Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books

Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family

Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.

"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. "In addition, we're excited by the response to Kindle with Special Offers for only $114, which has quickly become the bestselling member of the Kindle family. We continue to receive positive comments from customers on the low $114 price and the money-saving special offers. We're grateful to our customers for continuing to make Kindle the bestselling e-reader in the world and the Kindle Store the most popular e-bookstore in the world."

Recent milestones for Kindle include:

* Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
* So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon's print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon's U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
* In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
* Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
* Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

Kindle offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read. The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 950,000 books, including New Releases and 109 of 111 New York Times Best Sellers. Over 790,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 69 New York Times Best Sellers. Millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle devices. More than 175,000 books have been added to the Kindle Store in just the last 5 months.

All Kindle Books let you "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" - on all generation Kindles, as well as on the largest number of devices and platforms, including iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Android-based devices, and soon HP TouchPads and BlackBerry PlayBooks. Amazon's Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off. With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books you purchase from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon, where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.

Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books

Customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 local libraries to read on Kindle and free Kindle reading apps

Amazon today announced Kindle Library Lending, a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. Kindle Library Lending will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps.

"We're excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries," said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. "Customers tell us they love Kindle for its Pearl e-ink display that is easy to read even in bright sunlight, up to a month of battery life, and Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights and last page read between their Kindle and free Kindle apps."

Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer's annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

"We're doing a little something extra here," Marine continued. "Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we're extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced."

Kindle Lending Club - A Crowdsourced Virtual Library for Kindle

Kindle Lending Club is a website that matches lenders and borrowers of Kindle ebooks. To participate in lending and borrowing Kindle books, you must first register as a user on the site or connect with Facebook Connect.

Kindle lending is a feature launched by Amazon on December 30, 2010. Any Kindle book that has lending enabled can be loaned by one Kindle user to another for 14 days. At the end of the loan period the title is automatically transferred back to the book owners Kindle. Each Kindle book you own can only be loaned once. For more information on lending, go to the Amazon page on Lending Kindle Books.

Nora Roberts Passes 1 Million Kindle Books Sold

Roberts becomes the third author in the "Kindle Million Club," joining Stieg Larsson and James Patterson

Nora Roberts has become the third author to sell over 1 million Kindle books, becoming the third member of the "Kindle Million Club." As of yesterday, Nora Roberts has sold 1,170,539 Kindle books under her name and her pseudonym J.D. Robb. The Kindle Million Club recognizes authors whose books have sold over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Stieg Larsson, author of the Millennium Trilogy, was the first author to hit the 1 million mark. James Patterson, author of more than 65 books that span the genres of suspense, fantasy, romance, historical fiction and children's, was the second author to join the Kindle Million Club.

"Nora Roberts has been a bestseller at Amazon for 15 years so this accomplishment is no surprise," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "We're happy to welcome Nora Roberts to the Kindle Million Club, joining Stieg Larsson and James Patterson."

Roberts, who wrote the "In Death" series under the pseudonym J.D. Robb, is the author of more than 200 novels. Her many books include "The Search," "Northern Lights" and the popular The Garden Trilogy. Her novels have won numerous awards, including the Golden Medallion Award, RITA Award and Quill Award. One of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2007, Roberts was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. The New Yorker recently called her "America's favorite novelist."

Classic Novels Make Comeback as EBooks

Thanks to things like the Kindle, the Nook and the other ebook readers, that classic books have been making a huge comeback. Some reports even say that Kindles were the biggest selling products this Christmas. This news was confirmed by Amazon just this week.
So what books are the most purchased for ereaders? Well the free ones, of course. Thus, classic novels made by people like Charles Dickens and Jane Austen are enjoying a renaissance. Even if people never read the books, they are downloading them to their Kindles and other ereaders, because they are free to do so.
People who own ebook gadgets like the Kindle or the iPad can simply snap up all of these works without paying a penny. People are able to carry a whole collection of classic books on their ereaders. Some people said that they put these books on there just to make it appear as if they are sophisticated and enjoy classic books.

Access the kindle store here.

Oprah's New Book Club Selections Free on Kindle

The 65th Oprah Book Club pick is a Charles Dickens double-header reports the Amazoniacs. The selections are "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations," and Amazon.com have announced that  announced that both are available on Kindle for free, along with millions of other out-of-copyright works. These free Kindle books can be read on the bestselling $139 Kindle (www.amazon.com/kindle) with new, high-contrast Pearl e-ink or on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry, Android-based devices, PC, and Mac using free Kindle reading apps (www.amazon.com/kindleapps).

"We've found that customers love to discover--or rediscover--classic books on Kindle and we're sure these Dickens books will find new readers as an Oprah's Book Club selection," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "Millions of free, out-of-copyright books are available to read on Kindle, including these two classic Dickens books."

There is also a Penguin edition available in the Kindle store for $7.99. The Penguin edition includes illustrations of 18th century fashion and culture in Dickens' Victorian world, information about the early reception for both "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations," a filmography of Dickens' novels, further reading about the author as well as what informed the thematic elements of these classic novels.