89%	0.00%
$6.99	95,969	1.93%	0.02%
$7.99	130,308	2.62%	0.03%
$8.99	72,331	1.45%	-0.02%
$9.99	366,584	7.37%	-0.01%
$10.99	34,861	0.70%	0.00%
$11.99	45,242	0.91%	-0.01%
$12.99	35,454	0.71%	0.00%
$13.99	23,493	0.47%	-0.01%
$14.99	42,874	0.86%	0.02%
$15.99	16,195	0.33%	0.01%
$16.99	14,327	0.29%	-0.02%
$17.99	7,821	0.16%	0.00%
$18.99	7,838	0.16%	-0.01%
$19.99	17,748	0.36%	0.00%
$20.99	2,714	0.05%	0.00%
$21.99	3,034	0.06%	0.00%
$22.99	4,382	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	5,445	0.11%	0.00%
$24.99	5,764	0.12%	0.00%

---

12/1/2016
Total	4,908,984
Prime	4,603,953
Under $10	3,989,241
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	599,433	12.21%	0.06%
$1.99	236,600	4.82%	0.08%
$2.99	902,330	18.38%	0.03%
$3.99	361,037	7.35%	-0.09%
$4.99	274,351	5.59%	0.04%
$5.99	142,254	2.90%	0.02%
$6.99	93,552	1.91%	0.04%
$7.99	126,945	2.59%	0.00%
$8.99	72,556	1.48%	0.00%
$9.99	362,520	7.38%	0.05%
$10.99	34,569	0.70%	0.03%
$11.99	44,997	0.92%	0.02%
$12.99	34,970	0.71%	0.02%
$13.99	23,786	0.48%	0.01%
$14.99	41,442	0.84%	0.02%
$15.99	15,552	0.32%	0.01%
$16.99	15,113	0.31%	0.00%
$17.99	7,573	0.15%	0.00%
$18.99	8,235	0.17%	0.00%
$19.99	17,422	0.35%	0.00%
$20.99	2,742	0.06%	0.00%
$21.99	3,044	0.06%	0.00%
$22.99	4,368	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	5,291	0.11%	0.00%
$24.99	5,563	0.11%	-0.11%

—

11/2/2016
Total	4,863,729
Prime	4,569,483
Under $10	3,942,697
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	590,896	12.15%	-0.14%
$1.99	230,668	4.74%	0.05%
$2.99	892,564	18.35%	0.08%
$3.99	362,196	7.45%	0.06%
$4.99	270,058	5.55%	0.00%
$5.99	139,806	2.87%	0.04%
$6.99	90,844	1.87%	0.00%
$7.99	126,013	2.59%	0.00%
$8.99	71,962	1.48%	0.01%
$9.99	356,843	7.34%	-0.02%
$10.99	33,001	0.68%	0.02%
$11.99	43,725	0.90%	0.00%
$12.99	33,898	0.70%	0.00%
$13.99	23,073	0.47%	0.01%
$14.99	40,183	0.83%	0.00%
$15.99	15,048	0.31%	0.00%
$16.99	15,156	0.31%	0.00%
$17.99	7,379	0.15%	0.01%
$18.99	8,059	0.17%	0.00%
$19.99	17,232	0.35%	0.00%
$20.99	2,665	0.05%	0.00%
$21.99	2,927	0.06%	0.00%
$22.99	4,260	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	5,211	0.11%	0.00%
$24.99	11,000	0.23%	0.00%

—

10/1/2016
Total	4,790,218
Prime	4,499,991
Under $10	3,881,084
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	588,648	12.29%	-0.18%
$1.99	224,653	4.69%	0.33%
$2.99	875,028	18.27%	-0.32%
$3.99	354,048	7.39%	-0.13%
$4.99	266,028	5.55%	-0.01%
$5.99	135,815	2.84%	-0.09%
$6.99	89,542	1.87%	0.01%
$7.99	123,897	2.59%	0.00%
$8.99	70,532	1.47%	0.01%
$9.99	352,365	7.36%	0.00%
$10.99	31,758	0.66%	0.00%
$11.99	42,922	0.90%	-0.01%
$12.99	33,394	0.70%	0.03%
$13.99	22,477	0.47%	0.01%
$14.99	39,529	0.83%	0.02%
$15.99	14,933	0.31%	0.01%
$16.99	14,867	0.31%	0.00%
$17.99	7,003	0.15%	0.00%
$18.99	7,829	0.16%	0.01%
$19.99	16,983	0.35%	0.01%
$20.99	2,639	0.06%	0.00%
$21.99	2,752	0.06%	0.00%
$22.99	4,276	0.09%	0.00%
$23.99	5,206	0.11%	0.01%
$24.99	10,825	0.23%	0.00%

