The Kindle Chronicles

Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon.com   Interview starts at 14:54 and ends at 39:15   On The Story of the Lost Child: I think this is going to break Elena Ferrante out as a bona fide super star in this country. And nobody knows who she is, which I love!   News “Amazon e-book deal with NYC public schools postponed as blind advocates say it would leave out visually impaired students” by Lisa L. Colangelo and Ben Chapman at The Daily News - August 25, 2015 “Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices” by Greg Bensinger at The Wall Street Journal - August 26, 2015 Amazon Devices Team, US jobs page with video “Amazon Shoppers Not Swayed by Workplace Horror Stories” by Ashley Rodriguez at Advertising Age - August 26, 2015   Tech Tip The Daily Review at kindle.amazon.com   Interview with Sara Nelson Amazon’s Big Fall Books Preview Press release on Fall Books Preview - August 19, 2015 Fall Reading Preview at the Amazon Book Review The Story of the Lost Child: Neapolitan Novels, Book Four by Elena f

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Six Colors   Interview starts at 17:44 and ends at 42:27   I hope the E Ink readers stick around, because I do love them. But it’s going to be a niche market. It’s going to be for people who are dedicated book readers who are willing to spend at least a little bit of money for a nice, distraction-free experience.    News “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace” by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld at The New York Times - August 15, 2015 “Was Portrayal of Amazon’s Brutal Workplace on Target?” - blog post by Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor of The New York Times - August 18, 2015 “Jeff Bezos Responds to brutal NYT story, says it doesn’t represent the Amazon he leads” by John Cook at GeekWire - August 16, 2015 An Amazon employee’s response to NYT article at LinkedIn - August 16, 2015   Tech Tips "How to renew digital titles” at Overdrive   Interview with Jason Snell Jason Snell’s Six Colors blog National Novel Writing Month Upgrade podcast episode #8 with Jason S

I am experimenting with iPhone apps that may enable me to post episodes of the Kindle Chronicles while Darlene and I are in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands this fall. I won't bring my MacBook Air, but it looks as if the tools for mobile podcasting have greatly improved in the past few years. I found an iOS app named Opinion that has a very simple editing function for recording audio, and it can share the file to Libsyn via my Dropbox account.  I am including a photo of Claire taken here at Ocean Park last week. On the road, this could be a giant turtle or sea lion! We don't leave until October, so I will have time to perfect my traveling podcast studio before the trip.  Please let me know how this sounds. You can email me at PodChronicles AT gmail DOT com. Thanks, Len

Creator of the Fiona Griffiths crime series   Interview starts at 12:44 and ends at 37:59   Whoever heard of a retailer offering 70 percent royalty? It’s never happened before. How’s that not a good thing for authors? So I just think the Authors United group are bananas, quite frankly. And I think there is increasingly a swell of opinion among authors—not amongst yet among the more traditional structures—but there is a sort of side movement thinking, “Hang on. Amazon actually offers us quite a lot.    News “The Rise of Phone Reading” by Jennifer Maloney at The Wall Street Journal - August 12, 2015   Tech Tips Kindle software updates Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr   Interview with Harry Bingham1. Talking to the Dead2. Love Story, With Murders3. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths 4. This Thing of Darkness The Writers' Workshop Cotard’s Syndrome (Wikipedia)Review of This Thing of Darkness by John Cheal at Crime Review - July 4, 2015   Content “The Best Romances of

Creator of Dispatches from the Frat House   Interview starts at 14:23 and ends at 40:20   I’d like to write the kind of book that I’d like to read. And immediately there’s that thing in your head that goes, “Why? There are a gazillion books out there. Why would you want to write a book? This little wife in the midwest surrounded by kids—who’s going to want to read that?” And the other part of my brain goes, “Well why not? Why shouldn't I write that? If nobody reads it, I wrote it, I’m happy. So why not?"   News “Watch out, Siri, Amazon’s Alexa could be coming to iOS soon” by Jeff Brynes at appadvice.com - August 3, 2015 Alexa Voice Service blog post at Amazon - July 31, 2015 “Why Apple and Amazon Chose to be ‘Frenemies’” by Michael Blanding at Forbes - August 3, 2015 "Frenemies in Platform Markets: The Case of Apple’s iPad vs. Amazon’s Kindle” by Ron Adner, Jianqing, and Feng Zhu at HBS Working Paper Series (Full paper in PDF) “Amazon Cuts Down on Prime Members Sharing Their Benefits” by Sarah Perez at TechCr

