Permanently Deleting a Kindle Title

There may be times when you want to delete items from your Kindle permanently – never to be seen again.  I’m not talking about just from your Kindle, but permanently from your Amazon records so that you can’t ever download it again.  Forever.

Many of you may be wondering, “why would I want to do that?”

You can probably think of other reasons, but I can think of two reasons off the top of my head:

• Your children, significant other, or someone else can also access your account with their Kindle or Kindle for PC / iPhone application, and you do not want them to know what you have been reading – maybe it’s a lusty romance, “How to Spy on Your Lover,” or any other book you may not want them to read.  For example, if you’re a parent you want to be able to monitor what your children are reading.
• You downloaded a book you thought was one thing, realized later it was something else, and you never want to see it again.  For example, that would be a situation I would find myself in if I downloaded one of the Harlequin romances – they are just not my thing.  I am also of the opinion Amazon utilizes what is in your list of books to market to you.  I have some experience with this one, as I received some really strange recommendations for a particular genre after I bought a Kindle book that I thought was one thing but turned out to be another (enough said on that one).  Once I permanently deleted the title I thought was causing this particular point of targeted marketing, those recommendations disappeared for good.

To make a long story short, if you would like to permanently delete a title from your Kindle’s account, here are the steps you need to perform:

• First, remove the title from your Kindle.
• Second, go to the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon web page at http://www.amazon.com/myk
• In this section, locate the item in the search bar just below the “Your Kindle Library” header.  If you have lots of books, for example, in your library it will take some time for all of them to load.
• Once you have located the title, click the “Actions” icon located to the right of the title..
• Choose the “Delete from library” option.
• A confirmation pop-up will appear next, asking if you are sure you want to delete this title.  Assuming you really want to delete it, select the “Yes” option.

A word of caution – if you delete the title, and want to read it again, you will have to buy it again!

Hope that helps-

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

 

 

Read This Blog on Your Kindle Fire

I’ve been asked this question a few times this week – how do you read the blog using your Kindle Fire?  Here is how you can read it for free:

The Pulse app is pre-installed on your Kindle Fire, and the Pulse app basically is a collection of various blog posts and news feeds: as long as your Kindle Fire is connected to an active Wi-Fi connection, the blog posts and news feeds will be updated throughout the day. While you need an active Wi-Fi connection to update the news feeds, because the blog posts and news articles are stored on your Kindle Fire you can read them while you are offline or not connected to the Internet.
To add my two main blogs or any other blog to the Pulse app, just follow these steps in order:

• From the Kindle Fire home page, tap the Apps tab.
• Locate the Pulse icon and tap it one time.
• A list of existing feeds will now appear. To add a blog or newsfeed, scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap the blue “plus” or + icon.
• Tap the search icon located at the top of your touch screen (it looks like a magnifying glass).
• You will see an input line titled “Source name / keyword / url” at the top of your touch screen. Tap that line one time to display the virtual keyboard at the bottom of your touch screen.
• To add the Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips blog, just type in “fkbt.wordpress.com” (without the quotations), then tap the “Search” icon located at the bottom right-hand side of your touch screen.
• To add the Kindle Books for a Buck (or Less) blog, just type in “ebooksforabuck.wordpress.com” (without the quotations), then tap the “Search” icon located at the bottom right-hand side of your touch screen.
• After you tapped the “Search” icon for either of the options above, the name of the blog should now be displayed on your touch screen. Tap the blue “plus” or “+” icon located to the right of the blog’s name to add it to your Pulse feed.

I hope that helps!

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Check out my new Kindle guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

 

 

Your Kindle Helps With Games

Kindle owners do lots of things with their Kindles – some this you may already know how to do, but there may be a lot of you who never thought to do it.  There is a discussion thread going on over at the Amazon site where members are posting some of the random things they do with their Kindles in addition to “just” reading books.  I will be profiling some of these over the next few weeks – after all, part of the title line of this blog is supposed to be about Kindle tips vs. just a feature on free books!

The below is one of the tips from the discussion board:

I downloaded rules to all the card/dice games we like to play. That way, if we’re traveling (and I ALWAYS have my Kindle along), we can look up the rules to a game that we may not have played in a while. I just downloaded my Word file, as a text file onto my Kindle. Now, we always have our game rules with us!

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

Your Kindle Helps in the Classroom

Kindle owners do lots of things with their Kindles – some this you may already know how to do, but there may be a lot of you who never thought to do it.  There is a discussion thread going on over at the Amazon site where members are posting some of the random things they do with their Kindles in addition to “just” reading books.  I will be profiling some of these over the next few weeks – after all, part of the title line of this blog is supposed to be about Kindle tips vs. just a feature on free books!

The below is one of the tips from the discussion board:

I am a college instructor and rely on lecture notes to keep me on track in classes. I have been typing up my lecture notes, then converting them and putting them on the Kindle to use in class. Saves on trees and my students are intrigued!

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

 

Links to 20,000+ Free Kindle Books from Amazon Separated by Category / Genre

I’ve had a little over 100 requests this week for me to send people the link / tell them about the post I had not too long ago that has a link to each of the various categories of free Kindle books on the Amazon website, so I thought I would post it again.  Before I do, here are a few stats:

• As I type this post this morning, there are exactly 4,135 free books that are “new” books and not considered classics or in the public domain.
• Of those 4,135 books, 2,852 are fiction and 1,226 are non-fiction.
• There are 15,831 classic books available for free – the most popular title is The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, followed closely by Pride and Prejudice.

Here are the links again, and you may consider bookmarking some of these (I have) as the titles available change each hour.  Please make sure you verify the price is still free before you click the “buy” button!

All Non-Public Domain Free books: http://amzn.to/bookload

Fiction: http://amzn.to/kindlefiction

Non-fiction: http://amzn.to/kindlenonfiction

Advice & How-To: http://amzn.to/kindleadvice or http://amzn.to/kindlehowto

Arts & Entertainment: http://amzn.to/kindlearts or http://amzn.to/kindleentertainment

Biographies & Memoirs: http://amzn.to/kindlebios or http://amzn.to/kindlememoirs

Business & Investing: http://amzn.to/kindlebusiness or http://amzn.to/kindleinvest

Children: http://amzn.to/kindlekids or http://amzn.to/kindlechildren

Classic / Public Domain Books: http://amzn.to/kindleclassic or http://amzn.to/kindleclassicbooks

Comics & Graphic Novels: http://amzn.to/kindlecomics or http://amzn.to/kindlegraphic

Computers & Internet: http://amzn.to/kindlecpu or http://amzn.to/kindlecomputer or http://amzn.to/kindleinternet

Cooking, Food, & Wine: http://amzn.to/kindlecooking or http://amzn.to/kindlecook or http://amzn.to/kindlefood or http://amzn.to/kindlewine or http://amzn.to/kindlevino