—

8/1/2016
Total 4,673,290
Prime 4,441,416
Under $10 3,800,960

Price Point Count Percentage Diff
$0.99 564,512 12.08% 0.03%
$1.99 215,983 4.62% 0.03%
$2.99 865,582 18.52% 0.02%
$3.99 357,735 7.65% 0.02%
$4.99 258,868 5.54% 0.02%
$5.99 143,549 3.07% 0.02%
$6.99 86,956 1.86% 0.01%
$7.99 120,791 2.58% -0.03%
$8.99 67,036 1.43% 0.11%
$9.99 340,609 7.29% -0.01%
$10.99 31,839 0.68% -0.01%
$11.99 43,170 0.92% 0.10%
$12.99 28,881 0.62% 0.01%
$13.99 20,411 0.44% 0.03%
$14.99 38,284 0.82% -0.10%
$15.99 13,228 0.28% 0.02%
$16.99 14,674 0.31% -0.01%
$17.99 6,244 0.13% 0.01%
$18.99 7,055 0.15% 0.00%
$19.99 16,322 0.35% 0.02%
$20.99 2,484 0.05% 0.00%
$21.99 2,610 0.06% 0.01%
$22.99 4,466 0.10% 0.02%
$23.99 4,107 0.09% 0.00%
$24.99 10,627 0.23% 0.01%

---

9/1/2016
Total 4,742,587
Prime 4,470,630
Under $10 3,853,639

Price Point Count Percentage Diff
$0.99 591,306 12.47% 0.39%
$1.99 206,770 4.36% -0.26%
$2.99 881,283 18.58% 0.06%
$3.99 356,645 7.52% -0.13%
$4.99 263,638 5.56% 0.02%
$5.99 138,830 2.93% -0.14%
$6.99 88,366 1.86% 0.00%
$7.99 122,765 2.59% 0.00%
$8.99 69,196 1.46% 0.02%
$9.99 349,005 7.36% 0.07%
$10.99 31,536 0.66% -0.02%
$11.99 43,107 0.91% -0.01%
$12.99 31,596 0.67% 0.05%
$13.99 21,668 0.46% 0.02%
$14.99 38,116 0.80% -0.02%
$15.99 14,109 0.30% 0.01%
$16.99 14,584 0.31% -0.01%
$17.99 6,818 0.14% 0.01%
$18.99 7,355 0.16% 0.00%
$19.99 16,289 0.34% -0.01%
$20.99 2,559 0.05% 0.00%
$21.99 2,710 0.06% 0.00%
$22.99 4,298 0.09% 0.00%
$23.99 4,791 0.10% 0.01%
$24.99 10,719 0.23% 0.00%

8/1/2016
Total	4,606,532
Prime	4,361,423
Under $10	3,747,972
Price Point	Count	Percentage	Diff
$0.99	555,258	12.05%	0.04%
$1.99	211,667	4.59%	0.02%
$2.99	852,080	18.50%	-0.02%
$3.99	351,616	7.63%	0.04%
$4.99	254,338	5.52%	-0.02%
$5.99	140,421	3.05%	0.01%
$6.99	85,088	1.85%	-0.06%
$7.99	120,451	2.61%	0.10%
$8.99	61,016	1.32%	0.02%
$9.99	336,093	7.30%	-0.05%
$10.99	31,772	0.69%	-0.04%
$11.99	37,888	0.82%	0.00%
$12.99	28,219	0.61%	0.01%
$13.99	18,732	0.41%	0.00%
$14.99	42,554	0.92%	0.15%
$15.99	12,223	0.27%	0.00%
$16.99	15,085	0.33%	0.02%
$17.99	5,735	0.12%	0.00%
$18.99	6,838	0.15%	0.02%
$19.99	15,340	0.33%	-0.03%
$20.99	2,270	0.05%	0.00%
$21.99	2,272	0.05%	-0.01%
$22.99	3,487	0.08%	0.00%
$23.99	3,984	0.09%	0.00%
$24.99	9,788	0.21%	-0.01%

