Our first Give a Kid a Kindle device has been ordered!

Our first Give a Kid a Kindle device has been ordered!

Our first “Give a Kid a Kindle” Kindle has been ordered!

I am giving a

Kindle Paperwhite 3G, 6″ High Resolution Display with Next-Gen Built-in Light, Free 3G + Wi-Fi – Includes Special Offers (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

I got the 3G, because I don’t know this recipient’s circumstances. Getting one with 3G gives the most flexibility for connecting to wireless: it includes 3G (like a cellphone) and wi-fi (which many people have in their homes, and is available in some business).

I also decided to order a wall charger. The thought  occurred  to me that someone might not have a USB port to charge (I’m trying to cover the most bases).

The one negative to the 3G for me is that it is out of stock right now, but is expected to be back in soon:

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Placed on Thursday, April 3, 2014
SHIPMENT 1 OF 2
Your estimated delivery date is:
Monday, April 21, 2014 –
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Your shipping speed:
Two-Day Shipping

Kindle Paperwhite 3G, 6″ High Resolution Display with Next-Gen Built-in Light, Free 3G + Wi-Fi – Includes Special Offers
Electronics
Sold by Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

SHIPMENT 2 OF 2
Your estimated delivery date is:
Saturday, April 5, 2014

Your shipping speed:
Two-Day Shipping

Amazon Kindle 5W USB Power Adapter
Accessory
Sold by Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

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Thank you for everyone who participated, either by nominating someone or by “recommending” one of the nominees to receive the device!

This is the person who got it:

[Nominee #1] is a ninth grade student who comes to class every day with a stack of books. [Nominee #1] seems to read very rapidly, perhaps a book a day, and [Nominee #1] checks out stacks of library books so that [Nominee #1] has enough to read. [Nominee #1] would benefit from a Kindle because [Nominee #1] could read free classics and not have to carry around a stack any longer!

https://ilmk.wordpress.com/give-a-kid-a-kindle/

I removed personally identifying information.

When I told somebody about this in person today, they commented that they could see how happy it made me…and it really does! I love being able to give back in this way, and to empower a reader to change the world…or just to enjoy it and understand it better. 🙂

What’s next?

I think I’m going to wait until I start up again. I want to think about how well it worked. I want to think about ways to up the participation if I do this again.

I don’t think I’ll do it again in April, but may start it again in May. I have to think about the timeline I did: too long? Too short?

Again, though, thanks!

I was able to do two things through Amazon that made this even better.

One was the ability to buy the Kindle in installment payments. That is going to make it considerably easier. Not everybody has that option, but it’s nice when they give it to you.

The other one was that I bought it through

AmazonSmile

That means that the non-profit I chose to support at that site will get a donation from Amazon for purchase…it’s another (very convenient) way to give back.

* 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!  By the way, it’s been interesting lately to see Amazon remind me to “start at AmazonSmile” if I check a link on the original Amazon site. I do buy from AmazonSmile, but I have a lot of stored links I use to check for things.

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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One week left to help a kid get a free Kindle

One week left to help a kid get a free Kindle

March 31st will mark the end of the period to recommend which of the kids nominated will get a free Kindle from me:

Give a Kid a Kindle

Thank you to everybody who has made recommendations so far!

A special thank you to the people who nominated children. I know it can be hard to ask for something (even for someone else), but my Significant Other and I are happy to do this.

I truly believe that helping a child get to books makes the world a better place.

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

Give a Kid a Kindle recommendations now open

Give a Kid a Kindle recommendations now open

You can now recommend that kids nominated by my readers get a free Kindle:

https://ilmk.wordpress.com/give-a-kid-a-kindle/

For each nominee (we have two so far…nominations will continue to be open through the end of the month), there is a poll. I had wanted to have a one question poll (I don’t want the kids to feel like they are competing with each other) for each nominee, but that wasn’t possible the way I was doing it. In each case you can say that you recommend the child, and/or you can simply congratulate that child for being a reader.

It’s fine with me that you recommend every nominee, if you like. I think more recommendations (and congratulations) are better…it will encourage these kids and others.

After March 31st, I’ll give one of the kids a Kindle (for more details, see the page linked above…this is not a non-profit, and I’m not taking donations: it’s just something I want to do personally). If one kid gets more recommendations, it will be that one. If it’s a tie, I’ll randomize it. I’d love it if every nominated child got a lot of recommendations, and it was  tie! 🙂

If a nominee doesn’t get the Kindle this time, and if I do this again next quarter (which is my expectation), I’ll carry those nominees into April (but reset the recommendation counter for them to zero, to make it fair for other nominees).

Please consider helping the next generation of readers by making recommendations.

Give a Kid a Kindle

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

Do you know a child who should get a free Kindle?

Do you know a child who should get a free Kindle?

How big a difference did reading when you were a child make in your life?

It was huge for me…my life would certainly not be the same, and I will say confidently, it would not be as good as it is now.

Reading not only gave me knowledge, but it gave me perspective.

I was fortunate enough to be in a situation where I had access to a lot to read.

That’s not true for every child.

Do you know a kid who would benefit from getting a free Kindle? Maybe the child is a serious reader now, but in circumstances where getting a book is hard. Maybe the child has a very active mind, but just hasn’t clicked into reading yet.

If you do, please let me know.

Nominations are now open for the free Kindle I plan to give away in April.