Fantasy: http://amzn.to/kindlefantasy

History: http://amzn.to/kindlehistory

Humor: http://amzn.to/kindlehumor or http://amzn.to/kindlejokes

Lifestyle & Home: http://amzn.to/kindlelifestyle or http://amzn.to/kindlehome

Literary Fiction: http://amzn.to/kinleliteraryfiction or http://amzn.to/kindlelitfiction

Mystery & Thrillers: http://amzn.to/kindlemystery or http://amzn.to/kindlethriller

Parenting & Families: http://amzn.to/kindleparenting or http://amzn.to/kindleparents or http://amzn.to/kindlefamilies

Politics & Current Events: http://amzn.to/kindlepolitics or http://amzn.to/kindlecurrentevents

Reference: http://amzn.to/kindlereference or http://amzn.to/kindleref

Religion & Spirituality: http://amzn.to/kindlereligion or http://amzn.to/kindespirituality

Romance: http://amzn.to/kindleromance

Science: http://amzn.to/kindlescience

Science Fiction: http://amzn.to/kindlescifi or http://amzn.to/kindlesciencefiction

Sports: http://amzn.to/kindlesports

Travel: http://amzn.to/kindletravel

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Looking for more or a reliable source of free books for your Kindle?  Click here for my “Free Kindle Books and How to Find Them” book (updated January 2012!).

 

How Are You Protecting Your Kindle?

How are you protecting your Kindle?

I’m not talking about what I call the obvious – for example, not leaving it out on a table unattended or on your car seat where a person with sticky fingers can grab it and all of a sudden you have a Kindle that has legs. I am assuming you would guard it like you do your purse or wallet, a laptop or camera, or anything else you have several hundred dollars invested in.

What if you left your Kindle in a cab, plane, or just plain can’t remember where you left it? I like to assume there are more good people than bad in the world out there and someone would attempt to return it to you – would that someone know how to return it to you? I read an article about a year or so ago posted online about how a reporter from CNET found one in a cab, and was only able to determine the owner’s name was John – that’s all.

You would hope someone would know how to check the settings and get your personal information, or maybe you have done something like put a label on the back with the way(s) to contact you. However, if a non-Kindle owner were to find it, they may not know how to check the settings, etc.

There have been many discussions about why not calling Amazon, and let them help you since it’s an electronic device, the next time it is turned on or synched with the server they can do something like either (a) send a message to whoever is holding the Kindle, or (b) use the cell tower’s GPS to give an idea where it is. Unfortunately, Amazon will not do any of that for you – in fact, if it is stolen, deregistered by the thief and then re-registered by the thief, Amazon will not do anything to stop that behavior unless you call it in to Amazon’s Customer Service department: at that time, they can “brick” it, which will essentially lock it out forever, making your Kindle a glorified door stop for someone.

To me, that seems really wrong, but it is another topic for another day.

Is your contact information in the Kindle?

For example, you can put your name, number, and other information in your Kindle. Here is how you put that information in your Kindle (note this is not an option for the Kindle Fire at this time):

• From the menu item, click on “Settings.”
• If you look three items down (technically four, but one of those you can’t click to change) you should see a section called “Personal Info.” Click on the option to “edit personal info.”
• This is the section where you should utilize the keyboard and type in your name and contact information. For me, I put my name, address, home number, and cell number.

The above assumes the person finding your Kindle will know where to navigate to find this information or, alternatively, is proficient enough to figure out the menu options to find out this information.

Here’s a way to identify your Kindle to make it easier to be returned to you – for all Kindles including the Kindle Fire – change the name of your Kindle. For example, if I named mine “Michael’s Kindle” that will show up in the top left-hand corner of my Kindle and Kindle Fire when I turn it on and am at the Home screen. However, I’ve changed that to “Michael xxx-xxx-xxxx” where the X’s are my telephone number; if you do change it and have a cell phone and are worried about personal security, you may want to change it to your cell vs. your home telephone number. Seems like a simple solution to return what is yours!

Here is how you do it with every version of Kindle except the Kindle Fire (Kindle Fire instructions follow immediately below this):

1. Push the “Menu” button.
2. Select “Settings.”
3. Under the “Device Name” option select “edit name.”
4. At the bottom of the screen, you will see what your Kindle is named (for example, Michael’s Kindle). Just use the keyboard to type in whatever you want, and click submit.

Here is how you do it for a Kindle Fire (you can also do this for any other version of Kindle):

1. Using your web browser, go to the “Manage Your Kindle” page of the Amazon website at http://amazon.com/myk – you may need to log in with your Amazon email address and password to proceed past this screen.
2. On the left-hand side of the screen under the “Your Kindle Account” menu item, select the “Manage Your Devices” option.
3. A new screen will appear, listing all of the registered Kindles on your account.  Right above the graphic image of each Kindle is the current name of each Kindle.  Select the “Edit” link next to the Kindle name.
4. Type in whatever name you want for your Kindle, then click the “Update” icon.

You’re done! If, for example, you changed your Kindle’s name to “Michael 713-555-1212” that will now show up in the top left-hand corner of your Kindle on the next time it synchronizes with the Amazon server.

You could also put a label with the same information on the back of your Kindle (I did for each one), as well as on the inside flap of the Kindle cover (if you have a cover) and a person could theoretically figure out who the owner was without knowing how to turn the thing on. I guess you could also get one of those engravers and engrave your information on the Kindle – but I wouldn’t recommend that as who knows what all of the vibration, etc., that occurs while etching the information onto the Kindle will do to the Kindle’s computer insides: the last thing you want to do is “kill” your Kindle while trying to protect it!

Hope that helps!

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

 

Answering Your Kindle Questions

I thought it would be a good time to answer a few of the emailed questions I have received in a group format: these are usually the ones I have received several times, which leads me to believe there must be a lot more of you out there with the same question!

If you would like to write to me, my email address is kindle at gagler dot com (I write it out that way in a small attempt to thwart the spam email harvesters).

First of all, I told you in a previous post I was a bit under the weather, and many of you sent well-wishes – thanks!  The crud I have has become better, but it just won’t go away.  There is a bad cold hitting the Houston area and lots of people are missing work and other activities, with three people in my small group at work out with it right now.  Here’s hoping this thing doesn’t travel to your part of the world!

 

Rating Kindle Books

Doug and a few others had a question about rating books after they have been read, and here is Doug’s email to me:

Michael, I found your free kindle book blog after my kids got me a Kindle for Father’s Day and since then I now get the buck or less blog. The first thing I do when I turn on my Kindle in the morning is read both. I really like the tips and book offers.  I do have one question, on finishing a book you get the opportunity to rate book or share that you have finished book. Since I can’t share my opinion as I don’t twitter or facebook or whatever you need to social network does my book rating get added to the total?  Thanks again for your interesting blogs.    Doug

If you didn’t know, what Doug is referring to is on most Kindles, after you finish a book the very last page is actually a pop-up from Amazon, allowing you to rate the book you have just completed.  The heading starts off with “You’ve finished.  Before you go…” with several options you can pick and choose.

The first option is to Tweet via Twitter or post via Facebook you have completed the book: if you are a member of one of those social networks, you can share the news accordingly if you so desire (the accountant in me wonders how much Twitter and Facebook are paying Amazon for that functionality, or is Amazon paying them to link back to the Amazon store?).