Editor of TeleRead   Interview starts at 11:26 and ends at 37:11   Even if all the publishers remove DRM from every eBook they sell tomorrow, I would be the vast majority of Amazon Kindle customers would go right on being Amazon Kindle customers, just because it’s so easy to tap the button and start reading the book.   News “Amazon Kindle Voyage to be Released November 2015” by Michael Kozlowski at Good E-Reader - July 7, 2015 “Amazon Top Pick for Contract to Create N.Y.C. Schools’ e-Book Marketplace” by Michele Molnar at Education Week - July 30, 2015 “City partners with Amazon for $30 million e-book contract” by Eliza Shapiro at Capital New York - July 29, 2015   Tech Tips Send to Kindle app for Mac and PC   Interview with Chris Meadows “Chris Meadows becomes Editor of TeleRead; Juli Monroe to remain Editor-in-chief” by David Rothman at TeleRead - July 17, 2015   TeleRead articles by Chris Meadows TeleRead articles by Founder David Rothman and Editor-in-chief Juli Monroe Links including “950 million Android

Author of Let’s Get Digital and Let’s Get Visible   Interview starts at 16:56 and ends at 44:39   If you look at stores like Barnes and Noble and Kobo and Apple, I don’t think they’ve even caught up to where the Kindle Store was in 2011 or 2012 yet, let alone approaching where it is now in 2015. I still think they haven’t grasped the core part of Amazon’s philosophy, which is that they will always seek to recommend that they think you are most likely to purchase—not the one that a company has paid a certain amount, so they’ll shove it under your nose.    News Amazon’s second-quarter earnings release - July 23, 2015 “Investors React to Amazon’s Shocking Earnings Beat” at Zack.com - July 24, 2014 “Another wake-up call from Amazon as they serve author interests better than publishers have” at The Shatzkin Files - July 23, 2015 About Amazon Follow FAQ from Amazon on anti-trust settlement credits   Tech Tip How to use Kindle FreeTime to manage your child’s reading content The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer   Inte

Founder and President of IndieReader.com   Interview starts at 11:46 and ends at 41:02   It’s very hard to tell a self-published book these days from one that is traditionally published.   News David Pogue’s must-see Alexa demonstration and review (video) at Yahoo Tech - July 16, 2015   Tech Tip Amazon page on Cloud Collections   Interview with Amy Edelman “Self-publishers flourish as writers pay the tab” by Motoko Rich at The New York Times - January 27, 2009 “Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature” by Lev Grossman at Time Magazine - January 21, 2009 Still Alice by Lisa Genova The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry Amanda Hocking’s books at the Kindle Store “How Amazon Saved my Life” by Jessica Park at IndieReader - June 15, 2012 “If You Liked ‘Grey’, You’ll LOVE…” by Keri English at Indie Reader - July 15, 2015 Blue Ink Review Kirkus Reviews “Television That’s Worth Digesting” by Michiko Kakatuni at The New York Times - December 3, 2012 Fifty Shades of Grey and Grey by E. L. James Manless in Montcl

My wife the amazing art quilter and Kindle enthusiast   Interview starts at 14:08 and ends at 39:48   A friend of mine said, “How many times have you dropped a Paperwhite in the tub?” And she’s right. I never have. And so at that point I decided that I was just going to hold the Kindle, and if it fell into the tub I would deal with it.   News “Half of Net Proceeds Is the Fair Royalty Rate for E-Books” at the Authors Guild - July 9, 2015 “Bread and Roses” by Hugh Howey at The Wayfinder - January 24, 2014 “Opinion: Apple Watch sales plunge 90%” by Brett Arends at MarketWatch - July 8, 2015 “Apple Watch Sales Aren’t Looking So Hot” by Aaron Tilley at Forbes - July 1, 2015 “After crushing rival smartwatch sales, Apple Watch portrayed as doomed by CNBC” by Daniel Eran Dilger at Apple Insider - June 28, 2015 Apple WatchCast episode 18 My 2014 interview with the cofounders of Spritz in TKC 323 Bigger than Black Friday? Amazon Prime Day - July 15, 2015  Prime Music $100,000 Sweepstakes   Tech Tip How to disable Kindl