—

6/1/2016
Total	4,535,673
Prime	4,296,347
Under $10	3,678,896
Price Point	Count	Percentage
$0.99	544,905	12.01%
$1.99	207,658	4.58%
$2.99	839,809	18.52%
$3.99	344,572	7.60%
$4.99	251,410	5.54%
$5.99	137,958	3.04%
$6.99	86,573	1.91%
$7.99	114,012	2.51%
$8.99	59,121	1.30%
$9.99	333,073	7.34%
$10.99	32,897	0.73%
$11.99	37,424	0.83%
$12.99	27,483	0.61%
$13.99	18,472	0.41%
$14.99	35,286	0.78%
$15.99	12,056	0.27%
$16.99	13,744	0.30%
$17.99	5,738	0.13%
$18.99	5,941	0.13%
$19.99	16,299	0.36%
$20.99	2,239	0.05%
$21.99	2,661	0.06%
$22.99	3,561	0.08%
$23.99	4,103	0.09%
$24.99	9,940	0.22%

Older data were drawn using http://www.jungle-search.com, newer data with http://www.ereaderiq.com (from the same people). There are a number of possible sources of errors (eRi, Amazon, me), but these are probably pretty good.

• The free books referenced here are from the Kindle store: there are many other sources for free books
• My search for textbooks definitely has false positives (books that aren’t really textbooks). I search for -domain (to eliminate public domain titles, which would be older books, generally) textbook. That would find a book about textbooks, for example
• I searched for “Spanish edition” to find Spanish language books. That has some false positives as well
• I look at price percentages of books in the range of one penny to fifty dollars, to eliminate freebies and limit textbooks
• The price point analysis is for books at that specific price: it does not represent a range of prices
• I compared the percentage of price points in the Price Point Analysis when I showed the difference…not the number of books
• This information is based on what a United States customer sees

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Get an Echo Dot for $10, an HD antenna for $5: bundle bargains!

Get an Echo Dot for $10, an HD antenna for $5: bundle bargains!

We put a lot of thought into holiday gifts…we love to give! In addition to the regular gifts, we also do small gifts (although the traditions vary amongst our larger family).

Beyond that, we have a gift exchange at work (which has a price limit), and we donate gifts to charity.

As I wrote about yesterday:

Wowsers! Amazon just blew the doors off with new devices and features!

Amazon just introduced a lot of new things.

I’m debating which ones I might buy, and I know my situation is different from some people’s. I buy some things mainly to write about them, so that changes the math. I did buy the new gen 4K

Fire TV (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

because I’ve been waiting for a new one to be released…that’s how we watch TV almost all the time, and our current one may be underpowered.

When I bought it, though, I bought a bundle…I paid $5 more for the AmazonBasics Ultra Thin Indoor TV Antenna – 35 Mile Range, which otherwise costs $17.99 right now.

I may end up using it in one of our rooms, but it could otherwise make a great gift.

Amazon has a number of interesting bundles right now (one price for two or more things), and they might not last. Check the prices before you click/tap/eye gaze the Buy button…the bundle might be over before you see this.

• Fire TV and HD Antenna $74.99 (the antenna is effectively $5) (at AmazonSmile*)
• Fire TV and Echo Dot for $69.99 (the Echo Dot is effectively $10) (at AmazonSmile*)
• Fire TV and $45 worth of digital content: either two (2) months of Hulu Limited Commercials or two (2) months of Hulu No Commercials, one (1) month of SHOWTIME, and a $10 credit redeemable for certain digital content available in Amazon Video. Definitely read the rules I’ve linked here. It’s basically good for anyone in the USA buying the new Fire TV, no additional cost, but read the fine print (at AmazonSmile*)
• Fire TV Stick (not new) and Echo Dot (not new) $59.99 (save $29.99) (at AmazonSmile*)
• Echo (2nd gen) 3 pack and save $50, making the effective price about $83…you use the code ECHO3PACK, but there are restrictions, and you can’t buy it with 1-click (since you would be buying 1 three times, rather than three at once) (at AmazonSmile*)
• Echo Show (not new…nor is this deal) 2-pack: buy 2 and save $100, and I wish I had done that…you use the code SHOW2PACK, but again, read the fine print (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
• Echo Plus…when you buy it, you get a free SmartBulb at no additional cost, read the details (at AmazonSmile*)

One for you, one for them? A lot of possibilities…

---

My current Amazon giveaway:

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

 

Wowsers! Amazon just blew the doors off with new devices and features!