You can read the details here:

Give a Kid a Kindle

This is something I want to do: I think helping kids get access to books makes the world a better place.

I want your help, though. I want you to nominate kids, or to get other people to nominate them. After that, I’d like you to help me decide who gets one…I’d love to be able to give a Kindle to every nominee, but I simply can’t do that. There is no organization behind this, it’s just me and my family. 🙂

If you don’t know any kids yourself, maybe you could mention this to your child’s teacher, or your librarian. There is no economic needs testing for this, but if you volunteer with a group that helps disadvantaged kids, they might also know someone.

Help me help a kid…books matter.

Nominations are open through the end of February 2014.

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 #228: Silk fix, what did Melville make?

Round up #228: Silk fix, what did Melville make?

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

Coming in 2014: Give a Kid a Kindle

I’m going to give away a Kindle to a child in 2014 (I hope to do it every quarter), and you’ll be able to help.

You can nominate a child that you know, by commenting on this page:

Give a Kid a Kindle

which I have just made public this morning.

Nominating comments can be made now (see that page for more information), and I will begin displaying those nominations (which may be edited) on the page in January.

Readers will be able to recommend a child for the Kindle in March of 2014, by using a poll which will be on that page.

There is no charitable organization involved in this, and there won’t be any tax write-offs associated with it…it’s just something that I want to do personally (and I’ve discussed with my Significant Other, of course).

I’ve tried to keep this simple. I just want to do something nice. 🙂

I think reading is important, and that readers can (but don’t have to) change the world.

I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions you have for this. I can certainly see some challenges in doing it…

Amazon promises Silk “accordion” fix

It has seemed pretty obvious lately that Amazon needs to do more testing before they release updates.

Don’t get me wrong, I love getting free updates with new functionality! It’s just that you don’t want them to make things worse. That’s clearly how some people are feeling about Amazon’s updates…I know of people saying that they are afraid to turn on the wireless, because they don’t want to get a new update.

Recently:

• A Kindle Fire update appears to have made wireless connections unstable…I have to frequently toggle the wireless on and off now
• The introduction of Cloud Collections to the Kindle Paperwhite in a recent update has been widely criticized as confusing and unwieldy
• An update to the Silk browser caused pages to “accordion” as you scrolled, making it impossible to read them

As to the last one, Amazon had now addressed it in this:

Kindle forum thread

They’ve said that a fix has been released, and that the Fire should automatically update within the next few days.

I really appreciate that Amazon employees will go into a public forum and make a statement like that…but it would be better if the problems were discovered pre-release, and fixed.

I’m guessing that when Amazon gets a little distance on all this after the holiday season, they’ll re-evaluate their quality control and testing for updates. That might mean we get them farther apart, but I think that would be worth it.

Hugh Howey writing in the world of Kurt Vonnegut

My feeling is that Kindle Worlds has been a bit slow getting off the ground. This is Amazon’s bold venture to mainstream fanfic (“fan fiction”), in a sense, by licensing properties from the rightsholders and then letting anyone write within those worlds (within certain guidelines), and splitting the royalties.

I’ve been following the forum at the

• Kindle Worlds storefront
• at AmazonSmile…support a non-profit of your choice by shopping*

and after some initial activity, it’s been quite slow.

The bestselling Kindle Worlds books tend not to break the top 10,000 in the Kindle store. That doesn’t mean that can’t be profitable and popular, but my intuition is that Amazon would like more out of the program.

Part of this is chicken or the egg: they may need hits to get people interested in the program, and people need to be interested in the program to write those hit titles.

Well, this title should help.

Hugh Howey (at AmazonSmile) is a best-selling (New York Times and USA Today) science fiction author. I’m reading Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1 – 5) (Silo Saga) (at AmazonSmile) myself, although it’s not first in line for me (I’m reading a galley copy of something right now, as part a “beta reader”, and then there is always the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library book to finish). My guess is that I’ll finish the five books in the next few months.

Howey is writing a Kindle Worlds’ title in the world of Kurt Vonnegut:

• The World of Kurt Vonnegut: Peace in Amber (Kindle Worlds Short Story)
• at AmazonSmile

It can be pre-ordered now, for delivery on January 14, 2014.

Howey’s books are well-reviewed on Amazon, and this announcement has gotten some media play. It’s an interesting mix of inspiration (Slaughterhouse-Five (at AmazonSmile)) (which is only $2.50 at time of writing) and author. Howey had a personal experience with the September 11th World Trade Center attacks, which may certainly inform this piece.

Janet Dailey reported dead

We sold a lot of Janet Dailey (at AmazonSmile) when I managed a brick-and-mortar bookstore…and we certainly weren’t the only ones.

Reportedly, the author’s books sold something like 300 million copies, certainly making the romance novelist one of the best-selling novelists of any kind.

Amazon lists over 100 Janet Dailey titles in the Kindle store, including at least some of the Americana series (Dailey wrote a novel for each state).

Dailey began writing in the 1970s, and the latest book from the author was published this year.

New York Times article by Paul Vitello

Herman Melville’s Lifetime Literary Earnings

Bibliokept has this nice

post

which shows you how much Herman Melville got paid for writing. While not complete, let’s just say that the figures might be surprising…you do have to remember that we aren’t talking about constant dollars, though. Money went further back then. Still, being an author is rarely one of the best paid occupations.

* 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.