Amazon Hot New Releases top 100

Amazon Hot New Releases top 100

Hey, here’s something you haven’t read before!

Well, 100 somethings…and okay, you might have read them in the last month, but you’ll remember if you did, right? 😉

Amazon has all kinds of interesting bestseller lists (updated hourly), and here is the one for “Hot New Releases” (which appears to mean within the last month…although the Kindle First titles can get on this list before they are released):

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

Let’s take a look at some of the books on the list:

#1 is Personal: A Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child
4.0 stars out of 5, 634 customer reviews
$11.84

No big surprise there…

#2, though, is The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg. Yep, a traditionally published book from Amazon beats everything except the Jack Reacher novel.
4.2 stars, 81 customer reviews
$4.99
It should be in Kindle Unlimited once it is officially released on October 1st.

#3 and #4? Also Kindle First picks…will it get to the point where Amazon doesn’t need the tradpubs?

The highest rated KU (Kindle Unlimited) book is really up there…it is #7, Twice the Growl by Milly Taiden.
4.6 stars, 169 reviews. High-rated and a recent release…did you expect to be able to find those in KU?

Speaking of

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

Amazon has now made it easier to find books. When you do a search, you’ll often get a checkmark filter that allows you to limit it to KU. I used the Advanced Search in the Kindle store, but didn’t put in any parameters (which results in all the books).

Checking the KU box, I get 706,786 at time of writing…it’s really growing!

Here is that search:

Kindle Unlimited eligible books (at AmazonSmile*)

Want to narrow it down…maybe find books about cats that are KU eligible, or a particular author?

You can start at

Kindle eBooks: Advanced Search (at AmazonSmile*)

enter combinations of these parameters:

• Keywords
• Author
• Title
• Publisher
• Subject
• Reader Age
• Language
• Pub. Date
  Month
  Year

and choose how you would like it sorted. Once you get your results, you can check the box to filter for KU eligible.

Enjoy!

 Join hundreds 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.

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Kindle store listing of series

Kindle store listing of series

One complaint people have had for years with the Kindle store is the inability to easily find books in a series (and to determine their order).

That’s actually much trickier than you might think. There are series where there is a great deal of debate about the order in which you should read them.

If there were three books in chronological order, and then a prequel, should you read the prequel first?

Amazon has made some attempts to make series easier to find. Sometimes, when I search, I’ll see a link for a series…and that usually has them in order.

The order will often be determined by the publisher…as will which books belong in the series.

I don’t think The Woggle-Bug Book belongs in the series of Oz books (begun with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)…or at least, not in the “famous fourteen”. It’s really a tie-in to a play, takes place in “our world”, and is tonally very different from the others. Some publishers include it: some don’t.

Still, I was excited to see that Amazon now has a page for series in the USA Kindle store:

Series in the USA Kindle Store (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

It’s an alphabetical listing…and there is a searchbox. You can also generally use CTRL+F in most browsers to search the page, if you want.

Unfortunately, as I looked at it a bit closer, there are some puzzlements.

First, there are some series shown with one book in them: what makes that a series?

Second, I couldn’t find the Oz series…or the original Sherlock Holmes books.

Third, series that start with the word “The” are alphabetized in the “T”s. Lord of the Rings, for example, is in the “T”s, not in the “L”s.

Fourth, this is pretty clearly not being done entirely by human beings. Computers can be very good at some task, but there is some “lumping” here which a human wouldn’t have done.  I checked one trilogy…and there were nine books listed. There was another trilogy with a similar name, and they’d been combined.

If this was “informed” by Goodreads (owned by Amazon), I think it would have been a lot better…the same thing goes for Shelfari (also part of Amazon).

Oh, and I can’t blame them for only listing the number of books in the Kindle store…some series have a lot higher numbers than are shown, but only if you include ones not available in e-book form from Amazon.

Anyway, I think it’s a start, and you may find it useful.

Feel free to let me and my readers know what you think of this feature by commenting on this post.

Join hundreds 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.

Kindle Short Reads: how much time do you have?

Kindle Short Reads: how much time do you have?

You know, I always thought the old T.J. Maxx jingle that it was “…never the same place twice” was weird. I mean, did that mean that if I liked it once, I shouldn’t go to it again, because I wouldn’t like it the next time? 😉

Oh, intellectually, I got it…they just meant that you’d see new merchandise.

Emotionally? I get kidded about not liking change…eating the same meals over and over, buying three pairs of the exact same shoes at the same time, getting itchy when my favorite low-carb tortillas changed the packaging…you know, those kind of normal things. 😉

When my Significant Other jokes with me about that, I always explain that it is because my life is so good the way it is now…my SO can’t say much in response to that. 🙂

Still, I do like it when I find something new at Amazon!

