I have a confession to make. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and it’s 100% in line with how I do things, actually, but still… it feels kinda weird.
What AM I talking about?
Just the fact that in the past few months I’ve been doing most of my reading – business and personal – mostly on computer screens and – gulp – tiny mobile screens. And get this – no, I don’t use a dedicated reading device like The Kindle either. Eeeeek! Sacrilige!
Now, I realize this may not be some earth-shattering revelation to you π but it DOES bring up a number of interesting and useful points I want to make to you. So here we go:
- No more physical books for me – unless it’s something I want to share and gift away (Amazon’s newfangled ebook lending feature doesn’t seem to be making much waves so far, unfortunately).
- Getting it right away – especially when it comes to business books – and I’d include motivational titles here as well – getting the book you need right now… right now… is priceless. when you need information, inspiration or backup, it’s simply worth actual money to get it right away.
- The convenience of syncing and going from device to device – I spend a lot of time in cars, subways, trains, airplanes and whatnot… so there’s simply a lot of ‘dead time’ in any given day – making it very convenient to just grab the most suitable device and continue where I left off, with whatever device I used before. It’s just there when I need it or have some time to dig back into a book. Let’s face it, most of us read in bits and pieces throughout the day these days, instead of in one go. so what would be better than a digitally embedded reading experience that follows you everywhere, with whatever device?
- Many (if not all) kindle books give you the chance of trying without buying – getting the first chapter as a sample makes it so much easier to know what it is I’m actually buying. And THIS kind of thing you really can’t get from physical books – unless you’re prepared to spend a LOT of time in the bookstore (if they even happen to have the titles you’re looking for – by no means a given these days).
- The price of digital books is much less than physical – often about half off regular – which is probably offset by me just buying more books π
- Finally – there are cool things you can do promoting your favorite books – check out this cool new tool Thinglink for visual affiliate linking (see images below). Can you see the possibilities?
Well, enough about my delirious experiences. π Check out the image below, and hover your mouse over it. You’ll see some intriguing dots come up, and once you move to them, you’ll see some details about the digital books on my iPod Kindle reader there.
Now, do the same hover-and-click on these titles on my Mac version of Kindle. If you’re not quite sure about this whole digital books thing, why not just install the FREE reader and download some free sample chapters on it?!
Pretty cool, huh?
So why don’t I just get a physical Kindle and be done with it? Well, point #3 up there has a lot to do with it. Tablet computing is another, which I won’t touch much this time besides just noting that the iPad is yet another device to sync one’s Kindle software on. π
Stay tuned, I have plenty more interesting things to say about the new mobile media, and the ripe opportunities there for marketers and authors alike. Coming soon.
PS. Once again – should you click on some of the links in this post and order something, I just might get paid a tiny, tiny commission and enjoy a quick espresso on some dastardly cold Helsinki morning on your behalf. In the event that happens, I promise to think of you warmly.
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