Most Fun Ever / Working with Guy Kawasaki

One more APE fan!

Of course, I want to thank Guy and Shawn for mentioning me in the acknowledgements of their book APE, Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. Before I get going on why it's so much fun working with him -- I must stop and ask you -- did you read his book yet!? Go get it!

We met when I worked on Enchantment since I was one of many other excellent contributors to the book and his social media push for the book. I really didn't know all that much about him. I knew he was an Apple Evangelist for the Mac. I knew he'd done 9 books before Enchantment. I knew he was smart, but I didn't know how funny he was, or how ANNOYING he can be.

Seriously, he is as annoying as some brainy younger brother who is always asking you questions about why something is done the way it's done and why not try something new.   I use the word "annoying" here as a high compliment, since he is relentlessly innovative. There's not one thing he takes for granted.

He's the original "push the envelope" guy and "think out of the box" guy and "why not" guy. I'd worked with him on his book Enchantment, met him online, met in person, connected with him on social media often, then worked with him on the What The Plus: Google+ for the rest of us and still, for some odd reason, had never heard him speak at any conference. He speaks at lots of events and conferences, and I was busy most times he was in town to speak, but then I finally heard him speak in Boston after knowing him for about two years.

Maybe I'm a little critical of speakers, because I was involved in putting on events and hearing many speakers at Harvard Business School Publishing and at TTI Vanguard. I figured he would be good. I did not expect him to be TERRIFIC. He's serious, smart, funny and hilarious at times. He also speaks the truth when it needs to be spoken, which most people don't do. So this makes him even more fun to listen to. Anyway, if you have been busy and have some good excuse for not having read his last few books, I forgive you, but go get them! Read them! Enjoy them! I know you will!

Kickstarter LIVE!

So here goes! I'm kicking off my Kickstarter project today, with a little help from my friends. It's called Founders Less Than Three and you can support it right here!

It's a novel all about entrepreneurs -- five CEO guys and five CEO girls and their teams are building new companies from scratch and racing to get funding.  Boston is the best place in the world to found a start-up and my enterprenerds come from all over the world.

It's early here in Boston and I am thinking about my characters getting up, washing their faces, getting ready for the day. It's 5:30am, so a bunch of them have been working all night at their offices at Kendall Square. It's just one of those things, you figure you'll grab the T in time to get home late and then you just keep working through the night instead.

If you haven't tried Kickstarter, this is a great time to join. You can support my project for as little as a $1.00 and there's no complicated sign-up process and all that. Have you ever bought anything from Amazon? If so, then that's all you do with Kickstarter -- it all runs through Amazon and you don't even pay for a month (and only if my project gets fully funded.) So try it out and be sure to peruse the other amazing creative projects over at Kickstarter as well.

Kindle Fire Test Drive

I loaned my Kindle Fire to a friend since she was thinking about getting one and wanted to give it a try. I loaned it to her a week ago ... and big surprise, she still has it and keeps coming up with good reasons to keep it longer. Makes me laugh. I knew she would LOVE IT! Who doesn't it?

Is It Really 5 Degrees Here? Great Weather For Reading!

Yes, this lovely Sunday morning started out at 5 degrees F... warming up now to 12. What a perfect day for reading. How about Dr. Zhivago?! You can get it here on Amazon.

ebook secrets ... shhhhh!

Leo Tolstoy, Age 20, 1848

Don't tell anyone I told you, but here are some of the secrets ebook lovers have discovered and do not want to share.  This is why they can't go back to books.

Secret No. 1:  No Glasses Required!

Know what this is?    Aa

You probably don't if you don't read ebooks.

"Aa" is the key on the Kindle that lets you set the font size so no matter where you are you can read WITHOUT putting your glasses on.  (That is, if you are myopic.)  And, let me tell you, once you get used to being able to read without having to go HUNT FOR YOUR GLASSES, it's very hard to get used to reading a real book again, where you can't change the font size instantly.  Like that baby on Youtube who thinks a magazine is an iPad, you'll find yourself whacking the paper book expecting the font to get bigger.

Secret No. 2:  No Lights Required!

