Gift Ideas for Men

Gentlemen, this section is for you:

As a stereotypical guy, I love the beauty and simplicity of gift cards.  With Amazon’s gift cards, I could theoretically get one and print it out with my home computer and printer on Valentine’s Day before I went out for a Valentine’s dinner and the recipient would not be the wiser to my procrastination unless I confessed to it (not that I would do that).

In addition to printing them out at any time, gift cards can be emailed to the recipient.  Amazon is also offering free one-day shipping if you want one of the hard plastic cards and gift envelopes or boxes with your gift card.  Here’s your link so you won’t miss it and have a mad someone who is wondering why you didn’t bring her a present this year: http://amzn.to/tPKzX3

Of course, I’m not opening up the whole discussion of the appropriateness of a gift card….

Have a great rest of the afternoon-

Michael

 

Facebook Page Updates

This message is for the folks who read the updates on the Facebook page – you can see the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips – I’ve received a few emails from people over the last few days you haven’t been able to see updates to the Facebook page on your wall / home screen unless you come over to our Facebook page.

Kind of defeats the point, doesn’t it?

One way to make the posts start showing up on your personal page is to give an individual post a “like” or a share to get the feeds going again.

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 our Facebook page and give us a “like” by clicking here or typing in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips into your computer’s web browser!

 

A Random Kindle Blog Post

Okay, it’s a Sunday night and I really should be thinking about getting to bed – it’s going to be an extremely busy week at work (you really think I blog all day?!?), and this fat man can’t stay up as late as he used to these days.

However, sometimes the best intentions fall to the wayside…besides, I can’t sleep right now, so I thought I would ramble on a few topics that are either on my mind or in answer to some of the emails I have received over the last few days.

Length of Free Book Offers

I’ve received quite a few emails and a few negative reviews from people saying the books I’m telling you about aren’t free and they have been charged – I know, it’s a recurring theme some of you have heard me talk about before, but we are getting quite a few new subscribers each day.

The bottom-line is the books are free when I send out the post: I verify that before I push the “post” button.  The problem is no one outside of Amazon or the author knows how long the free book offer will last.  In the last three years, I’ve seen some books be free for over a year, and I have also seen books be free for less than 30 minutes.

I realize it is easy to get in the habit of hitting the link(s) I tell you about each day and select the “Buy now with 1-click” button without thinking about it.  Please make sure you check the pricing and confirm it is free before you hit the buy button or your account will be charged!

How Many Kindles Do I Own?

I get this question from time-to-time, and after buying a new car this week I stopped to count them up (more on the new car in a later post).  I guess the good news is I don’t have as many as I used to, the bad news is I have more Kindle devices than I do people in my household (maybe if you threw in the dog and the fish it might even up).  Here’s what I have today in my house:

3 Kindle Fires

2 Kindle Keyboards with 3G (formerly known as the Kindle 3 or K3)

1 Kindle DX

1 Kindle Wi-Fi

1 Kindle Touch 3G

Why so many?  The answer I give my wife is I need to have one of each so I can review them for the blog as well as to test how the blog appears on each of their screens.  A better answer is when the Fire came out, I got one for me and Santa Claus brought one for each of the kids on Christmas Day which resulted in three of us having two Kindle devices each.

I have tested, read from, and played with each of them quite a bit and each has pluses and minuses over the other. For pure reading, I like the DX better as you can put a heck of a lot more on the screen; I switch between it and my K3 all of the time.  I also got my first pair of prescription glasses for reading only last month, and the DX is a lot easier for me to read as (a) I really don’t like wearing the glasses, (b) I don’t want to stop and hunt for them, and (c) when you put a larger font on the DX you don’t have to push the next page button as frequently as the K3.  Call me lazy for not wanting to push the button so many times…

I read just a little bit on the Fire, as I mainly use it to play games.  My kids, however, are eating up the Fire between reading books, playing games, and watching movies.