If you scrolled down one menu option below the “Tweet” option, you can select “Rate this book,”  which will open a new pop-up window to grade it on a 1 to 5 star rating.  If you chose this option and rated the book on the star rating system, and you save / share or just save this rating, it will then be uploaded to the Amazon website.

As most of you know, I try to rate everything I have read on the Amazon website as I believe we are all one little (but large) community, and I appreciate your reviews – and hope you like mine – as I might be interested in what you like to read and vice versa.  On the other hand, we may have totally different tastes in literature.  However, I try to provide a few brief comments of what I liked and disliked vs. relying solely on the “star” rating system without providing a spoiler and I appreciate reviews that do the same as most of the time it gives me a good gauge of the book. You can see the reviews I have written at any time by pointing your web browser to http://amzn.to/mpgreviews

 

Returning Kindle Books

Michael S. sent me an email Friday, telling me there is an easier way to return Kindle books.  I really haven’t used that feature in a while, so I guess it is time for me to get more up to speed and thanks to Michael S. for sharing this with not only me, but you.  Here’s what he had to say:

Love your blog.

Under your description of free kindle books, you talk about how to return them.  There is now a very easy way, not needing either immediate action, nor do you have to go through customer support.

Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you will no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return, visit Manage Your Kindle, click the actions tab for the title you’d like to return, and select “Return for refund.”

Thanks for passing this one on, Michael!  If you have a tip you would like to share with the group, maybe a shortcut you use that helps you out and / or saves time, how about sharing it?  Just email it to me (kindle at gagler dot com) and you may see it appear on the blog!

Monthly Kindle Fire Giveaway

Many of you may remember author C.J. West, who gave away a copy of his book, The End of Marking Time, to the blog’s readers in 2011 (it’s $2.99 now, but I liked it and it as an average user rating of 4.5 stars based on 130 customer reviews – click here or type in http://amzn.to/f2xFZA into your computer’s web browser to see it.)

C.J. is giving away a free Kindle Fire each month of 2012.  To enter the contest, just click here or type in http://22wb.com/firemeup.htm into your computer’s web browser.
What Am I Reading Now?

I’m frequently asked what I am reading on my Kindle.  Technically, I am not reading anything right now: I just finished a book this afternoon called The Jakarta Pandemic by Steven Konkoly (click here or type in http://amzn.to/uWeNjy into your computer’s web browser to see it).  I told you about this one on December 27^th when it was free, and I grabbed it as it sounded interesting.  Now that I’ve completed it, I thought it was great!  Unfortunately, it’s not free now but priced at $3.99 – it’s well worth it, so if you missed it when it was free I highly recommend it!
Other blogs I Read

Many of you want to know if I read other blogs about the Kindle.  The short answer is “yes,” I pop over and read a couple of Kindle-related blogs from time-to-time, including:

I Love My Kindle by Bufo Calvin.  Bufo is a mainstay on the Amazon Kindle discussion boards, and is quick to offer a helping hand with Kindle-related questions on the discussion boards.  He usually has one to two posts per day with various things about the Kindle as well as his life, and the book business in general.  He also has a nice writing style.  I’ve never met Bufo, but we’ve corresponded a couple of times over the past few years, and seems like a guy I’d like to have a beer or a cup of coffee with one day.  You can read his blog at http://ilmk.wordpress.com/

Kindle Boards – this really isn’t a blog, but more of a discussion board of a lot of things Kindle, reviews of books, and an area for independent authors to discuss various trends.   You can lurk around and read it for free, but if you want to participate in a discussion and post you need to register (registration is free).  You can check it out at http://www.kindleboards.com/

Beyond Black Friday / Me and My Kindle by Jon Cog.  You never know what Jon is going to post about from day-to-day: one day there are a few free book offers, the next it’s an interview with someone, or a general post about the eBook or publishing industry.  You can check it out at http://www.beyond-black-friday.com/ and you can read the interview he had with me at http://www.beyond-black-friday.com/2011/12/27/my-interview-with-a-best-selling-author/

If you’ve made it this far in the post, congratulations!  That’s all I have for now, and I hope you have a great week next week!

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Check out my new Kindle guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

 

Big List of Free Kindle Book Links from Amazon

I have updated the blog’s website with the following, and thought I would also send it out as a post for each of you: I hope you will find it useful.

At any point in time, Amazon has between 15,000 – 25,000 books for free in the Kindle store, with free meaning not only do they not cost you anything, but Amazon will also deliver them to your Kindle for free.  If you click the links below, you will be directed to the appropriate category of free books.  For example, if you click http://amzn.to/kindlemystery your browser will open to the free Kindle book offers in the “Mystery” category.  You may want to bookmark this page or the links below as the free book offers are updated several times each day.

Just click any (or all) of the links below and start downloading your free Kindle books!

All Non-Public Domain Free books: http://amzn.to/bookload

Fiction: http://amzn.to/kindlefiction

Non-fiction: http://amzn.to/kindlenonfiction

Advice & How-To: http://amzn.to/kindleadvice or http://amzn.to/kindlehowto

Arts & Entertainment: http://amzn.to/kindlearts or http://amzn.to/kindleentertainment

Biographies & Memoirs: http://amzn.to/kindlebios or http://amzn.to/kindlememoirs

Business & Investing: http://amzn.to/kindlebusiness or http://amzn.to/kindleinvest

Children: http://amzn.to/kindlekids or http://amzn.to/kindlechildren

Classic / Public Domain Books: http://amzn.to/kindleclassic or http://amzn.to/kindleclassicbooks

Comics & Graphic Novels: http://amzn.to/kindlecomics or http://amzn.to/kindlegraphic

Computers & Internet: http://amzn.to/kindlecpu or http://amzn.to/kindlecomputer or http://amzn.to/kindleinternet

Cooking, Food, & Wine: http://amzn.to/kindlecooking or http://amzn.to/kindlecook or http://amzn.to/kindlefood or http://amzn.to/kindlewine or http://amzn.to/kindlevino

Fantasy: http://amzn.to/kindlefantasy

History: http://amzn.to/kindlehistory

Humor: http://amzn.to/kindlehumor or http://amzn.to/kindlejokes

Lifestyle & Home: http://amzn.to/kindlelifestyle or http://amzn.to/kindlehome

Literary Fiction: http://amzn.to/kinleliteraryfiction or http://amzn.to/kindlelitfiction

Mystery & Thrillers: http://amzn.to/kindlemystery or http://amzn.to/kindlethriller

Parenting & Families: http://amzn.to/kindleparenting or http://amzn.to/kindleparents or http://amzn.to/kindlefamilies

Politics & Current Events: http://amzn.to/kindlepolitics or http://amzn.to/kindlecurrentevents

Reference: http://amzn.to/kindlereference or http://amzn.to/kindleref

Religion & Spirituality: http://amzn.to/kindlereligion or http://amzn.to/kindespirituality

Romance: http://amzn.to/kindleromance

Science: http://amzn.to/kindlescience

Science Fiction: http://amzn.to/kindlescifi or http://amzn.to/kindlesciencefiction

Sports: http://amzn.to/kindlesports

Travel: http://amzn.to/kindletravel

Have fun!