Wowsers! Amazon just blew the doors off with new devices and features!

“Wowsers”, of course, was an expression used by Inspector Gadget…which may be singularly appropriate here. 🙂 Amazon doesn’t like to call them gadgets any more, they are “devices”.

That makes sense, since some of these are actually practical, or at least can be.

With what was announced today in a surprise hardware announcement (which also had an important feature improvement), had one of the biggest line-up changes I’ve seen. It required Amazon sending out three press releases today. Oh, and they had a fourth one, that BMW and MINI will have Alexa in the car starting in mid-2018 in the USA, UK, and Germany.

I think there will actually be a lot more later this year…it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they tie something big into the 10th anniversary of the release of the Kindle November 20th (I’m working on something as well)…that may be why there wasn’t an update to the Kindle EBRs (E-Book Readers) today, but it may also be why we didn’t get Amazon auggies (Augmented/Virtual Reality hardware)…they may think of that as another revolutionary item, like the Kindle.

They announced new (and very different) Echo items, and a new Fire TV (as I’ve been saying they would, based on rumors). However, there were new features, too.

There is a lot to digest, and there may end up being more than one post…but let’s dive in!

Let’s start with what I think is the biggest life changer for people:

Echo Spot (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

What is it? A smaller, less expensive version of the Echo Show (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*).

That means it is an Alexa-enabled speaker with a screen.

Voice-enabled, and you can make videocalls to people with Echo Spot, Echo Show…or the free Alexa App on a SmartPhone.

Having a small, always available screen is going to make it a big part of people’s lives…not just as a baby monitor or to watch the dogs (it does do the “drop in” feature).

However, and this is new, you can now voice call anyone (they do need a phone, but not an Echo) hands free.

You can speak their phone numbers if they aren’t in your contacts.

This will work with most North American phone numbers (although not 911).

What does it cost to call?

It’s free!

Yes, this means free phone calling to just about any phone number.

More details here:

Alexa Calling & Messaging (at AmazonSmile*)

Oh, and you have the choice to anonymize the call…not show your number, but that’s up to you. To be clear, you are not using your phone to make the call.

Obviously, it would be good to be able to call 911 hands-free, especially for people with some challenges.

You can, with an additional device:

Echo Connect (at AmazonSmile*)

That one is $34.99, due to be released December 13th (the Echo Spot is scheduled for release December 19th).

What does it do?

It connects to your phone number, so you can call any number you can call with your phone…911, international numbers, and so on.

There are two more big Echo devices…and then a raft of features I still need to discuss!

The Echo Tower has been redesigned, and the price has been reduced to $99.99!

Echo (2nd gen) (at AmazonSmile*)

There are new colors and new finishes, including an Oak Finish. New speaker tech, new microphone tech, beamforming technology, it’s only about six inches tall, and controls hundreds of devices.

You can save $50 on three of them by using the code ECHO3PACK…details here: Amazon help page (at AmazonSmile*)

However, in the past, controlling SmartHome devices also meant you had a separate hub.

Now, for the last big Echo device, you can get an Echo…with a built-in hub!

Echo Plus (at AmazonSmile*)

For $149.99, you’ll be able to control your SmartHome devices easily…oh, and they throw in (gently, I’m sure) Silver+Philips Hue Bulb (which is only available for a limited time…$14.99 value).

I think this may make some people into SmartHome people who have been afraid to try it.

Speaking of controlling your SmartHome…

There are two new features which will also work with the earlier generation (although they don’t mention the Tap) and the Dot, Show, and Plus. Not right away, though…they say next month.

Alexa Routines

This lets you group activities into one name…and you can invoke it by voice or by time of day and dat of the week.

So, when you usually get up, Alexa can already have the coffeemaker going, start your music, turn on the lights in the bathroom and kitchen, and so on.

That’s a big one!

Hmm…they don’t mention it playing a particular song, but you can see how that could be great…you could say, “That’s what I’m talking about!” and have a triumphant, stadium ready anthem play, lights flash on and off. There are a lot of possibilities.

