Why Kindle?

One of the services that Wheatmark offers to authors is Kindle formatting for their books. For those not familiar with Kindle, it is an electronic reading device sold by Amazon and wirelessly transfers formatted books, newspapers, and other reading materials to the device.

I often hear grumblings about the Kindle by paper enthusiasts that they don't want to read on a screen, some unfriendly words about "youth" and how they are ruining things, and also about how technology is going too far.

I, too, wasn't completely sold on eReaders until I recently went on a long trip.

When I'm on airplanes, I tend to read what I call "junk food" books. Generally thick paperbacks with detectives, serial killers, and maybe a good love scene--these books are a fast read for me and I can read two of them in just one flight across the country. That's TWO nearly 400 page books I have in my carry-on luggage.


(Yes, I read these stuff.)

If I had a Kindle, I could have loaded the books up on the device before I left, from the airport, and even from the cruise ship I was on. A typical John Sanford "Prey" series novel is about 10.4 oz. The Kindle is 10.2 oz. With huge amounts of data storage, the Kindle is a great way to pack light.

In fact, on the cruise ship I kept seeing Kindles everywhere! I saw passengers demonstrating them excitedly to other passengers in the elevators, one gentlemen surreptitiously reading his under the table at dinner, and on a lazy day at sea while reading on the sundeck I counted 20 Kindles being used.

I was surprised. Most of the passengers on the ship were retirees (or older--the ship should have been christened "Heaven's Waiting Room") who were spending their free time traveling. This was a demographic that, in my experience, doesn't always warm to technology like ducks to water.

I asked one lady how she liked her Kindle and she couldn't stop raving about how easy it was to have all her books on it, how she could increase the font so she didn't have to wear her glasses all the time, and how it was such a pleasure to use.

There is a market out there for Kindle-formatted books and it will continue to be a factor in book sales. Yes, there are other electronic reading devices out there, and some of them, like the Sony, come in tempting colors, but the Kindle is setting the standard with more than 350,000 titles available for it.

Many Wheatmark authors have elected to have their books formatted for Kindle and they are seeing the results in their books sales.

If you are interested in having your book formatted for the Kindle, ask your account manager about getting a quote today!