I like the Kindle Wi-Fi, but don’t use it much because I read on the other devices.  I do, however, check it frequently as I have taken advantage of some of the special offers that are displayed as a screen saver.  The best coupon I have used to date was when Amazon ran a promotion of getting a $20 Amazon gift card for just $10.  Seeing as how the unit only cost me $79, that was similar to lowering the price down to $69.

As I’ve said before, I can’t stand the Kindle Touch, although you may think it is the best thing since sliced bread.  Rather than enumerate the reasons again in this post, just check out my review of the unit on the Amazon website!  I’m tempted to sell the darn thing on eBay.

My wife, unfortunately, is addicted to her iPad and gave up her Kindle 2 a while ago (the Kindle 2 died an untimely death after it was dropped one to many times).  I know, it’s really sad to hear of the Kindle guy’s spouse turning to the competition – but I will say she does use the free Kindle reading application all of the time!  Now if I could just get her to read this blog….

What Am I Reading Now?

I’m asked this all of the time – if you realized how often I switch genres, you might say I have some strange tastes.  Right now, I am reading a two-book collection by Louis L’Amour called Shalako and Catlow – you can click here or type in http://amzn.to/AoofZi into your computer’s web browser to see it.

I love Louis L’Amour, and have probably read each of his novels half a dozen times each growing up.  I still have most of them in paperback, but they are in a box in the attic and I really don’t feel like rooting around up there to dig them out (yes, call me lazy again) so I bought the Kindle version – the paperbacks are about 30-40 years old and are starting to come apart, so it’s probably time to get rid of them, but they are like old friends: I wrote in them when I was little, they are creased here and there, and like most packrats I have a hard time getting rid of things.  However, I am slowly restocking the digital shelf with these same titles as one Kindle is easier to tote around than a box full of books!

How Do I Find the Free Books?

Over the last two weeks, many people have asked me how I find out about the free book offerings, and how do I know they are “new” freebies for a particular day.

It’s a trade secret!

Actually, it’s not a secret at all – I have two methods.  The first is I wrote a simple script to go check the Amazon listings for books prized at zero and dump it into an Excel file.  I do a quick comparison for the previous day’s file, and there you have it.

The second is independent authors are starting to let me know when their books are going to be free – if it sounds like something I would be interested in, as well as what I think you would be interested in, plus has a fairly high customer rating I will more likely than not post it for you to check out.

Anyway, that’s probably enough rambling for now.  If you made it this far without nodding off, congratulations!

Here’s to hoping everyone has a great week this 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 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.

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.

 

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.

Don’t Forget This Month’s Informal Kindle Poll!

Each month for the past two years, I’ve started or participated in a monthly poll on the USA Amazon Kindle discussion boards asking people a simple question: what are you reading on your Kindle? I’ve received some great tips with past monthly polls, finding out what others are reading on their Kindle, and found some “new” authors I generally wouldn’t have found using my hunt-and-peck method. While I have certainly enjoyed the “mainstream” author suggestions over the past year, I’ve also enjoyed a lot of independent authors from each month’s poll I never would have heard of previously.

If you would like to check out the poll and find some new things or, better yet, tell others what you are reading, just click here or type in http://amzn.to/dec11poll into your web browser and start!

Here’s how this works – list a book you are currently reading or just recently read on your Kindle (insert the product link using the little button above the text box in the discussion forum so others can find it), whether you would recommend it, did you get it free, and anything else you would care to share.

I started this month’s poll by saying I had just finished Zero Day by David Baldacci; which overall I thought was pretty good – while there were a few scenes I wanted to say were a little unrealistic overall it was a good tale and much better than some of his later works. Kindle purists will complain I paid more than $9.99 for it but there are a few authors like Baldacci I will make an exception! You can click here or type in http://amzn.to/rs8490 into your computer’s web browser to see it.

I am setting this post to go out in advance right now as I am on vacation with my family, so I can’t tell you what I am reading right now – although I can tell you my Kindle is packed with a whole stack of things to read!

