The Kindle Chronicles

Author of The Kutherian Gambit series Interview starts at 10:15 and ends at 43:51 "When I originally put out Book 1 I had no idea if anyone cared about my stories. I didn’t want to invest a lot of time, money, and effort if nobody wanted to read it." News “Site of Amazon’s Cloud glitch made it especially disruptive” by Angel Gonzalez at The Seattle Times - February 28, 2017 “The embarrassing reason behind Amazon’s huge cloud computing outage this week” by Brian Fung at The Washington Post - March 2, 2017 “Summary of the Amazon S3 Service Disruption in the Northern Virginia (US-EAST-1) Region” - Amazon Web Services statement “Amazon Cloud Snafu Snarls Web Traffic” at WSJ What’s News podcast - March 1, 2017 “Amazon Unveils First East Coast Bricks and Mortar” by Alex Green at Publishers Weekly - February 28, 2017 “Amazon plans to release new Alexa devices that can make phone calls and work as intercoms” by Jason Del Rey at Recode - March 3, 2017 Tech Tip Lazy-Hands grip for tablet and e-readers Interview wi

Author of Four Seasons of Reno Hart and Creator of The Author Biz podcast Interview starts at 10:33 and ends at 42:30 "The power of Amazon Publishing--if you’ve written a good book and the people at Amazon support the book--there are so many levers and knobs that they can turn to put it in front of the people who will like it. It is astonishing. There’s nothing like it." News Amazon discount to celebrate Harris Poll ranking - press release on February 22, 2017 “With Amazon Books, Jeff Bezos Is Solving Digital Retail’s Biggest Design Flaw” by Noah Robischon at Fast Company - February 13, 2017 “9 Statistics Writers Should Know About Amazon” by Jane Friedman at JaneFriedman.com - February 16, 2017 Tech Tip Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1-5) by Hugh Howie with Kindle in Motion update Interview with Stephen Campbell The Author Biz website and podcast Four Seasons of Reno Hart by Stephen R. Campbell The Hardy Boys Starter Set (5 Volumes) by Franklin W. Dixon Cozy Mysteries (new releases in 2016) at Amazon.com Myst

Technology Reporter at Observer.com Interview starts at 10:30 and ends at 42:19 "That’s why I call this whole printed book thing fetishism. What’s more important? Is literature and writing important or is this object more important? I think literature is more important, and writing is important. I don’t really care how people read it. I just really want to push back on this idea that there’s something sad that we’ve lost because print books are fading, when what I care about is not print or first editions. I care about people reading and the act of writing and that creative work." News “Amazon Alexa Voice Service Coming to DTS Play-Fi” - September 28, 2017 “Why Amazon is the World’s Most Innovative Company of 2017” by Noah Robischon at Fast Company - February 13, 2017 “Amazon.com Takes Aim at Victoria’s Secret With Its Own $10 Bras” by Khadeeja Safdar and Laura Stevens at The Wall Street Journal - February 10, 2017 “AWS Announces Amazon Chime” - press release February 14, 2017 Amazon Chime Tech Tip “Owne

Historian at the Sanibel Public Library Interview starts at 3:01 and ends at 34:30 [On Anne Morrow Lindbergh:] “Going up and learning how to fly--I mean, in that era was pretty impressive. I’m kind of struck by the fact that a lot of times when we look back and say ‘Gee, in the 50s it was kind of daring of a woman to do that.” It may have been as a wide generality, but there have always been daring women. You can go back to Cleopatra, and there’s plenty of them around.” News “Amazon hunts for London shops” by Aimee Donnellan and Simon Duke at The Sunday Times - February 5, 2017 Tech Tip “Amazon’s Tap Speaker gets a hands-free update in defiance of its name” by Brian Heater at TechCrunch - February 9, 2017 Interview with Betty Anholt Sanibel Public Library Sanibel’s Story: Voices and Images from Calusa to Incorporation by Betty Anholt Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum Poetry by Anne Morrow Lindbergh Listen! The Wind by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, winner of the 1939 N

President of The Future of Publishing Interview starts at 8:19 and ends at 44:04 "I’m convinced that if you want to retain your job in publishing moving forward, unless you’re demonstrably technology adept, you’re going to lose your job. Yeah, there’s room for 100 amazing editors who can’t even use a computer, but that’s not the run-of-the-mill worker in publishing today. They need to be imbued with a knowledge of technology." News Amazon’s earnings (Forbes) - February 2, 2017 Amazon press release on earnings Walmart going after Amazon Prime (Recode) - January 31, 2017 David Frum in The Atlantic’s March issue   Jeff Bezos statement on immigration executive order Give Trump a Chance debate Interview with Thad McIlroy The Future of Publishing website “An Authoritative Look at Book Publishing Startups” by Thad McIlroy Shelfie “Shelfie Closes” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - January 31, 2017 John LeCarré: The Biography by Adam Sisman BookBub PerfectIt The Bestseller Code by Jodi Archer and Matthew L.

