I bought a Kindle today because I could really use it for viewing word docs and PDFs, ironic isnt it? My POV hasn't changed, after all I read and all the reviews there seems to be no significant advancement over previous ebook views that have been dead in the water for a long time, with the exception of DRM that is exclusive to Amazon and the EDO modem which some laptop users do not need (I have an EDO modem for my laptop already). This is rev A technology, it has a LONG way to go before it wil ever be adopted on a large enough scale to make publishing for the Kindle a worthwhile endevor.

You need to publish ebooks in .Mobi or possible .PDF format so they can be used by more than one reader. Right now there is not a real standard, but you can use the .mobi on both the Kindle and the Sony reader. You can use PDF, but for the Kindle it has to be converted.

Ereadworld.com

Mason is publishing using the Kindle proprietary .awz format at this stage, if it is successful then he may revisit other options. We talked about it this evening over coffee, I just happened to have my Kindle on me.</div>

how long will it take amazon to convert the books to kindle format? i am dying to buy them. i happen to think very highly of the kindle...

BRAVO!!

I ordered my Kindle today (thank you Hollywood Park, Bellagio, Commerce and Hustler mid-limits players!) because my birthday is coming up later this month. I will tell the wife and kids that I want Kindle content for my BD. TOP, and to a lesser extent HFAP, would be near the top of the list. Would be nice to have Chen and Ankenman's tome, Mathematics of Poker on Kindle also.

Add to that the hundreds or thousands of classics that I would read . . . .

Hell, I might even give up poker!!

Mason,
Any idea on a timeline?

Thanks

No.

MM

I like books in any form, including ebooks. Of course I do; I hang out in this forum.

I go way back on ebooks for single-purpose reading devices to the Rocket(tm) Ebook. I loved the thing. Built-in light. Larger type if needed. Bookmarks. underlining. Instant delivery of books.

Unfortunately, the deep-pockets company who owned it (and TV Guide!) abandoned it. (They ran ads for their ebooks in TV Guide. I can't imagine that TV Guide readers are big book readers.)

Some people will find ebooks practical and even cool. But there will be many orphaned ebook formats as the companies that promote them stop. Maybe a heavy tax on book paper would help.

Even though our house is stuffed with books, my wife constantly explains to me how cruddy ebooks are. (We are going to need ceiling racks to hold more books.) So there is a strong resistance to change from book buyers. When I took my REB on trips, no one ever asked me anything about it. Then again, no one knew it was!

Its been a few months now and they're still not up on Amazon. I wanted to get the latest edition of Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players, so a kindle version is a good excuse.

Mason said that he gave Amazon permission to publish it.. does that mean that they are willing to do all the conversion?

I've had my kinde for awhile now and I wanted to point out some of the features that haven't been mentioned here.

Your Amazon account can be linked to up to five kindles. Which allows family members to share, while still protecting the publisher from mass distribution.

I did accidently delete a book and I simply logged into Amazon and requested to download it. And all my bookmarks and highlighted pages were still in tact. You can of course backup your books yourself.

Highlighting is really cool -- after I read a book I can browse a list of just those passages and click back and forth to the pages they came from.

Most books let you download a free sample. For some this is just a table of contents and a forward. For others it can be an entire first chapter. One novel I sampled let me read the first sixty pages.

You can convert files to Amazon format yourself for free if you don't mind downloading it via usb to the kindle, or for 10 cents a book if you want wireless delivery. You can also store them on memory cards and simply pop them in and out.

There are other sites that let you buy books via Amazon's whispernet, which means you can browse and buy on the kindle directly once you have an account. So you are not tied to Amazon as the only publisher.

I get a book a week in kindle friendly format from http://www.samizdat.com.