And here’s my standard continuation of each month’s request for prior participants in the poll: if you like or dislike a title you have read, in addition to telling us about it in this informal poll, how about writing a book review on the Amazon website? The review will certainly last and be visible a lot longer than this poll will. If you’re like me, you look at the customer reviews in order to see if you want to investigate a book further. Since we are all a little community here, and while I realize each review is each person’s opinion and we may not like the same thing, I know your friends and online discussion neighbors would appreciate your honest assessment of the likes and dislikes without providing a spoiler – I know I would! Your reviews don’t need to be a long dissertation of the book, I like to keep them short, sweet, and (hopefully) to the point.

Yes, I wrote a short and sweet review for the book Zero Day above: you can read and vote on the helpfulness of that review if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/uxf2pp into your computer’s web browser. I’ve read about half a dozen books since completing that one, and I am a little behind on writing my reviews, but you can see all of the reviews I have written if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/mpgreviews

Anyway, that’s all for now. Have a great rest of the 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.

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 November 2011 for the release of the Kindle Fire!).

My Kindle Blogs

I am sending this post out to each of my blogs, so if you get it more than once feel free to skip on over the second time you see it.

Several times a week, I get asked a question via email along the lines of “…are you the same person who does the other Kindle blog named…?”  The answer is probably, “yes,” as I publish a total of six blogs that are available on the Kindle.

I believe one of the neat things about the Kindle “experience” is your Kindle is much more than an eBook reader – I use the free wireless service to check email, follow the scores for my favorite teams via ESPN’s mobile website, and check the weather forecast. As I type this, there are 13,463 blogs available to be sent directly to your Kindle. Some of them update several times per day, just once a day, a few times per week, or a couple of times per month.

At this time, the only Kindle device you can read a blog on is an actual Kindle and not, for example, any of the Kindle applications on an iPad or droid device, nor can you get a blog subscription on the Kindle for PC application. Why? I don’t know: it seems as if it would be fairly easy to program in the Kindle application, and Amazon (in my opinion) is missing out on one heck of a monthly revenue stream. Amazon really doesn’t promote the Kindle blog arena, and they rarely reply to a question blog publishers pose to them – I wouldn’t be surprised if one day they shut it all down, but that is a topic for another day as well as another blog format.

You can receive blogs on your Kindle Fire, just not as a paid subscription like you can on a “regular” Kindle.  I will send out instructions on how to receive this blog on your Kindle Fire in a separate post.

A blog subscription to be sent directly to your Kindle costs anywhere from 99 cents to $1.99 per month – I don’t know how they come up with the pricing as Amazon sets the pricing on the blogs. With respect to each of my blogs on the Kindle platform, they are priced at 99 cents each per month: of that amount, Amazon gets 69 cents and I get 30 cents. As you can probably guess, I am not getting rich off of this but it does allow me to purchase a few woodworking tools on occasion, and is helping to pay for my Christmas vacation! Hmm, with Amazon receiving 70% of the revenue, it makes me wonder even more why blogs are not allowed / available on other Kindle applications such as the Kindle for iPad / PC / Droid, etc.

Amazon allows you to check each blog out for free on your Kindle for a two-week period, and you can cancel within that two-week period at any time with no cost to you. There are quite a few blogs out there I think are pretty interesting, and I subscribe to a few myself.

In no particular order, here are the six blogs I have available for reading on your Kindle.

Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips

Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips is my largest blog in terms of Kindle subscribers as well as the number of people who either read it on the web, email subscription, Facebook, and Twitter. I’ve been very fortunate with this blog as it has been the #1 bestselling Kindle blog for over a year now. What is it all about? As new free titles become available in the Amazon Kindle store or places in addition to the Kindle store, I provide a brief synopsis of the book as well as the link to download it to your Kindle for your enjoyment.