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Check out my new Kindle guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

 

Answering Your Kindle-Related Questions

This is a long post….

I thought it time to answer some email and other questions I receive via either the blog interface, Facebook Page, etc.  Granted, after being out of town for a week during Christmas and New Year and returning on Monday, I am a bit behind so please bear with me as I try to catch up.

For those of you who asked where I went for vacation, my family and I went on a Caribbean cruise out of Galveston on the 26^th and came back on the 2^nd.  We had a great time, and it was nice weather but a bit cramped having four people in a really small room for a week.  If you have never gone on a cruise, I highly recommend it and as an accountant I can tell you generally it is cheaper than flying somewhere, booking a hotel and rent car, and paying for meals and activities.

I’m ready to go again – right now – but my wallet won’t let me!

Before I get started on today’s replies one thing I would like to point out is I do not work for Amazon, there is a 99.9999999% chance I can’t fix your Kindle hardware or system software issues, and I will be the first to raise my hand and say I certainly do not know all of the answers to people’s Kindle questions.  Most of you will appreciate the previous sentence shortly.

Kindle Reading Apps

Several people have asked me if they can read the free books on a Kindle app for their iPhone, iPad, and other iYounameit devices.  The answer is “yes, you can.”  Click the link below to find out more:

Kindle iPod app: http://amzn.to/kindleipod

In addition to the iPod, Amazon has developed free Kindle reading apps for the iPhone, Windows PC, Mac, BlackBerry, iPad, Android, and Windows Phone 7 devices.  Here is a link the appropriate page on the Amazon website to learn more as well as to download the app for free; after you get to this page, just click the appropriate device name on the right-hand side of the screen: http://amzn.to/kindlereadingapps

Free Book Offers

There are several people convinced I have only been highlighting books that are available for a free “borrow” if you are an Amazon Prime member.  There are also several people convinced I should be responsible for books that were on a particular day not being free several days later and they are a bit perturbed (for lack of a more colorful descriptive word) they clicked the buy button and were charged by Amazon and strongly believe I should give them a refund.

The fact is when I send a post out about a book being free in the Amazon Kindle store, or any other site, the book is free at that time.  A book can be offered for free for as long as months at a time, and most of us have seen books being offered for free for less than an hour: I have no control, and rarely have the inside information (only if an author emails me in advance), on how long a book is going to be offered for free.  The bottom line is you need to make sure the book is still free before you hit that buy button: if the price is, for example, $2.99 when you click the buy button your account will be charged $2.99!

Amazon will allow you to return a book if you hit the buy button by accident and they will give you a refund – that’s only fair, as you can do the same thing if you purchased a book from a retail location.  TO return a book, you can do it on your Kindle on the screen immediately following your purchase, or you can also do it by either contacting Amazon’s customer service department.

My Email Address

Pat had this question for me via the blog’s web interface:

Michael,
This maybe a dumb question but do I blog to you via my kindle or do I blog via my laptop thru wordpress? and where the heck do I type “kindle at gagler dot com? I am 73 so it takes me awhile catch on.

I’ll answer the last one first.  Spammers deploy electronic web crawlers, or robots, to gather email addresses.  Once they get your email address, you are now subject to all sorts of interesting email advertisements I want to avoid, so that is why I type my email address as kindle at gagler dot com.

As an example of what that really means, let’s assume an email address for this example is joe@schmoe.com  – you see the email address clearly, and if you hovered your mouse over that email address you can copy it to your clipboard and do with it what you will: so can the spammers.  So, in a small effort to confuse the spam robots, you can shorten joe@schmoe.com to joe at schmoe dot com as when you say it out load or read it, that’s the email address.

As far as the first question, I’m not too sure I understand it: technically, Pat as a reader is not blogging “to” me.  If, however, you meant “how do you read the blog” you can read it via a Kindle subscription if your Kindle is not a Kindle Fire (click here or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser to sign up for the Kindle subscription), read it on Facebook (click here or type in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips into your computer’s web browser), via Twitter (Click here or type in http://twitter.com/fkbt into your web browser), or on the web at https://fkbt.wordpress.com

If you are a Kindle Fire user, Amazon does not have the subscription option for you to use like a regular Kindle does.  You can, however, use the free Pulse App that is installed on your Kindle Fire to read the blog – click here or type in http://bit.ly/rSWjuj into your computer’s web browser to read on how to set that up (it takes about 30 seconds to set it up).

 

Links With a Kindle Touch

Maria had a question last week about the Kindle Touch:

Your blog’s links to free books do not WORK in 3G on the Kindle Touch. If you want people to pay for the blog, why don’t you find another solution?

And here was my reply:

Maria-

Without being physically in front of your Kindle Touch, I can only speculate as to the problem you are seeing. I will tell you, the links work on my Touch and other devices, albeit sometimes slowly.

Regards,

Michael

Maria had a series of increasingly frustrated comments on the Facebook page yesterday afternoon and this morning I won’t repeat here, primarily about how Amazon is blocking web surfing Internet sites on her Kindle Touch 3G unless she is going to the Amazon website, but not blocking any website if she is using a Wi-Fi connection.

Maria sent me an reply yesterday on the blog interface after others tried to help her with her problem:

Of course I checked the wifi first! Yes it works beautifully in wifi and I expected the same in 3G when I am not sitting at home. Today I missed out on several valuable books because I could not download via 3G and was not at home. I do not expect Michael Gallagher to be “kind”. I am not asking for a favor here. If I subscribe to this blog, and pay money for it, I expect it to work as promised. Part of that promise is that I can click on the links in the blog and download a book easily. I will base my decision to pay for the blog on whether or not it works. Mr. Gallagher, if Amazon controls everything, and they’re telling me it’s because your links are browser based, then you should be working with them to make the links operate correctly in 3G. The blog isn’t browser based, and the store isn’t browser based, so why can’t you make the links work without calling up the browser? Also, it’s completely ridiculous that Amazon has disabled all links in their browser including to their own site when you use 3G. I’m just one person and have no pull. A blog’s author who brings in money has more clout to get this fixed.

Maria also sent me an email I received tonight after I came home from work and completed my seventh grade math homework and dinner:

I have been posting over and over again about this issue, yet you are silent.  Can you please tell me if you are going to address this problem?  I called Kindle support and they say it’s the blog author’s responsibility for what happens in his blog.  They have not been helpful at all.  I have found out through my own efforts that the Touch browser does not recognize amzn.to as an amazon address. It will accept an amazon.com link.  I think as blog author it is your responsibility to address a technical problem that keeps your blog from working correctly on all Kindles.  Otherwise, you should be disclosing that it doesn’t.  Why are you using amzn.to as a link anyway?