Project Manager and TKC Listener   Interview starts at 13:52 and ends at 39:03   I have the books that I read, and I read the books that I have. The ones that I collect now are meaningful to me.    News “Apple Loses Appeal, E-book Decision is Affirmed” by Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly - June 30, 2015 US Court of Appeals affirmation of verdict against Apple (PDF)- June 30, 2015 Frequently Asked Questions about eBooks lawsuit Amazon press release on Alexa Skills Kit - June 25, 2015 Amazon Opens Alexa Voice Service to Third Party Hardware Makers - July 25, 2015 “Amazon Introduces the Alexa Fund: $100 Million in Investments to  Fuel Voice Technology Innovation” - Amazon press release June 25, 2015   Tech Tips Information and download link for new Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation software update   Interview with John Sullivan John Sullivan’s favorite mystery writers: Elmore Leonard, Michael Connelly, Tyler Dilts (author of The Pain Scale), Sue Grafton. Other writers mentioned: Rick Bragg, Kurt Vonnegut Kind

Amazon’s Senior Vice President - Kindle   Interview starts at 10:17 and ends at 42:35   My guess is that if you asked all the publishers with whom we’ve reached agreement in the last year they would tell you that they had to compromise some things they didn’t love. And we’ve had to compromise some things we didn’t necessarily choose on our own. And that’s okay. That’s business.   News Amazon Echo aka Alexa - now available to anyone for $179.99 “Amazon echo owners now able to write reviews on Amazon” by Bufo Calvin at the I Love My Kindle blog - June 19, 2015 Amazon Fire Phone - unlocked 32GB $179.00 My Paperwhite 3 video review = June 18, 2015 “Under the Hood of Kindle’s New Typesetting Engine” - my new video at YouTube - June 21, 2015   Tech Tips Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What we Can Do About It by Marc Goodman   Interview with Russ Grandinetti About Kindle Unlimited  Kindle Scout Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi Past interviews w

Author of Barrio Imbroglio   Interview starts at 14:24 and ends at 38:38   There’s an incentive for Amazon on two levels to say, “Hey, let’s try to bring in readers.” And one way of bringing in readers is you get more writers. And so they’re definitely reaching out to Spanish-language authors in America and in Latin Americas to get their work up on Kindle.   News “Amazon updates Kindle Paperwhite with a high res screen in India” (video) at Digit - June 18, 2015 Neuer Kindle Paperwhite 3 Test (video in German) - June 19, 2015 Unboxing Kindle Voyage and new Paperwhite 3 (video in Spanish) - June 19, 2015 “Does Anyone Care About Amazon Publishing Contracts?” by Michael Kozlowski at Good EReader - June 19, 2015   Tech Tip Reminder from Andrys Basten that 3G eInk Kindles get 24/7 free eG access to Wikipedia   Interview with Daniel Cubias Barrio Imbroglio (An Abraxas Hernandes Mystery Book 1) by Daniel Cubias Books at Amazon.com by Jo Nesbo Daniel Cubias’s blog Telemachus Press Daniel Cubias’s columns at The Huffin

Author of The Underwriting   Interview starts at 19:39 and ends at 39:40   I was a first-time novelist; I didn’t have a name at all. So it was a great way to find my audience before I tried to find an agent and a publisher. I think that is such a daunting process for writers, to find someone to pay attention and beyond paying attention to understand their work and let them maintain their vision.   News “Bezos’s obsession translates to this honor for Amazon” by Andria Cheng at MarketWatch - June 4, 2015 “Up the Amazon with the BS Machine” by Ursala K. LeGuin at Book View Cafe - June 1, 2015   Tech Tips “I have seen the future of reading on the internet, and it is glorious” by Ezra Klein at Vox - June 11, 2015   Interview with Michelle MillerThe Underwriting by Michelle MillerMichelle Miller interviewed on Bloomberg (video) - May 29, 2015“How Serialized Fiction is Rewriting the Book” - at South by Southwest Interactive 2015  Content “29 Books You Should Definitely Bring to the Beach This Summer” by Lincoln T

Professor at Le Moyne College   Interview starts at 17:02 and ends at 44:15   If it keeps your attention, and you’re enjoying it, and it’s making you think—that’s the book for you. News “Trade Sales Fell in February” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - June 5, 2014 BEA panel on Publishing in China “China and Publishing: The Best of Times, or the Worst of Times?” by Rachel Aydt at Publishing Perspectives - May 29, 2015 “Shelf 2.0: Neil Strandberg to Join Shelf Awareness” - June 4, 2015 “Neil Strandberg to Leave ABA in July” - June 4, 2015 Russ Grandinetti interviewed on China Central Television May 27, 2015 “Discovery Challenges Mount in a Reader-Driven World” at Digital Book World - May 27, 2015   Tech Tip Version 4.9 of the Kindle for iOS app   Interview with Prof. Krystine Batcho “Pros and Cons of Constant Communication” panel - March 13, 2015 at South By Southwest Le Moyne College website Articles by Krystine Batcho at Psychology Today “Nostalgia: A Mental Time Machine” by Krystine Batcho at Psychology