Based upon my own experiences as well as what I have been able to find out from others, I also provide reviews of and information about the numerous sites that offer free material, tips on how to maximize your Kindle experience, and various other Kindle-related information I think is interesting. Maybe you will, too. If you would like to check it out the free two-week trial of this blog, you can just type in www.tinyurl.com/fkblog into your computer’s web browser: this shortened web address will save you from typing in a really long series of characters and will take you right to the blog’s Amazon page.

From the blog page on Amazon, just click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page. You have two weeks to try it out for free (and free is the name of the game).

Bible Verse of the Day

If you did a search for my name in the Kindle Blog section of the Amazon store, you will also see the Bible Verse of the Day blog I also publish: you can check out the two-week free trial if you type inhttp://tinyurl.com/bvoftheday into your computer’s web browser and click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page.

Any receipts I receive from Amazon for this blog (again, after Amazon’s cut) are donated to The Nehemiah Center of Houston, a Houston, TX based charity which is a Christian-based organization that offers academic, emotional, cultural, social, and spiritual enrichment to the children and families in the MacGregor Elementary School Area just outside Houston’s Third Ward. I have visited this facility, and they are making a tremendous difference in the lives of hundreds of at-risk children. You can find out more about the Nehemiah Center of Houston by pointing your web browser to www.nehemiah1.org

Thanks to the generosity of this blog’s subscribers as well as their direct contributions, collectively we have donated just over $4,900 to this charity in a little over two years.

 

Kindle Books for a Buck (or Less)

This is a supplemental blog to my Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips blog. Each weekday, I spotlight a book in the Amazon Kindle store that costs all of a dollar or less (sometimes free) with an emphasis on the independent author.

The main purpose of this blog is to focus on the many independent, self-published authors that typically fall under the radar screen amidst all of the noise from the “headline” authors I have really enjoyed. I think you will enjoy it, too, as you will come across recommendations of many genres – plus the purchase price of one dollar (or less) is a pretty easy price point vs. throwing down ten or more bucks for something.

You can check out the two-week free trial if you type in http://amzn.to/kb4abuck into your computer’s web browser and click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page.

 

Trivia of the Day

This blog features random trivia and facts hand-picked and designed to give you a “leg-up” on your friends, relatives, and co-workers…you should know this stuff! If you read this one for just a week, you will know a heck of a lot of random trivia and people may think you are like Cliff from “Cheers.” To try out the two-week free trial, just type in http://tinyurl.com/toftheday into your computer’s web browser and click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page.

Quote of the Day

This blog features inspiring quotes from famous and everyday people to start your day – sometimes wise, sometimes humorous, you are sure to find something that will inspire you in your walk of life. To try out this one’s two-week free trial, just type in http://tinyurl.com/qoftheday into your computer’s web browser click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page.

On This Day in History

Have you ever wondered what happened on a particular day, such as historical events, birthdays, deaths, worldwide holidays, etc.? Well, the On This Day in History blog will tell you – every morning you will receive the unique events of that day directly to your Kindle. The listed events are not just USA-specific, but worldwide. To try out this one’s two-week free trial, just type in http://tinyurl.com/otdhistory into your computer’s web browser click on the “Subscribe now with 1-click” button on the right-hand side of the page.

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.

 

Thank You!

In a post yesterday (click here or type in http://bit.ly/uFkRJX into your computer’s web browser), I challenged – some would say begged – you to purchase my new book, Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup.  Rather than a traditional beg, I threw in a sweetener where I said I would donate 100% of the royalties over a 24 hour period to the Ronald McDonald House of Houston, which is located right next door to the Texas Children’s Hospital.  Well, the 24 hour period is officially over and it is time to tally the results.

Prior to pushing the “publish” button last night, I was wondering how much would be raised.  I had our prior experiences to refer back to, where the blog readers participated in a similar promotion I ran and we collectively raised money for charities like the Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettle Campaign and the East Texas Food Bank.  Each of those campaigns ran a little longer than the 24 hours I put on this one, so I guesstimated we would raise about $150 or so.