Not just a new book, but a whole new section. I like to see that they are experimenting.

I don’t think I’d seen this before:

Kindle Short Reads (at AmazonSmile…benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

This isn’t the same as Kindle Singles…different section.

The way it works is that you pick a time length:

• 15 minutes
• 30 minutes
• 45 minutes
• One hour
• 90 minutes
• 2 hours or more

and  you can browse for titles that would take you that long to read.

It’s a cool idea, but it seems strange that they feel like they can estimate the reading time…and yet, they have technology that figures out your reading speed…eventually…and seems to have to keep recalculating it.

How many pages do they think you can read in an hour?

33-43

Well, that’s actually a pretty big range, so maybe that’s close for a lot of people. Roughly a page every two minutes seems slow to me, though.

Does it seem excessive to pay $0.99 for something you’ll read in fifteen minutes…when you can pay the same for some titles with thousands of pages?

Maybe…depends on how good those fifteen minutes are, right?

While it appears that it may not be true, many people believe that Ernest Hemingway wrote a great short story that was six words long:

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”

That’s great writing, and can be read in fifteen seconds by most people.

Also, I noticed that there seem to be free books in the different time lengths as well.

I probably won’t buy from this storefront, but I thought you might.

Why won’t I?

I’m often reading in short chunks like that, and, while I like short stories, I don’t mind at all reading part of a bigger work.

I’m typically reading several books at once…some books I will read a few minutes at a time over years.

On Goodreads, I show myself as reading sixteen books right now.

So, I don’t really see the amount of time I have to read as a driving selection factor.

I can see some people using this, though. You just found out your flight will be delayed by forty-five minutes? Might be nice to download something that is supposed to fill that time.

What do you think? Is this something that would appeal to you? Feel free to let me and my readers know what you think by commenting on this post.

* 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.

Amazon Aisle: Arts & Photography

Amazon Aisle: Arts & Photography

I used to love to go into a brick and mortar bookstore, and literally walk down every single aisle (yes, it might take hours).  I pride myself on being an eclectic reader (although I do have preferences, of course), and I always hoped to find something outside of what I might expect.

When I managed a brick and mortar bookstore myself, I encouraged my employees to read something from every section (I did try to do that myself). I would suggest that they ask a regular customer who shopped in the section for a recommendation.

Well, I don’t find myself wandering through Amazon like that. I tend to notice the deals, or things that they are promoting, like the “best” lists. It’s a bit like I go into a store, and only look at the end caps and the wishing wells. 😉 Oh, end caps are the shelves that are on the end of the aisle facing perpendicular to the shelves in the aisle, and wishing wells are those giant structures of books on the floor…I don’t see those much any more.

Yes, I only look at what they really want me to see, or look for a specific book, or perhaps “surf” from one book to another via connections.

I feel like I might be missing something by not being as systematic…and you might be, too. 🙂

That doesn’t mean I’m going to look at all of the nearly two million* books in the USA Kindle store! What I can do, though, is look into each of the sections that they provide on the side links. I think of those as being like aisles in a bookstore (although the romance or science fiction sections in a store would typically be several physical aisles.

I’m going to start with the first on alphabetically: Arts & Photography.

Arts & Photography

There are 121,989 at time of writing. That is about 6.1% of the total, which is showing as 1,995,917 right now.

That is then broken down into these categories:

Architecture (4,806) 3.9% of Arts & Photography
Art (8,008) 6.6%
Dance (657) 0.54%
Fashion (40) 0.03%
Graphic Design (3,192) 2.62%
Individual Artists (1,419) 1.16%
Music (70,444) 57.75%
Performing Arts (2,062) 1.69%
Photography (12,644) 10.36%
Theater (15,203) 12.46%

Note that there can be overlap here…the same book might appear in both Performing Arts and Theater, for example.

It’s also important to note that categories are, I believe, assigned by the publisher, not Amazon. That’s the case for sure with independently published books using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, and I’m guessing that’s the case with traditionally published books as well. That can lead to some odd things, since the decision is made for marketing purposes, not to bring the greatest clarity or accuracy. I’ve seen the same book categorized as fiction and non-fiction, for example.

The sidelinks show these authors:

Melissa Foster (4)
William Shakespeare (432)
Shameek Speight (5)
Christine DeMaio-Rice (1)
Arnold Bennett (18)
pleasefindthis (1)
Lois Lavrisa (1)
› See more…

If you click “See more…”, you get lots of choices…with 54 on the first page and 39 pages, you have over 2,000 authors just in this section.

