Round up #285: reading declines, Kindle Unlimited expands to Canada and Mexico
The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.
Kindle Unlimited launches in Mexico and Canada
As a publisher (I only publish my own works…which I would guess is true of most Kindle Direct Publishing authors) who has books in
Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
Amazon just informed me that KU is expanding to Canada and Mexico!
That’s exciting…I like having it very much. It’s an “all you can read” plan, $9.99 a month in the USA. Here’s the link for the information page
Kindle Unlimited in Mexico
where it is 129 pesos a month, and for
Kindle Unlimited Canada
where it is $9.99 (Canadian) a month.
Chri
Echo videos from Phink, one of my readers
One of my regular readers and commenters, Phink, recently got an Amazon Echo, Amazon’s ambient computing device. It’s an always on voice input device which plays music, answers all kinds of questions, and more.
Phink has posted what I think are a couple of the best videos I’ve seen so far about the Echo. They aren’t really reviews, they are demonstrations of what the device can do. If you are interested in the Echo, I think they are definitely worth watching to see what your experience might be like.
I appreciate Phink sharing these! I’ll be happy to write about the Echo, but my delivery date still says between May 27th and July 2nd.
Publishers Weekly: No Panic Over 15 Percent Drop in Christian Fiction Sales
Christian fiction has been a strong category of seller, but from 2013 to 2014, according to this
Publishers Weekly article by Ann Byle
sales dropped 15%. The article goes on to say why the publishers aren’t worried about that…I guess they have faith. 😉
Video news
I thought I’d group a couple of things together here…a mini-round up. 😉
First, this is just odd to me, but Amazon Studios is working with Sid and Marty Krofft to do a reimagined pilot of one of their series. The Kroffts were really gonzo “kids’ show” producers in the 1970s, although they did a lot more than that.
So, what gets the reboot? The most popular H.R. Pufnstuf? The wacky Lidsville? Electra Woman and Dyna Girl? Nope…Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. This may take a lot of reimagining…Sigmund’s parents were parodies of Archie Bunker and Phyllis Diller, and I just don’t think that’s going to fly with today’s audiences. Hoping they stick with the Johnny Whitaker theme song, though. 🙂
press release
Second, Fire TV, which is both the
Fire TV Stick (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
and the
Amazon Fire TV (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
have added a bunch of apps, including the much talked about Sling TV (which may enable some people to drop cable…by paying for a much more focused package), TED (great, though-provoking lectures…this one is free), and Fox Sports GO.
press release
Only 40% of 17 year olds read at least one a week for fun
I do think that e-books have enabled and encourage a lot of people to read more, but stats like the ones in this
EBOOK FRIENDLY post by Ola Kowalczyk
are troubling.
It’s nothing particularly new…as kids get older, fewer of them report reading for fun.
Part of that may be that they have to read so much more for school…a high schooler presumably has a lot more assigned reading than a nine-year old. If they are enjoying that reading, it would probably still not be reported as “reading for pleasure”.
What’s troubling is the decline across age groups since 1984.
It’s possible that there was a big decline (let’s see…video games, maybe?) for a while, and that e-books are, in fact, increasing reading.
Still, the Common Sense Media data reported on here (and shown in an infographic) is not especially encouraging. On the good side, more than a quarter of homes have an EBR (E-Book Reader…they mention Kindles and NOOKs. That would not include tables, like the Kindle Fire).
Big update for Kindle for iOS (4.7)
In this
Kindle Forum thread (at AmazonSmile*)
an update for the iOS (Apple mobile…iPhones, iPads) app is announced.
It includes eTextbooks and the “Book Browser” feature that brings you information about the book (new for iPhones).
Flipboard redesigns Flipboard for the web
This is a big improvement!
I’ve written about my free Flipboard magazines here before.
I read it in the
Flipboard (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
app, which I read every morning on my
Kindle Fire HDX (at AmazonSmile*)
For my readers who didn’t have Fires, though, I know the experience trying to read them in a browser on a PC wasn’t great.
Well, if you’ve tried it before, check it out again at
https://flipboard.com/
I like what they’ve done it with it: it looks much better, and seems to be less resource intensive.
Hope you enjoyed my birthday! 😉
We had a great time…we went to Point Isabel in Richmond (rated as one of the top ten dog parks in the world)…our dogs love it there! We also get about an hour walk, two or three miles. I went to doctor yesterday for an annual check-up, and to the DMV to renew my license. When I did the DMV thing, I realized that my weight is down about 55 pounds since I last did a driver’s license! I’m down about 40 pound in the last two years, thanks to the free app I reviewed here:
Well, that, and a lot of work. 🙂 I figure another year and I’ll be in good shape.
Then we tried a new restaurant, and the food was good.
After that, we saw The Theory of Everything. That’s one of the Best Picture nominees we hadn’t seen. I thought it was good, and was glad I had done my personal
predictions before I saw it. When you think a movie is good, it can skew your predictions…you tend to think the Academy will like it better than you might if you had not seen it.
I also got a book…always a good thing! I’ll wait until I’ve read a bit before I say anything about it, and I’ll likely do a Goodreads review.
Hope it was a great day for you, too!
Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!
*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.
Like this:
Like Loading...
I Love My Kindle 