Amazon has been slowly growing their internal advertising network, which allows companies to showcase their products and services on Kindle e-readers and tablets. The company also has the ability to run advertisements on their extended network of websites, such as IMDB. Lately, Amazon has been establishing ties with new companies to advertise in non-conventional ways.When … [Read more...] about Amazon Doubling Down on their Advertising Network
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Amazon’s Whispercast Update Meets the Needs of K12 Classrooms
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was a classroom teacher for almost twenty years, the last seven of which were spent using a classroom set of Kindle e-readers. My classroom had more than 200 ebooks for the students to choose from, and it was a nightmare trying to make that innovation work.But nightmares no more! Amazon has released an update for its Whispercast feature that will make … [Read more...] about Amazon’s Whispercast Update Meets the Needs of K12 Classrooms
Amazon’s Newest Delivery Option: the Trunk of Your Car
Amazon became the retail giant it is today based on a few factors, including deep discounts and customer service. But one of the chief ways the online retailer became a consumer mainstay is in its shipping options. Whether taking advantage of the free or low-cost three-to-five day ground shipping or reaping the free two-day shipping benefits of an Amazon Prime Membership, … [Read more...] about Amazon’s Newest Delivery Option: the Trunk of Your Car
New Kindle Direct Publishing Dashboard to Help Indie Authors
Amazon is famous for surprising its authors with new features, new offers, and newly revamped designs, all while keeping quiet about it. Past moves have included adding whole new sales territories in foreign countries, and only revealing to authors that their books were available in Mexico, for example, when they found the country listed on their sales dashboards. It's akin to … [Read more...] about New Kindle Direct Publishing Dashboard to Help Indie Authors
Amazon Eliminated TestDrive Feature from Appstore
One of the things that set Amazon's Appstore apart from the others (particularly the big guys like Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store) was their ability to offer a trial period for apps you are considering (before taking the plunge with an actual purchase). Introduced back in March 2011 at the same time as the Appstore, the feature was eliminated earlier this month on … [Read more...] about Amazon Eliminated TestDrive Feature from Appstore
Amazon and Audible Bring Audiobooks to GoodReads
Amazon is starting to engage in more synergy between the brands they own. An example of this is incorporating social book discovery site GoodReads into their complete line of modern Kindle e-Readers, so people can share and discover new e-books together. Today, Audible has announced that they are adding audiobooks into GoodReads and people can listen to samples and add audio … [Read more...] about Amazon and Audible Bring Audiobooks to GoodReads
Kindle Writeon is Destined to Fail
Amazon Kindle Writeon is a community where writers share their works in progress and solicit feedback from people on story direction, editing and fact checking. The service publicly launched at the beginning of March and was in beta for numerous months. How is Writeon doing? Sadly, its failing in the marketplace because its trying to compete against Wattpad and that's where all … [Read more...] about Kindle Writeon is Destined to Fail
Kobo Will Never Make a Color e-Reader
Kobo has verified that they will not employ color technology on any of their dedicated e-paper e-readers. Â Michael Tamblyn the President of Kobo said that color screens and interactive features would continue "on the tablet and app side", which now accounts for half of Kobo's business.Color e-paper has really never taken off in the commercial space because both developers … [Read more...] about Kobo Will Never Make a Color e-Reader
Amazon Textbook Creator Now Supports Enhanced Media
Amazon has enhanced their Texbook Creator app with the ability to embed audio and video. Publishers will be able to include image pop-ups and have their final product compatible with the Kindle Fire line of tablets and the Amazon app for Android and iOS.The Textbook Creator is fairly bare-bones right now, it only accepts PDF source files. Amazon is testing functionality for … [Read more...] about Amazon Textbook Creator Now Supports Enhanced Media
The Crackdown on Fake Amazon Book Reviews Has Begun
In a move that can easily be categorized under "omg it's about freakin' time" (considering Amazon posted its first-ever book review twenty years ago), the largest bookstore in the world has finally taken the first steps in combating fake reviews by suing three pay-for-review sites that operate out of California. These sites make promises about the slow posting of the reviews so … [Read more...] about The Crackdown on Fake Amazon Book Reviews Has Begun
HarperCollins, Amazon Reach Agreement
In an announcement that is certain to bring a sigh of relief to authors and readers, HarperCollins announced yesterday that it has reached a multi-year agreement with Amazon over its recent pricing dispute. While HarperCollins, like several other publishers before it, has been gunning for an agency pricing model in which the publisher sets the price of its books and basically … [Read more...] about HarperCollins, Amazon Reach Agreement
What Rook Can Teach the Industry about Bookselling
There's a new app coming, and on the surface, it looks a whole lot like piracy meets FourSquare. Of course, the fact that a few smaller publishers have come on board and the nomination for a publishing industry innovation award lends a lot of credibility to the concept behind Rook, the free ebook reading app that lets users read any book they want for free, as long as they … [Read more...] about What Rook Can Teach the Industry about Bookselling
Amazon Can Move Forward with US Drone Delivery Testing
It's been a long time since Jeff Bezos looked into a camera and promised me that my stuff was going to arrive by drone. The road to launch of the Amazon Prime Air drone delivery service--one that could deliver packages of up to roughly five pounds, which is around 86% of Amazon's business--has been filled with road blocks, and it's hard to believe that it's all in the country's … [Read more...] about Amazon Can Move Forward with US Drone Delivery Testing