Improved SmartHome Groups

This is another giant improvement!

You can now assign lights (for example) to a given Echo device. That means that you walk into the kitchen (where you have an Echo), say, “Alexa, turn on the lights,” and just the lights in the kitchen come on.

Innovation!

One more Alexa thing, and this really may add a new dimension.

Alexa Gadgets (at AmazonSmile*)

At this point, you are just signing up to be in the loop.

What they show us as representative is basically a set of trivia game buzzers.

You’ll be able to get two of those for $19.99.

My guess is, though, that we’ll start seeing things like wands you can wave to “cast spells”.

I’m signing up, and I’ll keep you informed.

Echo gen 2 and Echo Plus press release

Echo Spot press release

Whew! That’s enough Echo for this post!

The

Fire TV (at AmazonSmile*)

is better, faster, stronger than it used to be. 😉

Now it has 4K Ultra HD video (and it’s a bargain for that, at $69.99). It’s got more memory, HDR (High Dynamic Range, better voice control, a slim design (which can hang and hide between the TV)…it goes on.

One I’ll really like: single sign on for a number of services, including CNNGO. What that means is that it won’t keep asking you to verify who you are. I’ve been meaning to write to CNN about that: it’s really disruptive to step out of the shower, soaking wet, trying to get ready to go to work…and have to go down to another room where I have a laptop with the page saved to enter a code. I was going to suggest that they ask for the validation code at the end of a session, rather than the beginning, so I could enter the code when it was convenient for me. Now, though, that might not matter. 🙂

I think the Echo Spot will be perhaps the most popular item out of this list, but the Echo TV will continue to be popular.

I’m going to wrap up here, but it looks to me like they might have also refreshed more of the

Fire tablet family (at AmazonSmile*)

but I’ll have to double-check.

Later this year, I think we could see EBR announcements (again, perhaps tied into November 20th for the ten-year Kindle anniversary), and those Amazon auggies…

What do you think of these announcements? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

---

My current Amazon giveaway:

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Heads up! Amazon hardware announcement at 1030 Pacific today

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16373888/amazon-hardware-event-echo-rumors

More to follow. 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle Blog.

Round up #163: books on Fire TV (but no YouTube on Echo Show), Fall’s biggest books

Round up #163: books on Fire TV (but no YouTube on Echo Show), Fall’s biggest books

The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.

“Currently, Google is not supporting YouTube on Echo Show”

This is a big deal, and is hopefully temporary!

Thanks to Richard Lawler and Engadget for

this story

which I then confirmed myself.

The headline on this one is a quotation from our

Echo Show (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

I had said, “Alexa, play a YouTube video”.

The Show usually includes YouTube videos in its “display roulette” (the statements which appear every few seconds on the screen when you have asked it to do something). Do I watch those? Sure, I have: a dog with a fidget spinner on its nose? Yes, please. 😉

However, a bigger deal is probably recipes. I’ve read that one of the main places that people use Echo Shows is in the kitchen, and I assume that’s for something like, “Alexa, show me a how to souffle video”.

Google and Amazon do get along sometimes. 😉 The thing that’s a bit scary in this case is that the issue may be over ads. Google’s business is largely based on advertising, and we aren’t seeing those sorts of ads on the Echo Show. If it’s a choice of ads versus no YouTube videos, I’ll go with no YouTube videos on the Show. Not that I generally object to ads (I have them on all my Amazon devices when available…I’m willing to have advertisers subsidize my purchase price, and I sometimes like the ads)…but on the Show in particular, time matters to me. Every video I’ve watched on there has been short…probably shorter than most YouTube ads.

Could Amazon ever replace YouTube with their own source? It would be hard, because so many people are invested in YouTube as creators. They might have to build a tool which imports the videos, then set up a structure which pays them more money…and convince them that Amazon was going to invest in market share building. Possible, but I think unlikely…even though Amazon does some things with video now.

Stephen “King Midas”

This year, it’s good to be the King…Stephen King (at AmazonSmile*), that is, and that’s likely to continue for the next couple of years at a minimum. 😉

With movies, TV shows, and books, it can be amazing to think back to the beginning, when it was all happening in one person’s mind, with no guarantee that it would be commercially successful (just like most authors).

