Quick Tip: ePub conversion!

Kindle gets a bad rap for not being able to handle ePubs (yet) but you can easily convert ePubs into a kindle ready format!

Check out retroread.com - a site where you can download books straight to your Kindle or register and use it to convert your epubs to Kindle format.  From the website:

There are four ways you can have a converted ebook delivered:

• To the RetroRead online library, where you may download it to your desktop or directly to your Kindle
• To your personal email address, where you may transfer it to your Kindle or read with your desktop client
• Directly to your wireless Kindle, where it will appear as soon as it has been converted. Amazon transfer charges will apply.
• Directly to your wi-fi Kindle address, where is will appear as soon as it has been converted (Free)

I haven't tested this yet but from what I read, it's pretty simple to do.  If you have any experience with it, let us know!

Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner has been compared with The Hunger Games, the incredible smash hit trilogy by Suzanne Collins that swept up teenage readers for the action drama and possible romance, and adult readers for the action drama and political dystopia.

Other than the fact that it involves a brave teenager trying to survive in a Glade with a Maze (compared with a brave teenager trying to survive in an arena), that's really were the similarities end. Of course, you do wonder what kind of world is this? Who could do this to kids? But that's not the focus here. Unlike other "dystopian" books where teenagers and/ or adults are deliberately put into Do Or Die situations  (Hunger Games and Bachman/ King's excellent The Long Walk and The Running Man), we don't get the same tensions in The Maze Runner.

Coming up: Blog Interview/ Kindle Lending

In the coming week, I will be conducting a blog interview with Catherine MacDonald, founder of the new website Kindle Lending Club - a site dedicated to the free lending and borrowing of Kindle books.

If you have any questions you'd like to put to Catherine, please leave a comment in the box below and I will try to include them!

Tip #49: Kindle Backup versus Synchronize

Kindles come with a couple of sync options: annotations back up and synchronize

What's the difference?
With annotations backup, the notes, bookmarks and highlights you make will be backed up by Amazon and stored. You can turn this option on and off within the Kindle.
From Home page, Menu > Settings, scroll to Annotations Backup and toggle the Turn On/ Turn Off option with your 5-way.

Synchronizing
If you've ever been reading a Kindle book and selected Menu, you may have seen "Sync to the Furthest Page Read".  That means your most recent page will be saved to any other device on which you have a Kindle application: computer, iPhone, another Kindle etc.
That's great if you read a Kindle at home and on your other device when you are out and about. Your last page read and your notes etc will be available. Same thing if you buy a new Kindle.... everything can be synchronized over and be an almost seamless transition.

A time when you may not want this option might be if you share an Amazon account with someone else. I share my account with a family member who also has a Kindle. So when she opens a book I have already read, it opens at the end and includes any notes I have made on that book. Sometimes I make a lot of them.

This feature can also be turned off but that's done within  your Amazon Manage your Kindle page. At the very bottom of that page is a link: Manage Kindle Device Synchronization where you can turn it off.
At this page is a note:

You should turn synchronization off only if:

• You and someone else are reading the same book, AND
• The Kindles are registered to a single account

A new Kindle Book Quiz - for your Kindle!

There are now games galore available for Kindle. Most are 'thinking games' - word games or strategy type, for example, but here's one that looks interesting.

Brain Bump Literature is a book trivia game, asking over 700 questions about literature and giving multiple choice options. What's interesting is that after answering a question, you get a choice to go to the next question or "Explore this question at the Kindle Store" . This latter link takes you straight to the Kindle Store to browse the book or related items.

This is curious because links in blogs and magazines only go to the Amazon website, not to the Kindle store, which I always think is a shame. I like reading review blogs on my Kindle and would go straight to the store and buy.

I downloaded the game, for the sake of a thorough review. So far my questions have ranged from Christmas Carol, 1960s poets, Twilight Series, Alice in Wonderland, John Grisham and Virginia Woolf.

This might be an interesting way to pick my next book to read.

Tip: Returning a Kindle ebook

I've never done this myself, but Amazon does permit returns of Kindle ebooks. If you are unhappy with the book, you can request a refund within 7 days of original purchase.Go to your amazon.com/myk page, find the book and under the actions tab, click Request a Refund.

I've only done it a couple of times, when buying a book by accident and I request the refund immediately. Other reasons might be for bad formatting - I usually get free samples to check formatting and to see if I might like the book, but if the free sample isn't enough, then it's great to have the refund choice.

Tip: Scrolling pages when adding to Kindle collections

A common question bringing people to our blog is - why can't I scroll pages of books when I am adding to collections?

The simple answer is that, when you are in a collection and you want to add books to it in bulk, you can easily scroll through pages of books and add as you go. From the collection, use 5-way RIGHT to get to the Collection Menu then click Add/ Remove Items.

Here's where people go wrong: although you use your UP and DOWN arrows to go through a page, you should use NEXT PAGE button to go through from page to page. Many people use the directional arrows left and right, but they should be using the Next Page button instead!

Review: Amazon Kindle 3 Lighted Leather Cover

After much debate, this is the Kindle cover that I bought for one of my children. I was drawn to it by its built-in light and small size. My daughter loves to read in the car at night so this was perfect.

