When I first heard about Amazon's new "Netflix for books" program, Kindle Unlimited, I thought it sounded crazy. Who would pay nearly $10 a month, every month, for all the Kindle books you can read? I read through a few of the lists Amazon was using to promote their new feature and didn't see any of interest to me.
Then I looked again and thought, Well, maybe that one...And there's Life of Pi, I never did read it...And I love The Hobbit, I could read it again...and so forth until I clicked on the free trial. One month free to try it out. You can download any books regardless of price as long as they're listed on Kindle Unlimited. You keep up to 10 at a time, so if I have 10 and want another, a pop up shows your list and asks if you'd like to return one.
Amazon says 600,000 books are available on Kindle Unlimited right now. Not very many when you figure there's 2 million Kindle books. However, I'm looking for quality, and so far I've been able to find some pretty amazing books.
If I lived in the States, I'm not sure I'd go for it with the availability of libraries. But where I am, I can't run to the library and check out a stack of books-- in English. So when my free trial ends, I'll keep paying $10 a month for Kindle Unlimited. We pay $9 a month for Netflix and I don't watch as many movies as I read books. As long as they have good titles I want to read, it makes sense to me.
Have any of you tried Kindle Unlimited yet? Do you plan to?
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label libraries. Show all posts
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Monday, October 7, 2013
What Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writers about Success
Having just re-read The Tipping Point and Outliers for the third time, I was thrilled to see that Gladwell has a new book out. It's called David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants. Wow, sounds great! Especially knowing how Gladwell takes a subject and analyzes it inside and out, writing about it in a way that makes me think of new things in new ways.
But what I really appreciated about the Costco article is how Gladwell seems to epitomize what to me is the ideal attitude for a writer's success and productivity.
What does Malcolm Gladwell know?
He knows his audience.
"I write for people who are curious and who don't mind having their beliefs challenged. If you think going to a library is an exciting event, you will probably enjoy my books."
He knows how to write what he loves.
"People sense that I'm doing things out of pure enjoyment. I'm not pandering to an audience or following a formula. I'm just writing about cool stuff that interests me, and people respond to that."
Despite his astounding success, he knows there is so much more to learn.
"The more I write these books, the less convinced I am of my own inherent wisdom. I've convinced myself that I'm pretty bad at making sense of the world and need a lot of help."
He knows that money and acclaim isn't what it's all about. He never set out to write a bestseller.
"I never had any great desire to be well-known or to sell a lot of books. I've only ever wanted to do my own thing. and all of this happened just as an accident."
He knows where he came from, who he is, and it is all just fine with him.
"Canada is a deeply unpretentious place. You can't grow up in Canada and have all kinds of airs."
Regardless of where any of us are in our writing journeys, I'd say we can all learn a lot about success from Malcolm Gladwell.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Budding Author
I just got back from doing a library presentation at Pleasant Grove, Utah and there's this kid who I just have to tell you about.
This library does a Tuesday night book event for younger children. I talked about Farm Girl, two other authors spoke about their books, and the librarian interspersed it with bits about being an author, since the theme was "Author Night." (She was incredible btw, integrating what we said with her comments while keeping it all brief, interesting and on topic.)
So afterwards a boy (about 4th grade I'd guess) comes up to me like he wants to say something. And I say, "Have fun reading books!"
His response: "You mean writing them!" And he proceeds to tell me about a story he's writing about a magic train-- "I'm on chapter three!"
His little brother pipes up, "He already published a book when he was only six!"
The mom explains it's the one where you send off an illustrated story and this company binds it for you. (I remember when my kids were in grade school their teachers did that for them. So fun and exciting!)
I asked the young writer his name and he gave me first, middle and last. I'll remember it. One day I hope to see that name on a book cover.
How old were you when you first started writing? When you knew you wanted to be an author someday?
This library does a Tuesday night book event for younger children. I talked about Farm Girl, two other authors spoke about their books, and the librarian interspersed it with bits about being an author, since the theme was "Author Night." (She was incredible btw, integrating what we said with her comments while keeping it all brief, interesting and on topic.)
So afterwards a boy (about 4th grade I'd guess) comes up to me like he wants to say something. And I say, "Have fun reading books!"
His response: "You mean writing them!" And he proceeds to tell me about a story he's writing about a magic train-- "I'm on chapter three!"
His little brother pipes up, "He already published a book when he was only six!"
The mom explains it's the one where you send off an illustrated story and this company binds it for you. (I remember when my kids were in grade school their teachers did that for them. So fun and exciting!)
I asked the young writer his name and he gave me first, middle and last. I'll remember it. One day I hope to see that name on a book cover.
How old were you when you first started writing? When you knew you wanted to be an author someday?
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Library Fun & Games
Last night another author (David J. West) and I did a presentation at a local library. It was geared toward families, with me presenting Farm Girl for the kids, Uncut Diamonds for the moms and David presenting his debut novel, Heroes of the Fallen, for the older kids and the dads.
Several families, lots of kids, and a great time. Having raised ten children of my own in an environment of reading, books, writing and telling stories, I loved doing this event. It was the kind of thing my husband and I would have really liked coming to with our own kids.
It wasn't that successful sales-wise, but that didn't matter to me. Sales come and go, you win some you lose some. (Like followers lol, which I have just lost 2 in one week. What's going on with that?) What mattered was sharing the story of the little farm girl and the different life she had, with the country school, the differences in culture between then and now, and all that. What mattered was seeing how attentive these kids were to this story.
When I switched to the mom's part, I shared the story of how the cover of Uncut Diamonds came to be, then I asked how many were Irish? (None.) Raised Catholic? (None. And they're wondering what the heck I'm getting at. Good, I have their attention.) Then I say, "Looks like you're not my demographic. I've learned my demographic is Irish women raised Catholic. So you may not like Uncut Diamonds, but you can try it if you want." (Punchline. A lot of laughs.)
I'm here to tell you that this job (paid or not) can have unexpected rewards. There's more to it besides sales, selling books, money, success, fame, being on Oprah, having tons of followers on your blog (gosh, why did 2 leave me? What did I do? What did I say? Oh, please come back!) Wait-- where was I?
Right..uh...unexpected writerly rewards...and last night I experienced one of them at the community library in American Fork, Utah.
Several families, lots of kids, and a great time. Having raised ten children of my own in an environment of reading, books, writing and telling stories, I loved doing this event. It was the kind of thing my husband and I would have really liked coming to with our own kids.
It wasn't that successful sales-wise, but that didn't matter to me. Sales come and go, you win some you lose some. (Like followers lol, which I have just lost 2 in one week. What's going on with that?) What mattered was sharing the story of the little farm girl and the different life she had, with the country school, the differences in culture between then and now, and all that. What mattered was seeing how attentive these kids were to this story.
When I switched to the mom's part, I shared the story of how the cover of Uncut Diamonds came to be, then I asked how many were Irish? (None.) Raised Catholic? (None. And they're wondering what the heck I'm getting at. Good, I have their attention.) Then I say, "Looks like you're not my demographic. I've learned my demographic is Irish women raised Catholic. So you may not like Uncut Diamonds, but you can try it if you want." (Punchline. A lot of laughs.)
I'm here to tell you that this job (paid or not) can have unexpected rewards. There's more to it besides sales, selling books, money, success, fame, being on Oprah, having tons of followers on your blog (gosh, why did 2 leave me? What did I do? What did I say? Oh, please come back!) Wait-- where was I?
Right..uh...unexpected writerly rewards...and last night I experienced one of them at the community library in American Fork, Utah.
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