Here are some of the 2017 and beyond Stephen King happenings (there are a bunch of shorts listed at IMDb for 2017, but I’m not sure what the distribution is on this):

• The Dark Tower movie (while the budget was a relatively modest $60m, it has only had a domestic gross of about $50m which is about half of the total…it can be considered to have underperformed expectations)
• The Mist (TV series)
• It movie (blowing away expectations…with a low budget of $35m, it has a domestic gross of about $268m at time of writing…and is close to half a billion worldwide. Halloween box office should be great for it, with a possible wider re-release at that time)
• Netflix has an adaptation of 1922 which is getting good buzz
• Netflix also has Gerald’s Game
• Audience has a Mr. Mercedes TV series
• Book: The Eyes of the Dragon (December 19, 2017)
• Book: Revival (November 28, 2017)
• Book (with Richard Chizmar): Gwendy’s Button Box (May 16, 2017)
• Book (with Owen King): Sleeping Beauties (September 26, 2017)

Beyond 2017:

• Castle Rock TV series (2018)
• It: Chapter 2 (2019)
• CUJO (Canine Unit Joint Operations)
• The Gingerbread Girl
• The Talisman
• Another version of The Stand
• Apt Pupil
• The Man Who Loved Flowers

Again, that’s just part of what Stephen King has happening.

It all began with words.

Audible books on Fire TV

Alexa on the

Amazon Fire TV 2nd generation (at AmazonSmile*)

(a device which is likely to get a major refresh soon) can both read your Audible audiobooks and do text-to-speech on your Kindle books.

For audiobooks, try

• Read [title]
• Play the book [title]
• Play the audiobook [title]
• Resume my book
• Go forward/back
• Pause

For Kindle books (where the publisher has not chosen to block text-to-speech access), try

• Read [title]
• Read my Kindle book
• Pause
• Resume my book
• Go forward/back

I’m not sure what happens if a book has both an audiobook you own and TTS…I assume it will ask you which you want.

I think some people might have wondered why the recent update I covered in

Big software update on my Fire TV stick this morning

included a screen reader function: this is part of why.

If you don’t have a speech-enabled remote, you can use the free Fire TV app on your phone to talk to Alexa.

Oh, you can also now use Alexa while streaming Amazon Music. Once they get us those rumored Amazon auggies (augmented/virtual reality hardware…that’s my term for them, but I’m hoping it catches on), we will have Alexa everywhere. 🙂

Barnes & Noble lists “This Fall’s Biggest Books”

This Fall’s Biggest Books

from Barnes & Noble is likely to be pretty close to the bestsellers. As a former retail manager (bookstore, gamestore), I can tell you that a large part of your survival depends on your ability to predict what will sell well. You aren’t always right (I overbought a Suzanne Somers book, because the actor was local)…but you’d better be right most of the time.

For the most part, these will be the mainstream, “People Magazine books”…

Have any thoughts on these stories you’d care to share with me and my readers? You can do so by commenting on this post.

My current Amazon giveaway:

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Interview with Scott Calvin, author of Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963

Interview with Scott Calvin, author of Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963

Q. Thank you for agreeing to this interview! My readers always appreciate it when an author takes the time to share with them their insights and experience.

A. I’m happy to do it!

Q. In your case, I think your background is significant. We’ll get one thing out of the way first: we are siblings. However, I was not involved in the publication of the book and I do not benefit directly financially from the book. You are, by education, an astronomer, a physicist, and a classicist. This book, Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*), seems like a significant departure from your previous books (at AmazonSmile*). While it seems to be positioned for use in academia, I believe it could have a much broader appeal. It amounts to placing four short biographies into context, and as such, goes far beyond the focus on science facts and theory. As you note in your introduction, “…writing about history is hard.” Why do this book now?

A. To tell the truth, it wasn’t on my docket of “books I’ll write someday.” At the start of 2016, I had recently announced I was resigning from my position as a professor of physics at Sarah Lawrence College, but I didn’t know what my next position would be. Jeanine Burke of the IOP Concise Physics line of books approached me about writing on a topic of my choice. I discussed it with my fiancée (now wife!) Erin Eisenbarth, who knew of my interest in these physicists and suggested the topic. So it just kind of happened.