On the whole, it's a lovely cover. It feels nice, fits perfectly to Kindle, is very neat and compact. The elastic wrap is sturdy & it's easier to use than some fasteners on other covers. The whole front flap folds back very well for one-handed reading.

The light is bright & focused, though a little stiff to move in and out. I hope that gets better in time.

The Kindle is held in with hinges, which work very well. I have those also in my M-Edge cover, and have always liked them. The inside of the cover is a smooth soft material.

Some downsides:

• If it were mine, I would like to have small card holders on the inside flap. I use mine to carry around a credit card and a couple of business cards, or to hold cards people give me when I am out without my bag. However, my daughter said it doesn't bother her to not have that feature.
  
• Without having corner tabs to hold the right-side corners of the Kindle, the device angles up a little. That wouldn't bother me, but it does bother my daughter so she does sometimes take her Kindle out of the cover to read.
  
• Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, the light distracts other people. Really, it totally depends on the angle it's being held at and where the other person is sitting. Side by side is okay, but if the other person is, say, on the other side of an L sectional, the light might affect them.  I tested it while driving: I was driving and someone in the passenger seat read with the light and I didn't find it bothersome.

On the whole, it's a very nice case. Pricey, yes. Its compactness is appealing and the most annoying aspect has been the slight tilt caused by the last of right corner tabs. I may come up with a way to add some though.

Kindle 3G versus WiFi?

In the older days of Kindle, 3G vs. WiFi wasn't a question we had to worry about. Kindle's came only with the 3G option and that was fine. That was also when Kindles were pretty darn pricey (I paid $360 for mine nearly 2 years ago).

These days, prices are much lower and choices more available. One such option is whether to get the Kindle WiFi at $139 or the Kindle 3G+WiFi at $189.

What's the difference? And what does it matter?

Kindle WiFi only gets wireless service where there is a wireless internet network. You may use wireless routers at home, for example, and you would use that network. Other places include coffee shops, hotel lobbies, some restaurants where "free wifi" is advertised.
This option is less expensive and when you download items or use your Kindle's web browser you're using a network that is being paid for already, so Amazon isn't picking up the tab.

This is useful when: you have wireless at home, work or school, or frequent places that offer free access.


Kindle 3G + WiFi - this gets wireless service in all the same places as above, plus wherever you might normally get a cell phone signal. Kindle uses AT&T to wirelessly sync so wherever they have service, your Kindle can connect.  Alternatively, if you have access to WiFi, it lets you connect that way.  

 - The cost of this 3G connection is paid upfront when you buy the Kindle, buried in the $189. You don't pay again unless you want to download large personal documents (which you can do for free with WiFi or using your USB cable). With such documents you paid by size.


This device is useful when: you think you might need internet access or to download books when you are nowhere near a WiFi connection, such as on the bus or train, sitting in a waiting room, on an 8hr car journey, at a ball game, on the beach or by the pool, some hotels (like rooms at the Marriott ggrrr) or B&Bs .... basically anywhere there's no computer network to ride off.

Personally I love having 3G. I've used it so many times that I know it's been well worth having. I bought my daughter the WiFi only, but I think I regret it. Sure, she's only 11 now, but in a few years she might well wish she had the 3G option. As it is, she's fine with WiFi only. It's fast, easy to use and since she mostly uses it at home, it works great for her needs. Maybe by the time she wants 3G we'll be up to Kindle 5 Color or something anyway.

Big Sale in the Kindle store!

Check out some of the huge savings in the Kindle store, with many books up to 90% off.

Larsson's Millenium bestselling series are just $5 each, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is at $3.99, John Grisham novels, some of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series , Eragon and many many more best sellers all coming in at $5 and below!

Lots of Kindle Freebies today!

Wow, there are loads of Limited Time Offers for Kindle  today!

From The Pressures of Teaching: How Teachers Cope with Classroom Stress available for free pre-order to Circle of Friends Cookbooks, there's also romance and paranormal and the The Holy Bible: HCSB Digital Text Edition - all currently free ebooks for Kindle or Kindle apps!

Even if you don't want them for yourself, you can gift them to anyone with a Kindle or Kindle app (PC, Mac, iPhone etc).

Or why not download them anyway?.... if there's any chance someone in your family or circle of friends might want to borrow an ebook through the Kindle loan program one day, you'll have an even broader library to share!

TIP: Put your blog on Kindle!

For those new to Kindle, you may not know that you can download blogs to your Kindle from the Amazon Kindle store. There are thousands of blogs published for Kindle, on every possible subject out there, from cooking to sports to humor to free Kindle tips.

They do have a small cost, most are 99 cents per month, a few are 1.99. Amazon set the price and they do come on a 2 week free trail to see if you like them. They are formatted a little differently to blogs on the web - you don't see all the archives, links or advertisements. You can get a list of recent articles though.


Want to get your blog out there to Kindle readers? With so many Kindles out in the wild these days they are a great way to gain new readers and even earn a little money from them. You receive 30% of the sale price, so 30 cents per reader per month on a 99 cent blog.

To set up your blog for publishing, visit kindlepublishing.amazon.com . Note that you cannot publish under your existing Amazon account, and do have to create a new account.

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