I am assuming Maria missed several of my posts where I said I was on vacation, I am glad I am sticking to my design of keeping this as a family-readable publication as my nieces and nephews read this blog for free books and tips (Hi, Emily!).  I also do not work for Amazon in their technical support department.

To be upfront, my first response was not suitable for publication.  I think this email was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, as there are quite a few new people thinking I am getting rich blogging away or blogging is all I do.  That’s the farthest thing from reality: I blog for fun.

The reality is I have no control over what Amazon does, or does not, allow to be sent through their networks: when you use the Kindle web browser over 3G, you are on Amazon’s network.  I will tell you the links work fine, most days, on my test units that receive the blog as a paid Kindle subscription (Kindle 2, Kindle 3 / Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX, and a Kindle Touch with 3G and WiFi); the blog links also worked fine on my Kindle 1 until it bit the dust this past summer.  The links work even better on the Kindle Fire with the Pulse app I discussed a few paragraphs above.

When I say “most days,” there are just some days the Kindle experimental web browser fails to cooperate with any site: that’s why I also put the actual URL in the blog post in case the browser on your Kindle is acting up: remember, Amazon still calls the Kindle web browser “experimental.”

I can say my Kindle Touch doesn’t have a problem with the links, but then again I am usually on a WiFi connection vs. the 3G because most of the places I use all of my Kindles have Wi-Fi available and I have the names / password pre-loaded.  If there is a problem with the 3G connection, I haven’t experienced it in the Houston area, but it might be a problem in other parts of the country.  It could also be attributable to some of the 3G issues I’ve been reading about with AT&T and other carriers around the country over the last month and a half I have been reading about online, maybe Maria just has a bad Kindle Fire, but your guess is as good as mine as I don’t know.

The accountant in me can also speculate Amazon is purposefully blocking 3G web surfing on Kindles because they are the ones paying for it: I would block it, too, if I was paying for it.  If you think about it, when the regular Kindles were introduced, the free 3G capability was put in there for us to download books, blogs, newspapers, and other content we were purchasing from Amazon, not for a free device to surf the web because the data files for various website are big and cost a lot more to deliver than a 500k book (although I do it a lot of web surfing with my Kindle 3 / Kindle Keyboard when I am not at home).  Again, your guess is as good as mine, but I’ll go back to that “experimental” web browser phrase again – experimental to me means they can yank it at any time.

While I am in the guessing mood, because I don’t have an answer for Maria as I don’t work for Amazon, I can also speculate maybe it’s because – in my opinion – the Kindle Touch is really a poorly-designed device that was probably rushed to market.  I strongly dislike this first-generation Kindle touch device.  In comparison to every Kindle model that has come out before it (and I have owned them all) page turning is significantly slow or delayed, the interface is clunky and unresponsive at times, it restarts constantly, and is generally a pain in the neck to use and operate.  The only reason I haven’t sold it on eBay is because I use it as a test unit.

Addressing one of the last comments of Maria’s email which was probably what set me off in the first place, I disagree as a blog author it is my responsibility to address a technical problem that keeps my blogs from working on all Kindles.  I can only do that if I have creative and technical control of the software operating code of the Kindle device and updates to the same: if I had my way blogs would be available for subscription on the Kindle for PC, iPad, iPhone, iThis, iThat, BlackBerry, Droid, Fire, and every other device out there.

I can, however, provide workarounds, which is what I have been doing all along:

• In addition to the link to click, I provide the actual URL you can type in to your computer if the link does not work within the experimental web browser of your Kindle.
• As the Kindle Fire does not allow for subscriptions to that device, I have detailed a workaround to reading the blog on the Pulse app (click here or type in http://bit.ly/rSWjuj into your computer’s web browser to read on how to set that up).
• You can read the blog with a computer on the Facebook, Twitter, or on the web with the links I mention above.
• I am working on an easier alternative for Kindle Fire and DROID-device users: more on that toward the end of this month.

So, a rather long-winded answer to several emails.  I’ll be back tomorrow with your regularly-scheduled programming.

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips or type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Check out my new Kindle guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

Random 2011 Kindle Blog Statistics

Well, I am back from vacation (unfortunately) and reality – back to work – starts again bright and early tomorrow morning.  I was actually only able to log in only four times over this past week due to one of the slowest Internet connections on the planet, and I hope my automated posts at random times of the day with various Kindle tips made it seem like I was still here!

As we enter 2012, and seeing as how I am a data nut, I thought I would share some random stats about the blog from 2011:

The Raw Data

• There were 1,411 unique posts to the blog in 2011, with 2,560 total posts for this blog.
• After tabulating 1,500+ free book offers through the month of July, I got tired of counting them (actually, there wasn’t enough time in the day to keep track of everything).  My back of the envelope calculation tells me I told you about 5,000+ free book offers in 2011.
• There were about 880,000 unique visitors to the blog’s web page in 2011.
• The busiest day was November 9^th where 13,003 people visited the blog’s web page.  The most popular post that day was where I told you about 34 free book offers in the Amazon Kindle store.  While most of these books are no longer free, you can see that post again if you click here or type in http://bit.ly/typMeB into your computer’s web browser.
• The top referring websites to the blog’s web page were Facebook and Twitter.  You can see the blog’s Facebook page if you click here or type in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips into your computer’s web browser.  The Twitter page can be accessed if you click here or type in http://twitter.com/fkbt into your computer’s web browser.
• Most of the blog’s visitor’s came from the United States, Canada, and Germany but over 95 countries were represented on the statistics.

Most Popular Page Views

Excluding posts about specific free book offers, the Top Five page views (mostly tips) were:

1. How to Transfer Books to your Kindle – this was originally posted in February of 2011 – click here or type in http://bit.ly/gHmgTv into your computer’s web browser to see it (this was updated on December 30^th for the Fire, so click here or type in http://bit.ly/roKqao into your computer’s web browser to see an updated version).
2. The “About This Blog” page was the second-highest viewed page that was a non-free book offer.  I think it’s pretty boring, and I should probably update it.  You can see it if you click here or type in https://fkbt.wordpress.com/about/ into your computer’s web browser.
3. A post from September 2010 was the third most-viewed page on the blog: this one describes how to use the “Collections” feature on your Kindle (no, the Kindle Fire does not have the collections feature yet); I wrote this shortly after receiving my trusty Kindle 3, now called a Kindle Keyboard, and went through the trial and error of moving my collections and books from the now broken Kindle 2 to the K3.  You can see this post if you click here or type in http://bit.ly/fDZSA9 into your computer’s web browser. 
4. The list of Kindle-Friendly mobile websites is next – this is another post from December 2010 and you can click here or type in http://bit.ly/ei80EJ into your computer’s web browser to see it.  This post was so popular I turned it into a Kindle book in order for people to be able to have the list of these websites stay on their Kindles and be accessible at any time.
5. The fifth most popular post that was not about a free book offer was where I (a) talked about borrowing books for free from the Amazon Kindle store, and (b) urged you to please borrow my books from the Amazon Kindle store.  You can see that post if you click here or type in http://bit.ly/rZ2h5h into your computer’s web browser.  As an update, I’m waiting for Amazon to tell me how I did against everyone else: I do know there were 3,605 “borrows” of my books in December.

