Before we go any further, it would probably be a good idea to take a look at exactly what the Kindle is and what it’s all about. To that end, Kindle began life as a hardware device from Amazon – though it has grown beyond that now. Today, it is the most popular self-publishing platform for authors to put their books to the mass market quick and easy.
History of the Kindle Hardware
The Kindle name was originally the brainchild of branding consultants Michael Cronan and Karin Hibma, while the device itself came from Amazon’s Lab 126. The first device was released in 2007 and looked quite different to the ones we know today.
Nevertheless, the original Kindle still set the tone for what we have come to expect from these devices. The main innovation with the Kindle is the ‘e-ink display’. This means that the display actually uses real ink, which is arranged on the screen as pixels, just in the same way that regular screens use pixels made of light.
This gives the device a number of unique advantages above and beyond more traditional e-readers. For starters, e-ink displays are matte and non-reflective. This means that they can be read in direct sunlight without any glare or eyestrain. In terms of the way reading a Kindle ‘feels’, it’s actually very similar to reading a real paper book.
Another big advantage of the e-ink display is that it doesn’t require any energy to keep on. Once the page has loaded, the ink remains in place with no further power. This means that Kindles can last weeks between charges and that an image can even be displayed when the screen is ‘off’. This made the Kindle a huge hit over other ebooks at the time which could be uncomfortable to read and which would regularly need charging.
On the downside, the e-ink display does have some limitations. One is that it is only available in black and white (for now) which limits the enjoyment of, say, reading comics. Another limitation is that e-ink displays are slow to refresh, which means they can’t be used to watch videos or play games. In some ways though this can be viewed as a good thing – it means that the devices will solely be used for their specific purposes. This focussed functionality ensures that people who have Kindles will be using them for reading.
Kindle devices vary in terms of their hardware buttons but most use two buttons on either side to facilitate turning the page forward and backwards. Both sides have both buttons to allow for one-handed reading. A d-pad with a selection button in the center is used for selecting menu items and browsing the store, while later models feature a touch-screen for keyboard input and navigation.
Some Kindles now feature back lighting to enable reading in the dark. All of them are designed to be incredibly light and easy to carry around.
Iterations and Models
Originally the Kindle was white in color with a 6 inch display and 250MB of internal storage. This original model also had expandable storage via an SD card slot and was co-designed with Qualcomm to connect to the web via 3G anywhere in the world. This first generation sold only in the US and was later updated with an ‘XL’ version that increased the screen size.
Kindle 2 hit the stores a little while later and was still white in color, now with 1.4GB of internal memory and a ‘text to speech’ option for reading music aloud. It was slimmer too and came to international markets as well.
The third generation of Kindle made the device a matte black/charcoal grey which would remain the chosen color. This edition came with a keyboard and was dubbed ‘Kindle Keyboard’. It also had an experimental ‘browser mode’ allowing web browsing up to 50MB per month anywhere in the World.
Kindle 4 did away with the keyboard in 2011, while Kindle Touch also launched with a touchscreen. The fifth generation launched in 2012 with 15% faster page loads. The Kindle Paperwhite meanwhile boated a higher resolution (near XGA at 758x1024) and a built-in LED for night-time reading. The Paperwhite is currently the dominant model is and currently in its third generation. The ‘Paperwhite 2015’ was released in 2015 (funny that) and has improved ability to display PDF files, allowing users to do things like select text. It also has translation capabilities, a six week battery life (when used for around 30 minutes each day on average) and better formatting capabilities (including a new font called ‘Bookerly’).
There is also a modern update to the traditional Kindle, the Kindle 7, which was released in 2014. This model is a basic Kindle with a touchscreen and has a 1 GHz CPU. Another modern model is the ‘Kindle Voyage’ which came out in 2014 with a 6-inch 300ppi e-ink display and an adaptive LED that responds to the lighting in the environment.
Kindle Fire
The Kindle Fire is a more traditional Android tablet that carries the Kindle name. This is a device that looks and feels a lot like your typical Nexus device and which has access to the Amazon App store. That means it can be used not only to read your selection of Kindle books but also to handle a number of other activities whether that means playing Angry Birds or watching YouTube.
Although the three Kindle Fire tablets are Android devices, they have a secondary ‘skin’ provided by Amazon called ‘Fire OS’ which makes them look and behave differently.