If you have a dumb old paper book and you read from daylight into darkness, you have to either get up and turn on the light or go find a little clippy light.  With an ebook, you likely have a built-in light with the cute old Kindle cover, or you have the Kindle Fire or iPad which means the book is "lit" without doing anything.  Sounds like no big deal, but there are many times and places you want to read where turning on a big old light overhead is either very inconvenient or disruptive of others.  Ebook readers love not having to mess with lighting.

Secret No. 3:  Effing Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky 

If you read novels, and most ebook readers do, there is something so WONDERFUL about a quick search to find out who the hell a certain character is, with an unpronounceable  name like this one.  I mean, if you read Tolstoy and don't speak Russian, you are lost in a snowstorm of complicated character names.  Who can remember who the hell Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky is anyway?!  And you BETTER remember who Vronsky is, because he's Anna Karenina's lover and she throws herself under the train for the bastard. Not only does the plain old Kindle let you search the name, finding the first time it appears and other important data, but with the super cool upgrades on the Kindle Fire, it practically gives you all the Spark Notes info on the guy.  You start to feel less like a reader and more like a private eye.  What paper book can do that for you in 5 seconds?!

Secret No. 4:  Have I Got A Deal For You!

If you have a Kindle, you get so many terrific deals on books EVERY DAY, it's almost impossible to imagine going into a bookstore anymore.  I mean, maybe you could go into a bookstore, use one of their big comfy armchairs, open your Kindle and see what great books are on sale today at Amazon, download one in a split second and sit there and read, but that would be very rude behavior.  Can you honestly use a bookstore's chair, with no intention to buy their wares as you sit next to a hardcover book, priced at $19.95 or more and read the SAME BOOK in the e-version which you just bought for $1.00?! Please, be fair.  As the Ebook Wars rage, be polite enough to avert your eyes from the hopeless victims.

These are just a few of the secrets, I refuse to tell the others.

Help Wanted: Leader of Kindle and Print Book Editorial

Amazon posted this job on March 31, 2011.  Tall order.  Just think how much has changed in the world of books (and especially ebooks) since March, then you can imagine how difficult writing a five-year strategy would be! 

Job Description:  Leader of Kindle and Print Book Editorial

Amazon.com is looking for a seasoned executive to lead our Kindle and Print Book Editorial Team responsible for developing the vision for furthering Amazon’s position as a world-class book seller, and leading a team of Editors in the execution of that strategy.  The Director of Editorial is a newly created role responsible for the end-to-end Editorial vision for Amazon.com Books, he or she must have deep experience interviewing high profile authors and celebrities, and reviewing and creating compelling book content across all genres of Books, from fine literature to science fiction.  The Director of Editorial works with customers, publishers, authors and the press to ensure a best-in-class book experience for Amazon.com and its customers.

The key strategic objectives for this role include:
1)      Develop a 5 year vision for Amazon.com’s Editorial voice.  The strategy will incorporate existing Amazon metrics on book sales and customer segments, shifting patterns in customer shopping and online behavior, industry and competitive trends and will ultimately become the road map for how we talk with customers, authors, illustrators, publishers and the media.
2)      This leader will help innovate toward a better book buying experience. He or she will establish a best-in-class content experience, as measured by increased number of customers who purchase, the conversion rates at which existing customers purchase from us, increased customer engagement with us, and increased exposure in the media.
3)      This leader will innovate and develop new models for connecting with customers, helping customers connect with content creators, stimulating customer engagement with Amazon, identifying new and emerging sub-genre’s of books to introduce customers to, and constantly seeking new ways to use metrics and data to increase the likelihood of success.

The Amazon.com Books team interacts with over 100 million customers, 40 million books, across 30,000 publishers at any given time.  As book format options continue to evolve, and book publishing becomes increasingly easier for writers, customers look to Amazon to navigate the myriad Books available and help them find the exact book they are looking for.  The Director of Editorial plays a critical role in connecting customers with books in as seamless manner as possible.  The Director of Editorial is responsible for an Editorial vision that touches millions of customers and billions of revenue per year.
Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree is required.