The most popular book offer page was where I told you there were 900+ free book offers on a single day in the Amazon Kindle store; these books are not in the public domain, but are the “new” books.  That page is still going like gangbusters, primarily due to the link I recommended you save in your computer’s web browser to check in on the offers at any time.  If you didn’t bookmark the link to the Amazon free offers page, click here or type in or save http://amzn.to/bookload into your computer’s web browser.  FYI – there are 3,336 non-public domain free offers in the Amazon Kindle store as I type this post!

That’s probably enough statistics for now…as most of us head back to work tomorrow (why did I choose to be an accountant?), I hope each of you has a great 2012!

Michael

 

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Check out my new Kindle guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

What To Do After You Have Read a Kindle Book

I am frequently asked if I keep copies of the books I have completed on my Kindle or if I delete them and, if I delete them, why?

The short answer is I delete them, and it’s not to save space on the Kindle. While I am certain it has happened, I have not heard of anyone running out of capacity on their Kindles. Of course, each Kindle has a finite amount of storage on it, including the capacity of a K1 which allowed you to put an SD card in it to increase storage, so of course I am sure someone, somewhere, has run out of capacity. I would imagine if you load up your Kindle with mp3’s to listen to while you read, etc. that could happen. On the other hand, if you are running up against the capacity limits, why not just delete the book from your Kindle after you have read it? That’s what I do, as after I finish a book I rarely re-read something for at least several years.

There are third-party programs such as Calibre which will assist you in storing your Kindle content on your computer, and Amazon also stores an electronic copy of your purchases (for free), and will re-download them for free to your Kindle anytime you want. The only thing I don’t like about Amazon doing that is when an author makes an update to a book – either a slightly different version, corrected some typos, formatting, etc. – Amazon will re-download the exact same copy you purchased previously and not the updated copy. That’s a small problem with some of the independent author books as they go back and do the proofing they should have done in the first place (I’m guilty of that as an author, too) and, rather than having a brand new book they just update a revised / corrected copy.

Anyway, enough of my side rant about the corrected copies….

My personal opinion is you should delete a book from your Kindle after you have read it. Why? Your Kindle is a mini-computer, and when a computer’s hard drive fills up it starts to run slower. Your pages will start turning slightly slower, which happened on my old K2 after I loaded up a lot of music on it as an experiment.

With a lot of books on it your Kindle is also indexing the pages, which bogs down the computer’s processing speed until all of the books are indexed.

However, my #1 reason for deleting books off of my Kindle after I have read them is this: my digital “to be read” pile at any one point in time is 100 – 150 books. I only want to focus in on the ones I have not read. If you think of digital books in relation to paper books, deleting an electronic book after reading it is like moving the paper book from the “to be read” stack to a formal bookshelf (books I like I keep, books I didn’t like I send off to Half Price Books or sell online). With the books stored electronically on Amazon’s servers, it is like my bookshelf at home – I can still “see” them on my Kindle, and can pull them off of the shelf, “dust” them off, and start reading immediately. The better thing with an electronic book is I can literally be anywhere in the world and dust off that book and start reading it again vs. an out-of-town scenario, stuck in a hotel room, and wanting to re-read Stephen King’s Under the Dome (a very good book) or something similar (which would be a very bulky book to lug around in the suitcase or laptop bag.

There are several ways to re-download a book to your Kindle, and I am not going to cover them all here, but I do it one method is using your Kindle, or the Kindle you want to transfer the book to – assuming the other Kindle is on your account. There are also several ways to do this on your Kindle, but here is how I do it:

• Press the “Home” button.
• I have my books organized by collections (which means I only have two to three pages to scroll through at any one time). I will push the next page button until I reach the last page.
• The last line-item on my display, as sorted by collections, is a line-item called “Archived Items” followed by a number in parentheses. That number is the total number of books archived on the Amazon website: consider that your digital bookshelf. Scroll down and highlight this line item and select it: with my K3 (now known as the Kindle Keyboard), I can select it by pushing the middle button of the five-way controller.
• You now will have a list of all of your digital bookshelf. You can scroll down or page turn until you find the book. My Archived Items are sorted by title, and in the example I gave you above of Stephen King’s Under the Dome, that would be toward the end of the list. I have over 50 pages of archived content, and I don’t want to push the next page button that many times, so I will search for it in the next couple of steps.
• To search for it, from this same screen, I just type in a few letters of the title. In this case, I will type in the word “Under” (without the quotes around it) then press the enter button.
• That wasn’t a good search topic as it returned 14 pages of books with the word “Under” in it. I can either scroll along until I find it, or type in a different term. I am going to search by the author’s name, so I will type in “Stephen King” (without the quotes around it) followed by the enter key.
• I have eight books by Stephen King in my Archived Items / digital bookshelf. I will then scroll down and highlight Under the Dome with my five-way controller, then press the middle button of my five-way controller to initiate the download process.
• I received a message saying the download would complete, and the book would appear on my home page when the download is complete.

I just walked through that step with my K3 in front of me. I thought this was extremely fast: my wireless router is upstairs on the opposite end of the house in a closet, and I am using a WiFi connection – it took nine seconds for the book to download and appear on the home page.

Anyway, enough rambling for now!

Regards,

Michael

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Follow, tweet, or retweet this blog to all of your friends.  Click here or type in http://twitter.com/fkbt into your web browser and I’ll see you on Twitter!

 

Free Music for Your Kindle

Since I posted about free music from Amazon on the 20^th, I’ve had a lot of emailed questions regarding it – primarily, what was that link again?  So, here is a little bit of a repeat (don’t worry, a new tip or book post will be here again soon).

There are also several hundred MP3 songs for free from the Amazon Kindle store: yes, you can play songs on your Kindle as well as the Kindle Fire. Here’s a link you probably want to bookmark so you can check those out throughout the year:

http://amzn.to/mp3tunes

You probably want to bookmark that link in your computer’s web browser and check it out periodically. You may also need to re-sort the list periodically from “low to high” in the top right-hand corner of this Amazon web page as sometimes it just randomly shows titles (although it looks fine today).

If you’re a Kindle Fire owner, hopefully you know how to listen to music on your Kindle Fire.  If not, well, please help me put food on my table by purchasing my new Kindle guide, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

OK, the PT Barnum moment is over…back to the serious stuff!

“Regular” Kindle users shouldn’t feel left out, as their Kindles can play music, also (alas, the $79 Kindle does not).

Your Kindle can also play mp3 songs: you can listen to it via the Kindle’s speakers or insert your favorite headphones / earbuds into the Kindle and listen away.

I’ve posted about how to listen to music on your Kindle, and it is one of the most popular “tips” I have on the blog. If you’re familiar with the process, you can stop reading now. However, if you are not or need a refresher on how to do it, read on!