Intro Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Paperback, 1993) by Scott McCloud    Interviews at Denver Comic Con (Times show when each interview begins)   Andy Mithun of the Stubby Shillelaghs (6:25)     Critical Fail Kickstarter campaign Clayton Kauffman, 12, of Brush, Colorado (12:20) Dale Roberts of Dale Roberts Comics (13:56) Megan Sullivan, director of communications, Aurora Rise (17:23)     “Alex Sullivan, one of 12 Aurora victims, died on 27th birthday” by Ethan Sacks at The Daily News - July 21, 2012     All C’s Collectibles in Aurora, Colorado Barry Sandoval, director of operations-comics, Heritage Auctions (23:05)     Recommended graphic novels: Saga, Dark Knight, Mouse, Watchman Wayne Winsett, owner of Time Warp Comics in Boulder, Colorado (25:05) Michael Sheyahshe of Native Americans in Comic Books (28:42)      Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study by Michael Sheyahshe      Super Indian at ComiXology      Native Realities Press Gabe Llanas of Thinking Outside the Long Box podcast   C

Authors of The Straight-A Conspiracy   Interview starts at 13:10 and ends at 41:52   What the brain science says is that if you’ve learned one thing, you can learn anything. If your brain has a preference right now, it’s just because you’ve been working on that thing a little more. Your brain is not coming into the world ready to be more Englishy than mathy.   News “What’s The Best Ebook Reader?” at Lifehacker - April 16, 2015 “Five Best Ebook Readers” by Alan Henry at Lifehacker - April 19, 2015 “Most Popular Ebook Reader: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite” by Alan Henry at Lifehacker - April 21, 2015 Kindle Paperwhite Kindle Voyage “Turn a $99 Nook Into a Fully Fledged Android Table in Four Easy Steps” by Alan Henry at Lifehacker - February 29, 2012 “Three Suggestions for the Amazon Echo” YouTube video by Norm Gregory - May 15, 2015 Barnes & Nook Simple Touch at Amazon.com   Tech Tips “Let’s Read PDF Files on the Amazon Kindle Voyage” (video) at Good EReader = March 5, 2015   Interview with Hunter Maats and Ka

Author of Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day   Interview starts at 21:13 and ends at 39:30   Becoming aware of shadow work enables us to prune away some of the clutter in our lives. Take, for example, surveys—the inundation of our time with surveys, requests for surveys. It seems you can’t buy anything or go anywhere or receive any service without having a followup survey usually emailed to you to ask you, “How did we do?” And I would just encourage the citizens to throw those away if they don’t feel like writing them. We are not obligated to fill out these surveys, but these organizations are preying on our time and asking us to do it. And that’s the kind of clutter that you can prune away.    News “Reorder Prime-Eligible Items” with Echo (Amazon info) My preferred stylus, with microfiber tip - $7.99 Christopher March and Echo announce big news “Amazon Publishing Marches On” by Jim Milliot with Rachel Deahl at Publishers Weekly - May 8, 2015 “Amazon’s Hit Man” by Brad Stone at Bloomber

INSERT PHOTO OF CUTE DOG HERE   I have tweaked my workflow for uploading new episodes of the show and want to make sure it works before I begin creating TKC 354 this week.  If you see this and could let me know how it looks and sounds on your devices, I would appreciate hearing from you at PodChronicles AT gmail DOT com.  Here is a link to Amazon.com (feel free to buy something with it!)  

Director of the Isaacson School for New Media, Colorado Mountain College Presentation starts at 5:32 and ends at 43:55 In the 1930s, Walter Benjamin wrote, “The illiterate of the future will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet but the one who cannot take a photograph.” I mean could this guy see far ahead, or […]

Author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now Interview starts at 13:37 and ends at 36:56 I remember a long time ago when Timothy Leary saw one of my first books, Cyberia or something, an early book about cyberculture, and he took it and he was moving his finger along the lines, and going “a line, and […]