I won't buy a "real" book if a kindle version is available. I've started to wait a few weeks before buying a book to see if it will come out in kindle format (been burned once by pre-ordering and then seeing the kindle format come out afterwards). I'd love to see more kindle poker books. Nine business trips this year and all I take is one magazine (for takeoff and landing) and my very light/compact kindle. Love it.

i'm young and i would hate buying pdf versions of my college textbooks when i can have a physical book with pages. i agree with TT

TT,

Do you think there'll become a day that publishers feel more forced into using ebooks because of large disturbers pushing for it such as amazon and co?

I would have given anything to have my college texts in HTML format. Mark it up anyway you want ... hop around between related passages... copy and paste important passages for quick review. I rode my bike, so take all that weight out of my backpack. You can always do both for the books you would keep.

Wow, this is incredibly short-sighted, and seems to be based on the assumption that the ebook market will forever look like it currently does.

There are lots of valid criticisms of particular devices (especially the kindle) but ebooks overall are only going to grow.

Absolutely. I am very positive that the day will come where print is obsolete, but that time is not now. I have a Kindle, I love it, but its far from being ready for mass adoption. I'm waiting for the flexible reader from Hearst, they have been working on a bendable ereader for some time now that mimics paper both visually and also via tactile hands on feel. from what i was told 5 or so years ago when the buzz first started you will be able to roll up the epaper and stick it in your back pocket. I was told that Hearst's version will be tabloid size to accommodate newspapers (their main clients). Once a workable and affordable version of epaper is around then there is no holding this technology back.

timeline - 6 to 15 years, its still too soon to predict.

pvn - re-read the thread, I actually agree with you (except on the short sided part, since I was talking about now I disagree). Its too soon for 2+2 to jump in the ebook market head-first, but that date may not be too far away in the big picture.

Sony may give it some competition. Seems more flexible.

Maybe I missed something, but the only thing I see in the the Sony ad that the Kindle doesn't have is the led light and touch screen.

Meanwhile, the Kindle has the wireless download which makes it so much easier to acquire books (not just from Amazon, but other networks support whispernet). Not needing a computer handy, or to mess with plugging it in makes it much more convient, especially for those of us on the road alot and for those who don't always have computer access.

I don't understand what the risk is. Most books are in some kind of electronic format already. Amazon has software to do basic conversions, so the effort is miniumal. You're not committed to one electronic publisher, so support them all.. what's the point in hedging your bets?

Looks like they're getting close
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QCYJHG/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QCYJQ2/

I got the Kindle2 and absolutely love it. I'm an avid reader who reads multiple books at once. The kindle allows me to take them all with me in one small package.

We're not anywhere close to ebooks completely replacing print books. But there is definitely a viable market for ebooks, and readers such as Sony's offering, and the Kindle.

Mason, thanks for putting out a few of 2+2's offerings in Kindle format. I will be buying 'Theory of Poker', and I'm looking forward to the day I can get 'Professional No-Limit Hold Em' and 'NLHE Theory and Practice' on my Kindle.

*hint hint*

Thanks for putting up some of your books on Kindle!! I travel a lot. This is good for you money wise because I am the type to want both the paper and the Kindle version. So you get two sales out of me instead of just one. I suspect there are others like this as well.

We're waiting to get our first Kindle Sales report from Amazon, which was due a month ago, before we make any decisions regarding whether to go ahead and authorize Amazon to kindlize any of our other books.

Best wishes,
Mason

I have a Kindle question. I think I would prefer paper books over e-book because I am always writing notes and highlighting text, sometimes in multiple colors.

Is there a way to highlight text or make notes in Kindle books?

Yes.

Kindle

Which books are available? (Put your flame throwers away boys and girls) I tried to find out on Amazon but I kept getting the "tell the publisher you want this book in kindle format not which books are available.

Any update on this, Mason? Have things gone well enough to get more titles available for Kindle?

As far as I know, unless it came in the last couple of days, we have still not received the first Kindle sales report.

Also, work is progressing on our own ebooks and we hope to something up in the Two Plus Two Store sometime in August.

Best wishes,
Mason