Sunday, October 10, 2010

A Special Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Saturday, October 9: Enjoy Fall of Giants Free on Your Kindle! plus, a Fast-Paced, Funny Crime Series Set in the City of Big Shoulders (Today's Sponsor)

By Stephen Windwalker
Editor of Kindle Nation Daily

What's the best way for us, as iPad owners, to fight back against the ridiculous $19.99 price that agency model publisher Penguin's Dutton Adult imprint has set for Ken Follett's Fall of Giants?

What if a million of us downloaded it for free? And it was all perfectly legal? Priceless!

I'll tell you how we can do it in this special edition of the Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert.

At most, for the few among us who no longer qualify for the free offer I am going to explain below, the price would fall between $9.56 and $14.95, for a 25 to 50 percent savings compared to the price that Penguin is forcing Amazon to charge in the U.S. Kindle Store.


But first ... a word from Today's Sponsor

New York, LA, Boston, Miami ... each of those towns is home to a handful of well-loved detectives and hard-boiled crime series. Isn't it time the Second City got its due? Now, with a tough ex-cop named Jack Riley, novelist J.R. Chase invites us to join him on a fast-paced, funny ride through the mean and windy streets of the City of Big Shoulders, and the fare is guaranteed to come in at less than two bucks....
by J.R. Chase (Author) 
5.0 out of 5 stars  - (1 customer review) - Kindle Price:    $1.99 - Text-to-Speech: Enabled 

Once a star detective, ex-Chicago PD Jack Riley was thrown off the force under a cloud of scandal. Now he works as a private eye out of Roseland, one of Chicago's bleakest neighborhoods.

When Erin Graves, the youngest daughter of one of Chicago's oldest industrial families is found dead of an apparent overdose, Jack is hired to investigate.

Jack soon discovers that the manicured mansions of the Gold Coast mask a grisly underbelly of sex, drugs and dirty money in Chicago high society.

As Jack catches the scent of a killer, he must confront the dark shadows of his own life or risk losing everything he has left.  

Click on the title to download Chicago Squeeze (or a free sample) to your Kindle or free Kindle app and start reading within 60 seconds!


Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

A Special Free Book Alert for Enjoyment on Your Kindle: 
Fall of Giants

By Stephen Windwalker, Publisher

Although the novelist Ken Follett has managed to sell over 100 million copies of his books without much help from me, I've been aware of his marvelous storytelling gifts since I saw Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan in the film adaptation of his Eye of the Needle over 25 years ago. And for the past year or so I have been encouraged repeatedly by friends possessing a wide variety of reading tastes, most recently my sweetheart Betty, that I should make time to read his sweeping medieval saga The Pillars of the Earth. I recently bought that one in the Kindle Store for $6.99 and downloaded it for my Kindle and Betty's, and am only waiting until she finishes so that I can read it without fear of losing her place if our respective Kindles, both on the same account, approach the kind of synchronicity that their owners appear to have achieved.

But I digress. All the buzz now is about Follett's latest novel, Fall of Giants, a sweeping saga set in the 20th century, for which agency model publisher Penguin's Dutton Adult imprint has set a Kindle Store price of $19.99.

And I am here -- even if I am putting my literary credibility as a Harvard-educated English Lit major at risk -- to tell you that it is one hell of a terrific read.

But that $19.99 price is literary larceny, of course, and I'll have none of it. The same publisher is allowing the Kindle book to be sold for about half that price to Kindle customers in some other countries, and in the UK where there is no agency model, the price is £8.55, which translates into $13.64 US. The three-dead-trees 985-page hardcover is available on Amazon and elsewhere for less than the $19.99 US Kindle price.


So it is not surprising that 205 of the book's 300 Amazon reviews to date have awarded it 1 star, but it is also true that plenty of people are buying the Kindle book even at the ridiculous price. It's #12 just now on the Kindle Store bestseller list. I suspect it would be in the top five in the Kindle Store if it were priced at $9.99, but none of us really knows.

I absolutely will not pay $19.99 to download the Kindle book to my Kindle at that price, but I'm reading it and enjoying it thoroughly ... on my Kindle. I paid $9.56 for Fall of Giants, because I got the complete unabridged audiobook version from Audible.com in a terrific 441-MB set of four files that took me less than 10 minutes to download and transfer to my Kindle before I started listening to John Lee's beautiful narration.


I got the $9.56 price because that's the monetary price of the "1-credit" cost that Audible.com charges for Fall of Giants, based on my Audible.com subscription plan, a prepaid 2-audiobooks-a-month plan that gets me 24 books for about $229. Under other available plans for less frequent flyers, the price of a single credit runs from $11.48 to $14.95.

But if I were a Kindle or iPad owner who was just starting out with a 30-day trial for a brand new Audible.com account, the cost would be ZERO. Free. Zilch. $0.00.

And what better way to use the free 1-book credit that comes with a free 30-day trial than to pick up a book that you want to read (if you do) for which the publisher is trying to gouge you out of 20 bucks? And if enough of us do it so that it makes an impression on the publishers, all the better.


Maybe you already know all about this, but if it's new to you, here are the basics.


Happy listening!




Meanwhile, if you want to read other books by Ken Follett, there are over a dozen that are well worth picking up from the Kindle Store, since all the rest are priced where Fall of Giants will eventually be priced -- between $6.29 and $9.99.