Even though I am a mild-mannered accountant by day – I even got my very first pair of prescription glasses last week to fit the stereotype – I obviously have a very difficult time forecasting something like book sales as my $150 guess wouldn’t even have been close if we were playing horseshoes, shooting skeet, or any other colorful phrase you can think of where precision is not necessary.

So, how did we do?  A lot of the blog readers kindly stepped up and purchased the book, so try this one on for size: exactly $467.99!!!

Wow, I am really overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from each of you!  Your purchase will enable a lot of children and their families have a little bit of a better stay in what will be one of the most difficult and traumatic times in their lives.  If you missed the promotion, or want to learn more about the Houston Ronald McDonald House of Houston, just click here or type in http://www.rmhhouston.org into your computer’s web browser.

Thanks again!

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.

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.

 

The Kindle Fire How-To Guide is (Finally) Published!

Well, the project I was working on and thinking I would finish on Thanksgiving weekend was finally finished with the last round of proofing in the early hours this morning: I completed my latest book titled 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.

This book is a lot different than the other Kindle-related “how to” books I have published over the last few years – it is a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to navigate through each of the Kindle Fire’s tabs, perform the various steps associated with each tab, play the games, watch the music, read your books, listen to your music, and more.  I’ve also put in an updated section on how to find free Kindle books as well as new areas telling you how to get free MP3 music files, free videos, and free apps.  The tagline I put in the book’s description says “you may never pay another cent for Kindle content again” and I think that is true: by choice, I have only spent $2.97 on Kindle content this month while all of the apps, music, etc. I have received from Amazon has been free.

One of the neat things about this guide vs. my other Kindle-related guides is it is loaded with pictures showing the displays of your screen as we go through the various steps together.  That’s hopefully going to be neat for the purchasers, and neat for me now that it is done – but I will admit I said a few bad words during the process as it took me a while to figure out how to get the pictures “just right” by myself.

While I think the pictures in the book turned out good, I did the book cover last night and think it needs some help and will be working on it again.  That doesn’t change the functionality or content of the book itself, but it was either me do it myself or pay someone several hundred dollars and hope they got it right (since I’m an accountant and like the word “free,” are you surprised?).

Why am I telling you all of this?  I want you to purchase it, of course!  Actually, that is obviously a true statement but I need the book’s ranking to go up now for one simple reason: the higher the ranking now, the more people will see it as they start opening up their Kindle Fires under the tree on Christmas Day and over this weekend.  Permit me to be a little more obnoxious before I get to the more serious part of the post by saying you can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

Here’s the serious stuff: to give you a little incentive to purchase it, here’s one of my usual sweeteners: for every copy of this book sold over the next 24 hours (it’s 9:00 central time now), I will donate 100% of the royalties to the Ronald McDonald House here in Houston.  I’ve seen this facility and they do a great job: they are located right next door to the Texas Children’s Hospital, and it will bring a tear to your eye to see a lot of these children, and their families, and what they are going through when the child has a critical illness.  You can learn more about the Houston Ronald McDonald House if you click here or type in http://www.rmhhouston.org into your computer’s web browser.

So, that’s my offer: you’ll receive a (hopefully) great guide on how to use a Kindle Fire as well as the information on how to receive a lot of free books, music, video, and apps.  In return, you’ll help out some very sick children and their families as they try to keep the level of support up under some extremely difficult circumstances.  You can check it out if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/firebook into your computer’s web browser.

Thanks for reading this far!

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.

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 Kindle Thoughts (aka, a Rambling Post)

OK, I’m sitting here during lunch staring at the walls and randomly thinking of stuff I really meant to post about this week, but the Time Bandits visited and stole away all of my “spare” time (it’s been awhile, probably when I worked at the failed dot.com 10+ years ago since I have even uttered the Time Bandits phrase).  I’ve been pretty busy over the last few weeks working on a major project I’ll discuss in a later post, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

So, here are some random thoughts as you are wondering about what to read next as well as what to give as a last-minute Christmas gift (and I know most of you have a few more things you “need” to purchase).