In addition to having your Kindle read to your with the test-to-speech option enabled, you can also listen to music. I don’t know about streaming music over the Internet – I haven’t personally tried it but who knows, it could happen if you had a real good connection – but I am talking about your favorite music in MP3 format. At this time, pending a future software upgrade, the Kindle only supports MP3’s for playback.

Here are some of the basics for the non-Kindle Fire owners:

Music Location:

You will need to transfer your MP3 files over to your Kindle using the USB cord via your computer. If you haven’t changed the directory structure of your Kindle, you will see three folders: Audible, Documents, and Music. You want to put your MP3 files in the “Music” folder (I know some of you are saying “duh” right now, but some of you are not!).

If you want to organize your music by artist, for example making a folder for “Van Halen” and another for “George Strait,” you can make those folders. However, the Kindle does not allow (pending a software upgrade) you to navigate via the folders as you are selecting songs.

Playback:

From the Home screen, select Menu, then Experimental, then Play MP3. If you want to listen to the music while you are reading, just click the “Home” key and navigate to your book and start reading.

If you want to stop the music, just press the “ALT” and spacebar keys at the same time; the same is true if you want to start playing music again. If you’re tired of the song you’re listening to, just press the “F” key to move to the next song.

Speakers:

While you can listen to your music with the built-in speakers, they sound good to me for what I am using it for – mild background music while I read. However, if you like to have your music a little louder than other people prefer, or maybe traveling on a plane and don’t want to disturb the person 1.7 inches to your immediate left you can plug in headphones (click here or type in http://amzn.to/iMsxjD into your computer’s web browser for some options from the Kindle store). Headphones can be plugged into the audio jack located just to the side of your “on/off” switch on the top of your Kindle.

And who needs an iPod these days when you have your Kindle?

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

 

Your Kindle is a Watch

Here’s one a lot of you may know about – if you do, you’re going to say “so what?” Or, if you did know about it maybe you forgot? On the other hand, I’m willing to bet a lot of you don’t know about it as I had an informal, unscientific poll at work: in other words, I asked three people who own Kindles in the office if they knew, and they didn’t – hence this post. There’s also a few million new Kindle owners out there after this week!

Did you know you can have your Kindle tell you the time? You can, and each time you turn the wireless on, when it synchs with the cell phone tower it updates the internal clock. If you’re like me, time can quickly get away from you when you are engrossed in a novel and you’re not wearing your watch….and you’ll be really tired the next morning!

For you Kindle 1 / Original Kindle owners, to have the Kindle display the time press the “ALT” and “T” buttons simultaneously and the correct time will show on top.

For the Kindle 2 / 3 and Kindle DX owners – just press the Menu button and you will see the correct time on the top line, right in the center of the screen.

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

Your Kindle is a Proofer

Kindle owners do lots of things with their Kindles – some this you may already know how to do, but there may be a lot of you who never thought to do it. There is a discussion thread going on over at the Amazon site where members are posting some of the random things they do with their Kindles in addition to “just” reading books. I will be profiling some of these over the next few weeks – after all, part of the title line of this blog is supposed to be about Kindle tips vs. just a feature on free books!

Here’s one of the tips from the discussion board:

The Kindle is going to be an important part of the process I use to edit my novels. I recently dug out a manuscript I hadn’t looked at in five years with the intent of whipping it into shape and sending it to market. Instead of lugging around almost 800 pages in a big binder, inspiration struck and I emailed the Word doc to my Kindle.

Reading it there was an amazing experience – I was able to detach almost completely from the fact that it was a manuscript, probably because my brain is wired to accept what’s on the Kindle as a “real book”. It was like having the finished book in my hand. And when I tried Text To Speech with the manuscript (don’t worry, I gave myself permission), you’d have thought I was listening to an audio book narrated by James Earl Jones.

So in the future, I plan to use the Kindle to review my early drafts before beginning the process of editing.

Want to have this blog sent wirelessly to your Kindle vs. reading it on your computer? Try out the free two-week subscription!  Click here for the Amazon page for Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tipsor type in http://www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book or type in http://amzn.to/seDbUq into your computer’s web browser and learn a new thing or two about your Kindle!

 

Transferring Books to Your Kindle

I think it is time to update this post a little bit as a few minor things have changed, but I will also give you a small hint: I’m going to be pointing you to a lot of places other than Amazon for free books in upcoming posts (Hint: get excited!)

I usually send out a couple of posts on where free books are located away from the Amazon website – and a couple of you are probably scratching your heads saying “that’s nice, but how in the world do I get these books to my Kindle?” Well, here is your quick instruction guide – yes, this is sort of a repeat from last month, but there are quite a few new folks who just opened up their new Kindle’s or acquired a gently used Kindle from the upgraders

Transferring Books to Your Kindle

If the only way you have added content to your Kindle is via the Amazon website, and assuming you may have missed the section in the Kindle User Guide of other methods to add content to your Kindle (and the user guide is not very helpful), you may not know how to put content (think books) on your Kindle. It is a fairly simple process, and we will briefly review four ways to put material on your Kindle; this is certainly not meant to be an all-encompassing “how-to” guide. The four methods are:

1. Purchase / download it from the Kindle store section of the Amazon website. I am going to assume you know how to download books from the Kindle store;

2. Transfer the material from a computer to your Kindle using the USB cord;

3. Email it to your Kindle with your unique Kindle.com email address; and,

4. Place the material on an SD memory card and insert the SD memory card into your Kindle (please note the Kindle 1 is the only version of the Kindle to utilize an SD memory card, and later generation Kindles are equipped with enough memory to hold 1,000+ books). If you have purchased and are using an SD card, I am also going to assume you know how to transfer and manage content to the SD card.

Transfer Using a USB Cord

To me, this method is the most straight-forward method – plus, it doesn’t cost you a cent to manage your content with the USB cord provided with your Kindle. If you are familiar with moving things around with a digital camera, an iPod / MP3 player, or a thumb memory drive you will find you are already familiar with transferring content with the USB cord. If you are reading this and don’t know what the USB cord is, it is the cord you use to recharge the Kindle’s internal battery; it is a separate cord for the Kindle 1.

To transfer content with the USB cord, here are the simple steps in order:

1. Turn on and boot up your computer if it is not already on.

2. Turn on your Kindle.

3. The Kindle Fire did not ship with a micro-USB cord: you will need one to follow the remaining instructions in this section. If you do not have a micro-USB cord and want to purchase one from the Amazon website (it’s a heck of a lot cheaper on Amazon than Best Buy), just click here which will open up the appropriate page on the Amazon website or type in http://amzn.to/smallusb into your computer’s web browser. I like this specific one because it is six feet long, which gives me room to move the Kindle around without feeling squeezed due to a short cable.

4.  Plug the large end of the USB cord that came with your Kindle into an open USB slot on your computer; if you’re looking at the USB cord and just see something that plugs into an electrical socket (Kindle 2 and later generations), that portion that looks like the end to be plugged into an electrical socket can be pulled apart to reveal the USB portion. If you are not certain where the USB slot on your computer is, please consult the instructions manual for your computer.