Co-Authors of Evelyn’s Lighthouse Interview starts at 14:58 and ends at 44:35 Patience: "It was really meant to inspire other younger girls or the readers to read more, because I’ve always loved reading, and Evelyn loves reading. We really hope that it causes others to want to read just as much as Evelyn does." News Author Earnings Book stats presented at Digital Book World “Despite What You Heard, The E-Book Market Never Stopped Growing” by Brady Dale at Obvserver.com Amazon movie nominated for Best Picture Oscar “Amazon to close Kindle ‘Write On’ author community, pulling the plug on story lab” by Todd Bishop at GeekWire - January 26, 2017 Tech Tip Knotes Kindle clippings manager Interview with Patience Clevenger and Mark Roberts Evelyn’s Lighthouse by Patience Clevenger and Mark Roberts Split Rock Lighthouse American Girl dolls and books Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery The Black Stallion by Walter Farley Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen United States Lighthouse Society Out of My Mind by Kar

Our supper aboard the Silver Meteor en route to Kissimmee, Florida News “How Netflix Lost Big to Amazon in India” by Abhishek Madhaven at Backchannel - January 12, 2017 Tech Tip “Is Amazon’s Newest 5% Credit Card Worth the Hype?” by Nick Clements at Forbes - January 13, 2017 Interview with Kindle Owner Robert Millonig (Starts at 17:51 and ends at 27:35) The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauf   Next Week’s Guests Mark Roberts and Patience Clevenger, co-authors of Eveylyn’s Lighthouse Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

CEO of Open Road Integrated Media Interview starts at 14:22 and ends at 41:41   Links for Interview with Paul Slavin: Open Road Integrated Media website Paul Slavin’s 2016 year-end letter to employees Early Bird Books newsletter BookBub BookGorilla Upstairs at the White House by J. B. West Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T. J. Stiles The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll Selected Poems of Ezra Pound   Next Week’s Show I plan to record the next TKC episode aboard Amtrak’s Silver Meteor from Penn Station in New York City to Kissimmee, Florida. If I am able to upload 360 videos from the train you will see them at Periscope.tv/lenedgerly. Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!  

Author of Books for Living Interview starts at 19:07 and ends at 43:15 "One of the reasons I come back to Lin Yutang is a marvelous story he tells, in 1937, about being in the most famous tea house in China. And the tourists there are so busy taking photographs of themselves drinking tea that they don’t enjoy the tea. And I thought to myself, ‘We blame too much on the machines.’ Constant connectivity is our fault. It’s not the fault of the little items we hold in our hands. And it’s been a problem—distraction and impatience have been with us since the dawn of time. So my first thing is to blame myself and not the machine. News “How Alexa Won CES” (video) by Geoffrey A. Fowler at The Wall Street Journal - January 6, 2017 “Amazon’s Alexa is everywhere at CES 2017” by Jacob Kastrenakes at The Verge - January 6, 2017 LG press release on Smart Instaview refrigerator - January 4, 2017 “Mattel’s $300 Echo clone will read your children bedtime stories” by James Vincent at The Verge - January 3, 2017 “Lynx Robot

My Wife Darlene, Claire and a new quilt  Interview ‪starts at 12:28 and ends at44:58 "What’s great about Audible is you still get to hear a story. You’re not reading it, but you’re still getting a story. And for me sometimes when I get stuck on stuff in my studio, it’s just keeping me in the room long enough to get past it. And Audible does that." News “Alexa Devices Top Amazon Best-Seller List This Holiday - Millions of Alexa Devices Sold Worldwide” - press release December 27, 2016 “Amazon Has ‘Best Ever’ Holiday” at Forbes - December 27, 2016 “Not Everyone Shops on Amazon. Who Knew?” at WSJ What’s News podcast - December 30, 2016 “Amazon workers sleep in tents near firm’s Scottish depot to avoid travel costs” by Tom Mendelsohn at Ars Technica - December 12, 2016 “Here’s How Amazon is Flexing Its Muscle in Air Cargo” by Reuters at Fortune - December 23, 2016 “Amazon looks to the sky to store products” by Reuters at Yahoo Finance - December 29, 2016 “As We Leave More Digital Tracks, Amazon Echo Factors i