Free Books in Amazon Kindle Store

There continues to be 300 – 400 new free books per day offered in the Amazon Kindle store: it’s way more than I can tell you about in individual, or even a summarized series of posts.  What I’ve been doing is looking through the new offerings each morning and trying to cull out the ones with little to no user ratings as well as a an attempt to provide a good mixture of genres so that there aren’t, as an example, 10 romance titles in one day (I’m also putting an effective ban on Vampire books – how many twists and deviations from the Twilight series can there be in this world?).

I may miss some that would interest you, primarily because a particular book may not have made my non-scientific cut of focusing on highly-rated books.  That’s why I created the search link so you can see all of the free non-public domain books being offered in the Amazon Kindle store.  I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: bookmark the link below:

http://amzn.to/bookload

I’ve received a couple of comments from people saying the books I am posting about as free aren’t free by the time they check out the offer.  Long-time readers will understand this next comment, but you need to verify the book is still free after you click on the link in my posts: there is no published schedule indicating how long a book will be offered for free – sometimes it lasts less than an hour, and sometimes a book will be offered for free for a couple of years (seriously).  I’ve been guilty of clicking the “buy” button without checking to see if the price is still free, also, so I understand how it can be frustrating!

 

Kindle Shipping Guaranteed Before Christmas

If you get your order in before 8:00 Pacific time today, Amazon will ensure delivery no later than December 24^th, and shipping is free.  You can always pay more for one day shipping and have it by tomorrow (Thursday), but I do like the sound of free.  Here are links to the four new Kindles announced in September 2011 (and allegedly most popular for giving this year)

• Kindle Fire – a full-color, 7” multi-touch with WiFi for $199 – click here or type in http://amzn.to/kindlefiretablet with your computer’s web browser to see it
• Kindle Touch 3G: a 6” Kindle with free worldwide 3G and WiFi for $149 – click here or type in http://amzn.to/kindletouch3g to see it
• Kindle Touch WiFi: a 6” Kindle with WiFi for $99 – click here or type in Kindle Touch WiFi to see it
• Kindle (new for 2011): a 6” Kindle with Wifi for $79 – click here or type in http://amzn.to/kindlefall2011 to see it.

 

Amazon Gift Cards

Gentlemen, this section is for you (and me, since I just did this personally 15 minutes ago):

As a stereotypical guy, I love the beauty and simplicity of gift cards.  With Amazon’s gift cards, I could theoretically get one and print it out with my home computer and printer on Christmas Day before I went over for Christmas lunch and the recipient would not be the wiser to my procrastination unless I confessed to it (not that I would do that).

In addition to printing them out at anytime, they can be emailed to the recipient.  Amazon is also offering free one-day shipping if you want one of the hard plastic cards and gift envelopes or boxes with your gift card.  Here’s your link so you won’t miss it and have a mad Aunt Dottie who is wondering why you didn’t bring her a present this year: http://amzn.to/tPKzX3

Have a great rest of the afternoon-

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.

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 November 2011 for the release of the Kindle Fire!).

 

More Free Music for Your Kindle and Kindle Fire

In a previous post (click here or type in http://bit.ly/rBm1Im into your computer’s web browser to see it again), I told you Amazon was giving away a free MP3 song each day in December through Christmas.  It is a different song each day, and they don’t tell you what it is in advance so you need to bookmark this link and check it for the remaining days of this of this month: http://amzn.to/decembermusic

I will admit I forgot about it until someone asked me about it today…looking at the list, I missed some good ones!

That also reminded me that Amazon has thousands of songs in MP3 format available for free each day – the list changes daily – but, again, the price is free.  You can click here or type in http://amzn.to/mp3tunes into your computer’s web browser to take a look.  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).