Q. One of the things I found particularly interesting was your willingness to challenge a narrative. It would be easy to say that men were prejudiced against women, and felt that they weren’t as capable as a man in their fields. Reading the book, that didn’t seem to be the case to me. Generally, other scientists recognized their abilities and value. In some cases, they clearly thought the women should have more recognition and status. Explicitly stated or not, it was more that the organizations involved had policies that prevented women getting equal treatment and pay. In other words, institutions were bigger impediments than individuals. I would think that institutions would tend to insulate people from the effects of personalities, but they were perhaps more interested in conserving the power they have. How do you see that dynamic of individual relationships versus institutional inertia, in terms of how stereotyping hinders people?

A. And now I’m going to challenge your narrative about my narrative! (grin) I don’t think it’s actually institution versus individual; it’s more science versus career. While there were occasional institutional barriers, those could generally be circumvented with some cleverness and effort on the part of the men in question. Instead, it was common for the men to value the women as scientists, and to promote them vigorously in that role. But those same men would think it was OK to pay the women less than comparable men, or to deny them titles and administrative power. You can see the same sort of thing operating today with movie stars. Men will praise the acting talent and star power of prominent actresses, but still tend to pay them less, and women are still greatly underrepresented in positions of authority such as directors and producers. That’s not so much an institutional problem, in the sense of there being rules or inertia to overcome, as it is a split between how the talents of women are praised and how they are rewarded for it.

Q. Another narrative would be that things have gotten easier for women in science over time, so during the sixty years you cover, it might be expected that we would see your subjects finding fewer barriers: was that the case?

A. That’s a key question! There’s no question that the institutional barriers you asked about in the previous question decreased during this period. For example, in the early 20th century, women were not allowed to be professors in many universities in the US; that had changed by the 60s. But in other ways, things did not get better. The fraction of professional astronomers who were women went down during this period, not up. In 1959, the University of California still thought it was OK to pay Maria Mayer half the salary of her husband, even though they were both full professors.

Q. Something that I found particularly insightful and educational to me had nothing to do with physics. It had to do with how Lise Meitner would have felt herself “safe” in Nazi Germany, despite having a Jewish background. You explained the factors that should have made her secure, and how each of those were removed over time. I really enjoyed the scholarship involved. How does having that background in the book benefit students of physics and/or more general readers, and how did researching that part differ from the types of things you’ve written in the past?

A. I think it’s hard for many of us today to understand how people could go on trying to live normal lives under the Nazis. When we read the famous poem “First They Came” [by Martin Niemöller] in which the author recounts staying silent as the Nazis come after one group after another, we might wonder why it wasn’t obvious at the time that standing by when one group gets persecuted opens you up to the same. But targeting groups was only half of the equation. An individual might think he was safe, not just because he wasn’t part of a group being targeted, but because of groups that were favored: he was a veteran, or a Christian, or famous, or well-connected. That kind of safety is illusory. If you condone, either explicitly or implicitly, exploitation and murder, then you should recognize that you are opening yourself up to exploitation and murder down the line. After the war, Meitner realized that, writing about it repeatedly.

Q. You also spend quite a bit of time considering the motivations of people, sometimes doing an almost “differential diagnosis” by presenting a number of hypotheses and then examining each one. “Did so-and-so do this out of spite, fear, prejudice, strategic calculation…?”, that sort of thing. What was your goal in including that sort of analysis in the book?

A. There are two examples in the book that have outcomes that are broadly similar but in which the motivations of the men are very different. Henry Norris Russell argues Cecilia Payne in to doubting her own conclusion in her dissertation, and years later is widely given credit for her discovery. This is very unfair to Payne, but an examination of the context makes it clear that Russell didn’t set out to steal Payne’s work; instead, he was treating her as a fellow scientist and arguing the scientific case. Even though he turned out to be wrong, I think this was the ethical thing for him to do at the time—it’s only later, when Payne’s contributions were being downplayed by others, that Russell becomes complicit.

Valentine Telegdi, on the other hand, clearly disliked Chien-Shiung Wu, and wanted to prevent her from getting full recognition for her ground-breaking experiment. I’m not sure exactly what mix of motivations were at play there, but Telegdi continually misrepresented Wu’s contributions, and his own, in an effort to muddy the waters.