Unlike other Kindles, there is no 3G option for Kindle Fire and the screen is a regular tablet screen that can produce a fair amount of glare.
The Kindle Store
Perhaps the most important aspect of the Kindle is the Kindle Store. The Kindle Store is basically a marketplace and distribution platform that allows users to browse and purchase ebooks. This works just like an app store, or like the regular Amazon store, in that users search for titles using the usual search box and then just click to buy. Once they do that, the book will then download to their device and they can start reading it from their personal ‘library’.
The Kindle Store is actually bigger than that though. For instance, users can also download Kindle apps in order to access their Kindle books on their smartphones. With the Kindle app for Android and iOS, a user can browse their library and read their selection of books. At the same time, they can also browse the store in order to purchase new books. Books on Kindle devices and the app will automatically be synced so that you can stop reading on your Kindle, then pick up from where you left off on your mobile when you’re bored in a queue at the bank. This is important for us as publishers, as it means our audience is actually much larger than only the number of people who own Kindles.
Likewise, it’s also possible to buy Kindle books through Amazon.com. This way, users elect to buy either the physical or digital version of the book when they’re looking through the store. Subsequently, the file will be downloaded to the Kindle or they’ll be delivered the hard copy.
Books sold on the Kindle Store are available in ePub format. This format allows for certain additional features such as interactive menus and it helps to keep your books protected.
As on Amazon and most app stores, it’s possible for users to leave reviews about the books which can encourage or deter other users from making a purchase. This, as well as factors such as sales and keywords, combine to influence the ranking order of the books for different search strings. This is something we’ll be looking at in a lot more detail later in this book.
The Kindle Store has recently introduced a number of initiatives. These include a subscription service called ‘Kindle Unlimited’ and a rental system that allows users to ‘borrow’ books. We’ll look at what both these mean and whether you should opt in or out later on.
For us, the biggest appeal of the Kindle store is that it’s a ready-made distribution platform. If you can get a book to be featured prominently in this platform, then you can guarantee it will be seen daily by hundreds or thousands of people. People can then order the books without you having to lift a finger and they’ll be buying with one click, without you having to gain their trust first or manage their transaction.
In this way, a distribution platform becomes a ‘route to market’ and it makes the whole process of selling considerably easier. Now you don’t need to worry about reaching your buyers, gaining their trust or any of those other things. It’s like getting a product onto the shelf of a massive store and it’s one of the gigantic advantages of being a Kindle publisher.
Who Reads Kindle Books?
Now you know the basics of the Kindle ecosystem, you should start to have a good idea as to how your book will be found, read and enjoyed by other users. What you also need to think about though, is who will be reading your books and when. What is it that makes the Kindle so popular?
Understanding this can help you to better understand your audience and thereby to make more sales.
Of course there are countless types of people who use the Kindle and this is one of its major appeals – the Kindle is a particularly user friendly piece of technology. Amazon is such a household name that it’s something everyone can trust. This is important because a lot of older web users often worry about security when shopping online and this can prevent sales. At the same time, the Kindle feels a lot more like a book to hold and use and has a very simple and straightforward interface. As such, it is enjoyed by people who might not normally use tablets – a much wider demographic than most digital marketers are used to selling to. This in turn means that you can think a little wider in terms of your niche. Don’t just go for the same topics you’re used to covering online – think about things that Mums or elderly readers might enjoy.
The main appeal of the Kindle is that it can be easily taken anywhere and can hold so many books. This is the perfect solution if you’re going on holiday for instance and you want to read a lot of books without adding too much weight to your luggage. And because Kindles offer 3G anywhere in the world (depending on the model) you can even buy and download new books to read while you’re out there.
Holiday makers and travellers then are two of the biggest groups to read on Kindle and many people will dust their devices off mainly when they’re going on holiday. Think about this when choosing what type of books to write – if it’s something people would typically enjoy on a holiday (like a travel guide) then you might be on to a winner!
Likewise, a lot of commuters will read Kindles as a way to entertain themselves on the train/subway/bus. This again opens up another larger audience for your books: the professional. Think about the kinds of things that city workers might like to read and the kinds of things they’re specifically going to be in the mood to read on the way into work.
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