Why am I telling you this?  Well, your new Kindle Fire can play music, right?

“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 Tips.

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 November 2011 for the release of the Kindle Fire!).

 

 

Random Kindle Thoughts

I thought I would ramble a bit in this blog post, so please bear with me…

Kindle Book Lending Update

In a post on the 8^th, I asked each of you to please borrow one of my books for free from the Amazon Kindle store (click here or type in http://bit.ly/rZ2h5h into your computer’s web browser to read the post again) as Amazon was having a contest, and would be splitting up $500,000 for the month of December to all authors participating in the program.  Basically, Amazon will award a portion of that pot to me based upon the number of my books borrowed (the numerator) divided by the total number of books borrowed for all authors (the denominator), with that resulting number multiplied by the $500,000 pot.

I have no idea how many books have been borrowed for the denominator portion, or if I will get more than a few pennies because every other independent author is also participating in the program, but I did promise you an update as to the number of my books borrowed: as of last night, there have been 472 “borrows” of my books.  Some might say I had 472 lost sales, but I doubt that’s really true; if it were true, while $100 is a lot of money it’s not like it was really “lost” as I never had it from the start.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress – and if you would like to borrow one of my books, please feel free and borrow away!

Amazon Prime Program

For some people, one of the drawbacks to the lending program mentioned above is you have to be a member of Amazon’s Prime program in order to be able to borrow a book from Amazon.  You might be a member of Amazon’s Prime program and not realize it, or you may not know you can enjoy the benefits of the Prime program for free for a month…read on:

For those of you unfamiliar with Amazon’s Prime Membership program, the major benefits include:

• You receive free two-day shipping, or just $3.99 for next day shipping, on all purchases fulfilled by Amazon.  This includes more than just books and CD’s, but the really heavy items such as power tools and appliances.
• You can borrow one Kindle book from the Amazon Kindle store for free each month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
• You can have unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime instant videos.

I’ve been a member of Amazon Prime for several years, and it has more than paid for itself not only with the number of things I purchase from Amazon, but I have paid just $3.99 for overnight shipping of things that weigh over 100 pounds!

There is, of course, a cost to being a member of Amazon Prime: as of this writing, membership costs $79 per year.  If you order frequently from Amazon like I do, the Prime membership pays for itself quickly.  With the thousands of movies and TV shows available for unlimited free streaming, the cost of the Prime membership pays for itself even more quickly when you consider how much it costs to rent or purchase movie and TV episodes from Amazon or even Blockbuster.

Before you rush out and purchase a Prime membership, please note you may already be able to enjoy a free one-month membership: as of this writing, Amazon is giving away a free one-month trial of Prime to each person who purchases a Kindle Fire.  If you missed that promotion (maybe your Kindle Fire was a gift), Amazon will let any registered Amazon member try out Prime membership for free for a one-month period.

Either way, I highly recommend you try out the Prime membership for free – after all, you want to watch movies and TV shows on your Kindle Fire, and free sounds pretty good to me vs. buying episodes while you try out the video experiences on your Kindle Fire.

To check out the one-month free trial of Amazon Prime and to have access to the free movies and TV shows available for your Kindle Fire, just click here or type in http://amzn.to/primetrial into your computer’s web browser.

Christmas Holiday

I just wanted to give you the heads-up my family and I will be traveling for Christmas for an entire week, starting the afternoon of December 26th: I will be in areas that have limited Internet access and may not reply timely to emails or replies to posts, and I might be a little delayed on sending out free book offers.  I will, however, have posts setup to be sent in advance so it will be like I am still sitting in front of my computer and you will wake up to a new post.

Regardless of your faith or not, I do hope everyone has a safe and fun Christmas to New Year’s week, and here’s to hoping 2012 is a heck of a lot better than 2011!  I’ve enjoyed publishing this blog and having you as a part of my life, and I hope you’ve found some great book offers and learned a few things about your Kindle in the process!