The result in each case was the same—the women did not end up with all of the credit they deserved for remarkable discoveries. But I do think the motivations and processes matter. Blaming Russell for sabotaging Payne’s work would let off the hook the scientists and historians in later decades who assumed that the discovery was due to Russell because he was the more famous, a mistake we must continually guard against. But not blaming Telegdi for his outsized role in fighting against a Nobel Prize for Wu would let Telegdi off the hook.

So yes, I think trying to understand the motivations, and that they can be different in different cases, is important.

Q. One more thing: my readers are interested in the process of putting a book together. There were great pictures in the book! They ranged from gates honoring a suffragist damaged by male students celebrating a ruling against women having parity with men, to an amateur musical parodying Gilbert and Sullivan that was full of “in jokes” about the Harvard College Observatory. You address both stories in the text. Did finding the pictures lead you to write about the incidents, or did you know about the incidents and then have someone find the pictures? Some pictures are reproduced “with permission”. How was the permission obtained…did your publisher do that?

A. Thanks! I found all of the pictures myself, but for those under copyright permissions were sought by my publisher. There was one case where permission was not granted, and I had to find a substitute.

In most cases, I learned about the incident first, and then I sought out relevant photos. The biggest exception was the Gilbert and Sullivan parody, where I stumbled across the photos early in the process. The modern discussions of Payne and the Harvard Computers rarely mention that remarkable moment, but always mention that the women who comprised the Harvard Computers were sarcastically referred to as “Pickering’s Harem” at the time. In fact, I can find no contemporary evidence for the latter claim; it’s modern writers trying to create a narrative emphasizing the misogyny of the time, either because they want to imply that things have gotten better since then, or because they want to stress misogyny in science in general. But the idea that the men and women of the Harvard College Observatory put on a play which featured a striking inversion of traditional gender roles in science, and performed it in the community—that doesn’t fit well in to those narratives. The misogyny was, and is, real. But the people of the time weren’t blind to it, and did at times push back, and push forward. And so, despite the striking photographs, the play has largely vanished from modern accounts of those scientists.

Q. Finally, is there anything else you’d like to tell people about the book, or your future plans as an author?

A. I do feel conflicted about one aspect of the book, which is worth mentioning here.

The four physicists featured in the book were all remarkable scientists. Lise Meitner, in particular, has long been a scientific hero of mine—in fact, I first learned of her from a biography you gave to me years ago! Maria Mayer became a hero to me when I learned of her work at Sarah Lawrence College, my former institution. And Cecilia Payne and the Harvard Computers have long fascinated me; the episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s reboot of Cosmos, while it contains many errors, nevertheless brought tears to my eyes. The four are also very different from each other, in personality, in the kinds of science they did, in the kinds of lives they led.

I don’t think of the four as “female physicists,” any more than I think of Einstein as a “Jewish physicist.” I don’t think Meitner or Mayer, at least, would have liked that label much.

And yet I grouped them together in this book because they’re all women, and they’re all prevalent physicists. It allowed me to examine some of the challenges they faced because of their gender, and I’m glad I did, particularly because women in science today still face many of those same challenges. But I hope that by doing so, I haven’t somehow obscured that they were great scientists—I consider Meitner, in particular, to be one of the top physicists of the twentieth century.

For that reason, I’m glad I featured four physicists who were women, and discussed many others along the way. By doing that, I avoid the idea that any one of them stands in for her whole gender; I let them each be individual people, for whom gender is one part of a complex identity.

That’s my hope anyway. I look forward to hearing what readers think!

Q. Thanks again!

A. And thank you—those were thought-provoking questions!

---

I am doing an Amazon Giveaway for

Beyond Curie: Four women in physics and their remarkable discoveries 1903 to 1963 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

Giveaway:

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/b139e577ee333624

• Winner:Randomly selected after Giveaway has ended, up to 1 winners.
  Requirements for participation:
• Resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia
• 18+ years of age (or legal age)
• Follow Scott Calvin on Amazon

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Some of my readers, who are also authors and publishers, are interested in what affects the sales of a Kindle store book. That includes interviews in blogs such as this one, and Amazon Giveaways. For that reason, I’m listing the book’s rank just after the giveaway went live and prior to the publication of this interview:

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,113,972 Paid in Kindle Store
• #1919 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > History & Philosophy
• #3154 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Physics
• #6785 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Science & Medicine

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* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy  Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.