• 10+ years of relevant book experience.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Existing relationships with the media, top authors, and publishers.

• Tremendous editorial credibility with readers, content providers, and the media.

Preferred Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience creating high profile book content, and is considered an influencer by readers, writers, and their peers:

• Creative, forward thinking leader with proven ability to innovate.

• Experience using data to drive decisions.

• Has hired and developed teams of at least 5.

Why I Haven't Written about the Kindle Fire Yet!

Go ahead and guess why I haven't written about MY new Kindle Fire yet ... maybe because I can't stop using it and watching movies on it and sucking down episodes of TV shows from it and reading books on it and all that.

The hardest thing to write about is what it FEELS like.  It's a great size and the rubber back and sides are not icy cold or slippery or sharp, like the iPad.  I've been thinking that maybe in a warm climate like California, the iPad doesn't feel so COLD.  Maybe in a crappy weather town like Seattle, they know everything about getting in bed and getting cozy with a book and a good cup of tea or coffee.  So all tech considerations aside, I love the way the Kindle Fire feels.

I'll be back with more soon.  Back to the Fire place I go ...

Kindle Fire Reviews

I'll post some of the new Kindle Fire reviews soon today.  Glad to see so many thoughtful ones like this one.

Yes, I Bought an Expensive Hardcover Paper Book on Amazon.com

It's true, the rumor is out there and it's true, I bought an expensive hardcover PAPER book on Amazon the other day.  Why?  Well, it's new, it's a great book ... and duh, as a Kindle lover and a recipient of a million great deals on ebooks on a regular basis thanks to Amazon, it's the least I could do. (And of course, it's not available on Kindle yet.)

See that's the thing, Amazon throws so many sweet deals your way as a Kindle owner or Prime member, you're fine with throwing some money for real books, or porch furniture, or some new software or hardware or a hundred other things their way.  Beyond that, you KNOW they deliver and you love it when they do.

I called my biz here BoOkBoX for a reason -- one reason is how much fun it is to get a BOX from Amazon delivered to your door and open it and find wonderful stuff inside. Another reason is, I think of a book as a little box of letters, all lined up in the way the writer decided they should be. A little Alphabetic Army of Letters waiting for the general to review the troops.

I wish they would make a little e-box as nice as their brown cardboard boxes, with some extra e-offers and stuff thrown in.  I'd love to have a little digital graphic of the cardboard box suddenly appear on my desktop, that I could open by clicking on it.  Please, Mr. Bezos, can't you gift-wrap my digital books too?

So a little box icon appears on my desktop and I click on it and it has a bunch of cool stuff (and a few free Kindle Samples and maybe a Kindle Single, I can say yes or no to with a clickable box)?  Real artists ship and you guys are real artists, when it comes to shipping!

*Picture Credit on the box:  Thanks Connor is Awesome

Kindle Tablet: Firing Up A Retail Engine

[Editor's Note: Now with more news about Amazon offering thousands of ebooks for free to new Kindle Fire users, I'm republishing this piece I wrote in 9/27/11 about how Amazon is taking the gloves off in the Tablet Wars.]

Everyone's excited about Amazon's launch of the Kindle Tablet tomorrow in New York, allegedly to be called the Kindle Fire. It will be an Android-based tablet -- another nudge in the ribs to Apple's iPad and a slight cozying-up to Google. There are all these variables that may help or hinder it from succeeding -- price, apps, hardware considerations, competitors -- but I think there is one big differentiator that makes the other factors unimportant.

I need to go back -- not too far back, but back to the day I got my iPad 2 last spring and the literal moment I started it up and registered it and learned how to use it.

I remember starting up other brand new computers -- both Windows and Apple -- over the years and the basic first steps always had you launching the operating system and connecting with a website. With Windows, you went through a bunch of Microsoft set-up screens and registered with a bunch of www.microsoft.com pages. With MacBook, off to www.apple.com you went.

With the iPad, you started with the iTunes site.

I remember thinking, "Wait, isn't iTunes a place to buy music?" What kind of new computer is this? And it all became obvious suddenly -- this is a platform for retailing. The iPad like no other computing device I'd owned before, was a platform for buying content.

And Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? The fairest retailer -- the most amazing retailer -- the leading edge retailer -- I do think the answer is Amazon.

So if you think the Kindle Fire is going to make it or break it because of Android or email or apps or all these other considerations, I think you are not looking in the right place. Look at that first set-up screen for the iPad -- and that means iTunes -- it's a store and as great a store as it is and as excellent a bunch of tools as Apple makes (and I love my iPad2 and my MacBook Pro) having Amazon as your retailing competition is seriously challenging.

Apple fan boys and girls feel free to disagree but on Wednesday, in New York, Amazon will be launching an ominous retail engine that just happens to be called the Kindle Fire. And it will be a retail engine that makes it easy as pie to buy a lot more than just music or books. And not to be overlooked, it will be very friendly to a massive audience of users who currently don't own an iPad or a Nook or any type of tablet, but love shopping on Amazon and have for years.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia, Amazon (picture of Jeff Bezos)

Cloud Nine: Kindle Fire

Amazon's little video on what Kindle Fire will do. Kinda makes you feel like you're on Cloud Nine, eh?

Amazon Offers Free Ebook Borrowing for Prime Members

Did you read the homepage announcement by Jeff Bezos over at Amazon this morning. It's getting very cool to be an Amazon Prime Member with all the content you can eat heading your way. As I wrote here last month about the new Kindle Fire being the ultimate retail platform, it's all coming true. Hat Tip to Dave Winer for the Twitter update on this.

Dear Customers,

Today we're announcing a new benefit for Kindle owners with an Amazon Prime membership: the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers — as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. No other e-reader or ebook store offers such a service.

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library features a wide array of popular titles, including Water for Elephants, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, and Fast Food Nation – plus award-winning novels such as The Finkler Question, motivational books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, biographies and memoirs including Kitchen Confidential, and Pulitzer Prize-winning books like Guns, Germs, and Steel.

We’re adding the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to Prime membership at no extra cost — Amazon Prime remains just $79 a year, which gives you free two-day shipping on millions of products, plus unlimited instant streaming of almost 13,000 movies and TV shows.

Steve Jobs Book Arrives Instantly!

Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs was on pre-order and it suddenly appeared after dinner last night.

Got the book sent directly to my Kindle last night around 9:00 pm, a bit earlier than the promised publishing date of today. It was fun to have it just populate my Kindle without having to blink.

Plowing through the book. It's nicely written and is frank about Jobs' difficult personality. If you knew anyone who worked for him, you heard he could be ... challenging.

Back to my book!

Finally, those heavy textbooks are going "e"

This is very good news for students. No more dragging heavy textbooks around. But why isn't the US leading this?

Here's a piece from the BBC by Gary Eason about the initiative in South Korea to digitalize the classroom in four years.

South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum.

By 2015, it wants to be able to deliver all its curriculum materials in a digital form through computers. The information that would once have been in paper textbooks will be delivered on screen.

South Korea's Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Ju-Ho Lee, said that his department was preparing a promotion strategy for "Smart Education", focusing on customised learning and teaching.

The project, launched during the summer, will involve wireless networks in all schools to allow students to learn "whenever and wherever", as well as an education information system that can run in a variety of devices including PCs, laptops, tablets and internet-connected TVs.

Here's the link for more: BBC: Digital textbooks open a new chapter
By Gary Eason

What we do here at BoOkBoX

We're just starting up, but we will be a great place to follow all the news in the world of ebooks, Kindles, Nooks, and catch up on all the many ways the publishing industry is going digital. Just like you go to TechCrunch for tech news, you can go to bOoKBoX for ebook news.

Like my new logo? Susy Pilgrim Waters designed it for me as we talked about how digital publishing is going crazy -- a veritable revolution -- and even the letters are scrambled and don't know whether they are up or down, upper or lower case. See the big ABC's behind the words "bOoKBoX" -- it's a big lower-case "a" in green, a baby "b" thats falling over backwards in puce, and a "c" that fell down on its back in dead grass green and looks like a staple. Even the ABC's are all mixed up.