The 25 Newest Free Book Titles in the Kindle Store







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Friday, October 8, 2010

Planet iPad Free Book Alert, Friday, Oct. 8,

We Add Divorced, Desperate and Dating....Shadow Bound....Sister of the Bride....Kell's Legend To Our Latest Listing of Free Books in the Kindle Store.

Plus, with the interactive features of the Kindle, you get to decide how the Adventures of Whatley Tupper Turns Out!

You can find romance, vampires, romance with vampires, and much more with today's newest additions to our Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert....

But first ... a word from Today's Sponsor

You've heard of the Choose Your Own Adventure novels for kids? Well, take that concept and twist it around for adults with the life of a Magnum P.I. obsessed, middle-aged janitor named Whatley Tupper and you get this very funny book by Rudolf Kerkhoven and Daniel Pitts , a creative effort that makes the most of the Kindle and led KND fave J.A. Konrath to write a 5-star review of his own.
 
A Choose Your Own... comedy novel
by Rudolf Kerkhoven and Daniel Pitts 
4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
Kindle Price: $2.99 - Text-to-Speech: Enabled 
Here's what Konrath had to say:  "I checked out other interactive fiction ebooks, and this was one of my favorites. Lots of strange stuff happening, some wildly divergent threads, and a healthy dose of WTF keep this ebook interesting even after multiple reads.   Will this be the next big trend in ebooks? I sure hope so." 

And here's what Motherlode E-Book Reviews had to say:
"A "choose-your-own-adventure" for adults, "The Adventures of Whatley Tupper" is a riot. This ever-changing book lets you decide what choices Whatley makes, and that determines where his adventure leads you. Just like the kid version from the 70s-90s, but with decidedly adult themes, this one book provides you with a plethora of potential storylines... The stories ranged from silly to downright ridiculous, but I was thoroughly entertained the entire way through. I could see the author creating an entire set, and re-igniting the choose-your-own-adventure series fad again, this time for adults."

Here's the set-up:

Until now, the life of Whatley Tupper has been a mundane one.  He is a Magnum P.I. obsessed, middle-aged janitor working at a crappy university.  But something is in the air tonight—and it’s not just the carbon monoxide leaking from the furnace.  What exactly will happen?  Well, you decide:

Will Whatley join forces with the Denny’s night manager to solve the mystery of a renegade group of custodians?  Will Whatley tame the troglodyte murderer living in the disused network of campus tunnels?  Will Whatley inadvertently travel into a parallel universe that is, in fact, another plotline?  Will Whatley journey to Honduras to reunite with his deported love? Will Whatley order chicken on the plane, or fish?   Will Whatley question his own sexuality?  Will Whatley leave all this madness behind and book a relaxing Alaskan cruise?  Or will Whatley turn out to be nothing more than a figment in the imagination of his idol, Tom Selleck? The Adventures of Whatley Tupper is a Choose Your Own Adventure style comedy, filled with so many formulaic plots and inane stock characters that, as a whole, it is something utterly unique. 

"The Adventures of Whatley Tupper is representative of the boundless creativity, raw energy, and just plain sheer fun and entertainment that independent authors are capable of and deserve recognition for accomplishing.  There are things done with this story that is only possible through the new digital revolution in publishing that is the ebook....
"Utilizing the Choose Your Own Adventure and hyperlinking ability of the ebook to maximum effect, the duo has spun a crazy, zany, absolutely hilarious and damn fun as hell spiderweb of interconnected events, characters, and all with a variety of outcomes.  I’m not even going to spoil anything, just take my word for it that this ebook is worth your time."
--Digital Spotlight Fiction Review

Click here to download The Adventures of Whatley Tupper (or a free sample) to your Kindle or free Kindle app and start reading within 60 seconds!







Each day's list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them. 

Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.


The 25 Newest Free Book Titles in the Kindle Store













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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

University of Minnesota Pilot Program Gives 450 Freshmen iPads in October

     All freshmen in the university's College of Education and Human Development will get iPads this month in what the university calls “the largest pilot of its kind at a major university."  Private donors are picking up the tab, estimated at "under $216,000."


     The official university news release says: “CEHD faculty...will research how iPad use relates to student retention, engagement, and learning outcomes. A broad spectrum of first-year undergraduate courses in the Department of Post-secondary Teaching and Learning will incorporate the devices.

     “The iPads will allow CEHD freshmen to access digital textbooks, which should offer them significant cost savings. At the University of Minnesota, textbooks average about $1,000 per year for undergraduates -- equal to eight percent of the cost of tuition/fees. Digital books often cost less than half of print equivalents. Providing iPads to the entire freshman class also expands access to those students who may not otherwise be able to afford the learning technologies that the device supports.”

     Students will get their iPads in late October, so the can get familiar with them in time for the Spring semester.

     The university says digital textbooks cost less than print versions, which run the typical UM student $1,000 annually.

     The Minneapolis Star Tribune quotes David Ernst, director of academic and information technology at the CEHD: “We won't simply say, 'Here's and iPad' and that's the end of it. It will be part of a coordinated, focused research agenda.”

"Mobile technology plays an increasing role in student life and student learning," says CEHD Dean Jean Quam. "CEHD faculty and students are eager to lead the way in exploring the potential of new technologies, like the iPad, in and outside of their classrooms. It's the kind of innovative research that is at the core of what we do in CEHD."



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