5. Plug the small end of the USB cord that came with your Kindle into the open USB slot on your Kindle.

If you followed the steps above in order, take a look at your Kindle’s screen – it should be indicating the Kindle is in USB mode, and on my Kindle 2 tells me I am unable to read or connect to the Internet; the specific message is “if you want to use your Kindle and continue charging, please eject your Kindle from your computer.” That’s exactly what we want it to say – you’re going to be making additions, etc. to your Kindle from your computer screen and not from the Kindle.

Now, let’s go to your computer. If you are using a Mac, you will use a program called OS Finder; if you are using a Windows-based computer, you will click on “My Computer” or “Windows Explorer.” The following instructions assume you are using a Windows-based computer, but for those of you with a Mac the process is very similar. Clicking on My Computer, you will see your hard drives and other locations as well as your Kindle; if your computer automatically opened up the Kindle folder after recognizing it subsequent to plugging in the Kindle to your computer via the USB cord, that’s ok and you can work from there, too.

Books and other written manuscripts are contained in the “Documents” folder of your “regular” Kindle, and are in the Books folder of your Kindle Fore. This is the location you will drag and drop, copy / cut and paste (or whatever process you are most comfortable with) the documents you have downloaded from the specific areas we will review in this book. After you have transferred or moved the content to your Kindle, you can disconnect your Kindle from your computer and start reading away at your leisure. The books you just transferred to your Kindle will show up as “new” in your Kindle home page.

One important safety note to protect your Kindle – I would not recommend just pulling the USB cord out of your computer or the Kindle without having your computer to “safely eject hardware” before disconnecting, or with the Kindle Fire pressing the Disconnect button at the bottom of the Kindle Fire touch screen.

If you followed those steps – congratulations! You are well on your way to reading the books and other content you have downloaded: go check out the home page of your Kindle and you should see “New” listed next to each item you just transferred.

Email to Your Unique Kindle.com Email Address

You may already know, or maybe you don’t, each registered Kindle owner has their own unique youname@kindle.com email address, where you and others that you grant permission to beforehand can email material directly to your Kindle. This could come in handy for sending Word documents, etc. from work for the “gotta read it” on the plane, but you can also use it as a method to transfer books to your Kindle.

If you do not know your unique kindle.com email address, it’s easy to find out and you can do it several ways. Here are two that are pretty straight-forward to me:

For any Kindle except the Kindle Fire, perform the following steps:

• Click on the “Home” button.
• Press the “Menu” button.
• Select the “Settings” option.
• Page forward to the second page of the “Settings” option and you will see a header titled “Device E-mail.” Look just below that and you will see your unique Kindle email address in bold-faced type.

Alternateively, log into you Amazon.com account at your computer by typing in http://www.amazon.com/myk and you will be at the “Manage Your Kindle” page. Underneath the “Your Kindle(s)” section will list each of the Kindles registered to your account as well as the unique kindle.com email address to send material to each particular Kindle.

I mentioned earlier you can have others you grant permission in advance to send material to your Kindle; if you scroll down on the same page that lists out your Kindle email addresses, you will also see the pre-authorized email addresses allowed. I would exercise caution with who you put on there, or the next thing you know your spouse or significant other will use that as a tool to send you reminders of chores to do, errands to run, or other emails!

Types of File Extensions

There are many different file formats for eBooks. Many are supported by the Kindle software, while others are not. While I am certain you can write an entire book on the advantages and disadvantages of each file format (and there probably is such a book available for sale out there), for purposes of this guide I am going to focus on what I believe are the four most compatible file formats for your Kindle:

• Text files
• Amazon extension files
• Mobipocket files
• PDF files

Text Files

Amazon is making changes to its Kindle operating software periodically, and the types of files available to be read by your Kindle could be enhanced beyond what I am listing here: that means you possibly could have an even greater free library ahead of you than what I will show you in this Guide. Let’s talk about the types and file extensions you will see in selecting the best format for your Kindle.

Text files are probably the most abundant free eBook files out there, although many web sites are converting their text documents into Kindle-ready and other formats. Text files are easily identifiable as having a *.txt extension, where the “*” represents the file name and the “txt” portion says it is in text format. You can not only read these on your Kindle, but you can read them on your computer with, for example, Notepad, Microsoft Word, or any other word processing program out there. My experience has also shown that most *.txt files, while great at containing the underlying data, are not so good as being 100% compatible for your Kindle. For example, I have found the formatting is a little off, as line and even page breaks will show up in the strangest places.

Amazon Extension Files

Amazon’s proprietary format uses the *.kzw format. I haven’t found too many free books with the *.kzw format, although they are out there, unless I have downloaded it directly from the Amazon website – then it is usually copy-protected and I couldn’t, for example, email a file I had downloaded to my sister for her to also enjoy on a Kindle.

Mobipocket Files

The Mobipocket format (*.mobi) (“Mobi”) is becoming more and more prevalent as sites that have previously offered, for example, their content only in *.txt format have converted to the Mobi format. Mobi is a subsidiary of Amazon, and they offer a conversion tool for authors and others to convert documents to an eBook reader format. Tthey also have some of the most unhelpful instructions for the layperson to convert files, but that is a subject for another day. Books and other documents in the Mobi format are typically ready to go without formatting issues, can either be copy-protected or not, and read like any other eBook you purchase from the Amazon website.

PDF Files

You can also read PDF files on your Kindle. My experience with the Kindle 2 and the original Kindle is PDF’s usually come out looking very strange or the page is significantly compressed and is unable to be enlarged. The Kindle DX, however, has a much larger screen so PDF files should be good to go. My standard caveat is actual results may vary – and some PDF’s show up just fine on my Kindle 2 and Kindle 3, but the price is right (e.g., free) so what do you have to lose?

How to Download Books to Your Computer

As I mentioned earlier, I thought it important I explain just a few of the ways to transfer materials to your Kindle as well as provide a brief discussion of the various formats of this free material. We need to cover one more thing – how to download the free books – and then you will be ready to hunt away for free content. The listing of known sites for free books are numerous, but if you don’t know how to download the material it’s pretty much useless information to you. For the majority of the sites, for each book listed they will typically have a bold underline or the entire text is in a different font, color, or both for the title. Like anything else with computers, there are probably 1,001 ways to do things, but here is the way that works best for me (your results may vary):

• Using your mouse, right click on the file you want to save / download.
• In Windows, several options come up, but select the one called “Save As” or “Save,” depending upon which version of Windows you have installed on your computer.
• Save this book into the “My eBooks” file folder in My Documents or, if you don’t have a file folder called “My eBooks” create one. You can create one with the “Make New Folder” option.
• Your book should download to the My eBooks folder.
• Transfer the book to your Kindle using one of the methods previously described in this guide.

That’s it, and I hope that helps!

Michael

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Check Out My Other Blog, “Kindle Books for a Buck (or Less),” with a primary focus on the independent author as there are jewels beyond the “name brand” authors. You can check it out by clicking here or typing in http://amzn.to/kb4abuck into your computer’s web browser.  Who knows, you might find a new favorite author!