As the market and competition starts to catch up with Amazon.com’s Kindle, it’s no surprise to see that they expanded their E-book availability beyond the Kindle device and also lowered the cost of the devices themselves .
I downloaded the FREE Whispersync technology to my own PC just to get a taste, and I must say it’s really no different than reading a PDF that an author might have sent to me for reviewing. Obviously, I feel that way because I’m tied to the computer monitor and I don’t have the mobility that the Kindle offers. (PDFs can be downloaded to your Kindle).
The main differences are the notes and remarks feature. I can make notes on the text for my review later. I can also adjust the font and size of the page. The Kindle PC option also displays the cover in color, along with any embedded text or images that may be in color as well. I’m sure there are other features I have yet to discover.
It feels like a step back for Amazon, since sites like Smashwords have already been offering such technology for a while now, catering to the home computer and e-devices simultaneously since day one. So, it’s a sure sign that Amazon knows there is competition eating up their once dominant market share and they are reacting to the situation.
What does this mean to indie authors? If you haven’t published to the Kindle already using Amazon’s DTP service, then you are missing out on a huge audience that now extends far beyond those of us who don’t own a Kindle reading device. I personally have seen an increase in sales of my own titles just this month since the Whispersync technology was expanded beyond Kindle.
Advice for Newbies: Don’t get royalty hungry! A Kindle forum demanding boycotts of titles priced over $9.99 started in April and has already surpassed over 10,000 posts, causing the forum to literally start over.