The first page might make for an interesting dinner party…here are five people appearing in the first column:

50 Cent
Abraham Lincoln
Ace Frehley
Aeschylus
Al Gore

That would make for some interesting conversation! 😉

Hm…I notice they are alphabetized by their first names…that’s a bit odd, although easier for the computer.

I was curious as to why Al Gore showed up in this category: it was sheet music for a song called “Diggin’ Up Bones”, as performed by Randy Travis…and yes, written by Al Gore (and Nat Stuckey and Paul Overstreet).

Returning to the main Arts & Photography page, 184 of them had Whispersync for voice. That seems like a lot to me…you wouldn’t have that in a photography book, typically. However, I have to remember that there will be things like musician biographies here, I would guess, and plays.

Many (but not all) of the main categories have sub-categories:

Architecture

Architects, A-Z (174)
Building Types & Styles (689)
Criticism (231)
Drawing & Modelling (589)
Historic Preservation (180)
History & Periods (899)
Interior Design (366)
International (30)
Landscape (387)
Project Planning & Management (342)
Reference (235)
Study & Teaching (196)
Urban & Land Use Planning (1,228)

Art

Art History (4,451)
Instruction & Reference (1,791)
Museums & Collections (291)
Other Media (642)
Painting (799)
Religious (311)
Sculpture (322)
Erotica (424)

Dance

Ballet (30)
Ballroom (6)
Classical (164)
Folk (63)
Jazz (8)
Modern (70)
Notation (4)
Popular (75)
Reference (39)
Tap (6)

Graphic Design

Airbrush (18)
Animation (103)
Calligraphy (60)
Cartooning (210)
Clip Art (202)
Commercial (1,083)
Design (725)
Drawing (883)
Graphic Arts (90)
Printmaking (73)
Typography (92)

Music

Business (609)
History & Criticism (2,458)
Instruments & Performers (3,105)
Musical Genres (6,460)
Recording & Sound (557)
Songbooks (2,341)
Theory, Composition & Performance (2,906)

Photography

Architectural (75)
Cinematography (112)
Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions (173)
Color (34)
Criticism & Essays (67)
Darkroom & Processing (55)
Digital Photography (1,255)
Equipment (355)
Erotica (6,159)
Fashion (81)
History (378)
Lighting (183)
Nature & Wildlife (713)
Photo Essays (768)
Photographers, A-Z (530)
Photojournalism (312)
Portraits (479)
Professional (243)
Reference (960)
Travel (299)

Theater

Acting & Auditioning (1,055)
Broadway & Musicals (276)
Circus (75)
Direction & Production (217)
History & Criticism (1,508)
Miming (12)
Playwriting (657)
Puppets & Puppetry (50)
Stagecraft (337)

Now, let’s do a quick analysis of the top ten Arts & Photography bestsellers:

Rank	Category	Price	Prime	TTS	X-ray	Lending	Overall Rank
1	Music	$6.99	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	22,209
2	Theater	$3.99	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	4,369
3	Art	$9.55	No	No	Yes	No	5,036
4	Art	$8.89	No	Yes	Yes	No	2,158
5	Music	$11.04	No	Yes	Yes	No	888
6	Drama	$2.99	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	6,619
7	Graphic Design	$0.00	No	Yes	Yes	No	582
8	Art	$8.89	No	Yes	Yes	No	7,251
9	Graphic Design	$2.99	No	Yes	No	Yes	19,409
10	Photography	$9.98	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	4,741
		Average	%Yes
		$6.53	30%	90%	90%	50%

Hm…I’m not quite sure why the book that is topped ranked in Arts & Photography is considerably lower ranked overall in the store than almost all of the rest of the top ten. I guess they must compute them differently…probably on a different periodicity.

There was one really odd duck in this group:

Blackjack Wayward (The Blackjack Series)

Everything I can see on this page, including the reviews, suggests to me that this is a superhero novel (and not a graphic novel…I even “looked inside” to check). My guess is that the author just thought that it should be in the Drama section because, you know, it’s dramatic. 😉 However, “Theater” is another category…it didn’t appear to be a play, though.

Well, I did find this an interesting exercise. It reminded me that there is sheet music in the Kindle store, for one thing…that could a good way to work with it (I’ve used sheet music before).

My feeling right now is that this may be worth doing again with other sections, but feel free to let me know how you liked it…it will also help if you can give me an idea why you did or didn’t. 🙂

* As of writing, there are 1,996,105 titles in the USA Kindle store (in the e-books part). It’s likely that we’ll break two million in the next week or so, but it’s hard to predict exactly…and we could slide back under it afterwards.

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