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.

Check out our Facebook page and give us a “like” by clicking here or typing in http://www.facebook.com/fkbooksandtips into your computer’s web browser!

Read this Blog on Your Kindle Fire

I’ve received two negative 1-star reviews of the Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips blog in a row in the last 24 hours, making some wild claims that just aren’t true: they also happen to be the only reviews made by these two people on the Amazon website, and they are repeating several things across multiple places across the Internet.  Seeing as how they are hiding behind pseudonyms with some crazy claims, and from the tone of them, I have a pretty good idea who is behind the claim.

What’s the claim?  To summarize it, these two reviewers claim I have purposefully not allowed this blog to be available on the Android tablet / Kindle Fire market, with some other claims I am turning my back on lots of money, and purposefully turning my back on a huge portion of Kindle readers.  I’m as capitalistic as the next person, and I will take those 30 cent increments as long as they keep coming in (thirty cents, or a penny a day, is my cut of your 99 cent subscription fee)!

Folks, I have zero control on being able to have the download feature for this and any of my other blogs available for subscription purposes on the Fire like you can on the other versions of a Kindle. You might contact Amazon’s customer service department and let them know you want to have the capability of subscribing to blogs in a similar fashion on the Fire as you do on other Kindles.  I’ve contacted Kindle’s blog support team regarding the issue, but they have not responded – unlike the Kindle customer support team, which is excellent, the blog support team is rather non-existent.

There is a workaround to receiving this and other blogs on your Kindle Fire:

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 Tips.

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 November 2011 for the release of the Kindle Fire!).

 

 

The December 2011 Informal Kindle Poll

Each month for the past two years, I’ve started or participated in a monthly poll on the USA Amazon Kindle discussion boards asking people a simple question: what are you reading on your Kindle? I’ve received some great tips with past monthly polls, finding out what others are reading on their Kindle, and found some “new” authors I generally wouldn’t have found using my hunt-and-peck method. While I have certainly enjoyed the “mainstream” author suggestions over the past year, I’ve also enjoyed a lot of independent authors from each month’s poll I never would have heard of previously.

If you would like to check out the poll and find some new things or, better yet, tell others what you are reading, just click here or type in http://amzn.to/dec11poll into your web browser and start!

Here’s how this works – list a book you are currently reading or just recently read on your Kindle (insert the product link using the little button above the text box in the discussion forum so others can find it), whether you would recommend it, did you get it free, and anything else you would care to share.

I started this month’s poll by saying I had just finished Zero Day by David Baldacci; which overall I thought was pretty good – while there were a few scenes I wanted to say were a little unrealistic overall it was a good tale and much better than some of his later works. Kindle purists will complain I paid more than $9.99 for it but there are a few authors like Baldacci I will make an exception!   You can click here or type in http://amzn.to/rs8490 into your computer’s web browser to see it.

And here’s my standard continuation of each month’s request for prior participants in the poll: if you like or dislike a title you have read, in addition to telling us about it in this informal poll, how about writing a book review on the Amazon website? The review will certainly last and be visible a lot longer than this poll will. If you’re like me, you look at the customer reviews in order to see if you want to investigate a book further. Since we are all a little community here, and while I realize each review is each person’s opinion and we may not like the same thing, I know your friends and online discussion neighbors would appreciate your honest assessment of the likes and dislikes without providing a spoiler – I know I would! Your reviews don’t need to be a long dissertation of the book, I like to keep them short, sweet, and (hopefully) to the point.

Yes, I wrote a short and sweet review for the book Zero Day above: you can read and vote on the helpfulness of that review if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/uxf2pp into your computer’s web browser. I’ve read about half a dozen books since completing that one, and I am a little behind on writing my reviews, but you can see all of the reviews I have written if you click here or type in http://amzn.to/mpgreviews

Anyway, that’s all for now. Have a great rest of the 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 Tips.

Click here for my “Kindle Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts” book (updated June 2011).