Author of The Untold Story of the Talking Book Interview ‪starts at 12:44 and ends at 32:05 “There’s often a false division between audiobook listeners and print book readers, because in my experience the two are almost always the same. They’re people like me who just love reading and want to do as much of it as possible, and audiobooks are a way to do that."  News Jeff Bezos interviewed by Walter Isaacson at The Aspen Institute (YouTube) - October, 2016  “There’s a great new way to reuse your old Amazon shipping boxes” by Kif Leswing at Business Insider - September 23, 2016 “Give Your Amazon Box New Life” at Amazon.com GiveBackBox.com Amazon Echo, Dot, and Tap “Amazon bets big on Las Vegas, rolling out nearly 5,000 Echo unites to hotel rooms” by Teena Maddox at TechRepublic - December 16, 2016 “Voice is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It” by Jessi Hempel at Backchannel - December 19, 2016 Tech Tip Audible Channels available on Fire tablets Fire TV software updates Interview with Matthew Rubery

Author of the Making Book blog  Interview ‪starts at 14:03 and ends at 44:31 "The idea that Barnes & Noble can make it by sort of becoming a small specialist, cozy bookstore is kind of delusional. It’s a big organization!" News Amazon Prime Air Jeff Bezos’s tweet announcing first Prime Air delivery - December 14, 2016 Jeremy Clarkson Prime Air video - November, 2015 Amazon White Papers on recommended drone access policy and revised air space model WSJ Tech News Briefing podcast on Prime Air  More coverage of Prime Air at Wired, BBC, PC Magazine, and ABC BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38320067 Tech Tip To have Alexa play this podcast, say “Alexa, on Tune-in Radio, play The Kindle Chronicles podcast.” You might also try this: “Alexa, sing O Christmas Tree” “Amazon Fire TV Interface gets a makeover with new 5.2.4.0 firmware” by Alejandro at htpc Beginner - December 2, 2016 Software update 5.8.7 for Kindle Oasis Good deals on Kindle covers via TKC listener Marc:   Inateck Kindle Cases Starting fr

Senior Pastor of New Covenant Church, Indianapolis Interview ‪starts at 7:20 and ends at 33:36 I think it’s a matter of accepting the change that God has provided with these tools, learning how to use the tools. For example, we could try to tell people, “Well, don’t go to the movies.” Well, they’re going to the movies. Teach them how to go to movies. With social media and all the rest, I believe we need to just focus on making it useful, making it fruitful, trying to remove distraction. In other words, let’s not throw it out because some people abuse it. Let’s be disciplined with it. Let’s have purpose for it. Let’s use it in a way that is productive. So I believe that rather than complain about it, let’s harness it like one may harness a wild horse. Break the horse, you know? Learn to ride it! Let’s ride this, and let’s make the best use of it. News AmazonGo introduction video - December 5, 2016 A look back - Amazon Unveils Futuristic Plan: Delivery by Drone at CBS - December 1, 2013 “Can You Buy a Grain o

Head of Cynthia Manson Literary Agency Interview ‪starts at 14:30 and ends at 41:06 "The trick is that if you have an author that is struggling to find that audience, to find that readership--Alan [Russell] is a perfect example, because he always got wonderful reviews, is a fantastic writer, still has a great relationship with his former editor at St. Martins, but there was always a struggle to find that readership. Amazon [Publishing] was able to do that through their own algorithms and their own customized ways of doing e-mails and finding those readers. I do think it’s just a different technique. Probably authors like Lee Child wouldn’t necessarily benefit from that, because we know that Lee Child is a major bestseller with Random House. He knows who his readers are." News “Reducing Friction on Mobile,” a Manifesto 2016 talk by Kintan Brahmbhatt, Director of Prodcut & Program Management for Amazon Prime Music” (video) - April 8, 2016 “Amazon Plans Premium Alexa Speaker With Large Screen” by Mark Gurma

Senior Books Editor at Amazon.com Interview ‪starts at 12:41 and ends at 43:35 "[The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis] is one that I personally wanted to see as high on the list as possible. It’s a fictional story set in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s as if we’re living again in the Old West, so there’s vigilante justice, there are small pockets of people living in the wilderness. Searching for gold is kind of back in the day-to-day play, and people are heading north. This young girl, whose parents had taken off to go and search for gold themselves, is taken in by this man who she later finds out is not at all who she thinks he is. So she goes on the run from him in search of her parents. She has this amazing voice. We have been calling her a female Huckleberry Finn. It’s just that kind of a story and a narration where you just fall in love with her immediately. You want to keep reading and re-reading." News “What the Big 5’s Financial Reports Reveal About the State of Traditional Book Publishing” by Thad McIlroy at

Deputy Editor, Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard  Interview ‪starts at 16:02 and ends at 40:51 "I think it’s become very clear that there’s going to be a devoted subset of people who do read on eReaders, and there’s going to be a lot more reading on phones." News “Amazon App for iPhone Now Has X-Ray Vision to See Inside Your Packages” by Andy Orin at Lifehacker - November 16, 2016 “Alexa, What Are Your Deals?” - Amazon press release on November 18, 2016 The Grand Tour one-day deal on Amazon Prime - November 18, 2018. “Amazon Starts Selling Certified Refurbished Kindle e-Readers” by Michael Kozlowski at Good E-Reader - November 15, 2016 Certified Refurbished items at Amazon.com “Amazon looks to clean house—literally” by Angel Gonzalez at The Seattle Times - November 7, 2016 “Jeff Bezos Invests Billions to Make Amazon a Top E-Commerce Player in India” by Newley Purnell at The Wall Street Journal - November 18, 2016 “Amazon is going to sell cars online” by Eugene Kim at Business Insider - November 18, 2016

Captain of Sea Dragon, Author of Loss at Sea: A Solo Circumnavigation Interview ‪starts at 13:19 and ends at 36:18 "It’s less difficult than it will seem at times. There will be hard points, but as long as you can power through those or endure through those, you just have to keep going." News “Donald Trump threatens Amazon as payback for Washington Post articles he doesn’t like” by Matthew Yglesias at Vox - May 13, 2016 “The Donald, documented: The Washington Post open-sources much of its Trump reporting” by Joshua Benton at Nieman Lab - August 30, 2016 Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher “Amazon’s Stock May Be Suffering from the Trump Effect” by Jaewon Kang at The Street - November 10, 2016 “Amazon Announces Black Friday Deals on Echo, Fire Tablets, Kindle Paperwhite and Fire TV Stick” by David Carnoy at CNET - November 10, 2016 “Amazon to Reimburse Customers for In-App Purchases by Kids, Judge Says” by the Associated Press at The Wall

Executive Team at Earplay  Interview ‪starts at 10:28 and ends at 44:37  Left to right: Dave Grossman, Chief Creative Officer; Bruno Batarelo, Chief Technology Officer; and Jonathan Myers, Chief Executive Officer   News Charlie Rose interview of Jeff Bezos (video) - October 27, 2016   Interview with Jonathan Myers Earplay site Western Dramatic Literature: A Micro-Anthology by Jonathan Myers & Jennifer Bean Codename Cygnus Blackstone audiobooks Audible Codename Cygnus Kickstarter campaign "Virtual Worlds Invite Visitors Into the Story" by Chris Suellentrop at The New York Times - November 23, 2014 “Earplay: An Interactive, Audio-Only Storyteller, Made Even Better by Alexa” by Zoey Collier at Amazon’s developer site - November 3, 2016 Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.  Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads

Author of The Jekyll Revelation published by Amazon Publishing’s 47North Imprint   Interview ‪starts at 10:00 and ends at 43:22 "I used to joke around that I could walk up to a table at any bookstore, and any book that wasn’t published by the major houses—I could smell it a mile away. There was something wrong about the typography. The cover was somehow cheap looking. I didn’t feel quite right. The margins weren’t right when you looked at the text inside, that sort of thing. They have corrected that now. And The Jekyll Revelation, which they just recently sent me a box of is an absolutely beautiful book that I am proud to put on my shelves. The cover art is spectacular. It wraps around from the front all the way to the back. It’s indistinguishable from anybody else’s books. In fact, in many ways its better."   News Earplay skill on Alexa “Earplay: Alexa Hosts a Transformative New Way to Tell Stories” by Len Edgerly at Medium - October 28, 2016 Earplay website Eastgate Systems, creator of the Storyspace hyper

Bufo Calvin is the creator of the I Love My Kindle blog and The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip Interview starts at 9:49 and ends at 36:45  "If you want to watch 'Devil Girl from Mars' you can go and watch it on this site. What’s happening so far is that I’m having a great time with it. I’m adding stuff to it. Virtually no one else ever goes there. I kind of feel like I’m up in my attic, and I put all these things on the wall and that’s great and I’m sort of obsessed with the idea of that. But nobody is ever coming up the ladder into the attic at this point." News “Amazon Japan introduces ‘Manga Model’ Kindle Paperwhite with eight times more storage” at The Verge - October 18, 2016 Amazon press release in Japanese announcing “Manga Model” Kindle Paperwhite - October 18, 2016 Kindle Paperwhite "Amazon Music Unlimited” at The Lefsetz Newsletter - October 10, 2016 “Music Streaming Showdown: Amazon Music Unlimited vs. Spotify” by Alex Fitzpatrick at Time - October 18, 2016 “Apple lawsuit says 90 percent of ‘