The Kindle and self publishing

   Some interesting information I’ve picked up from Amazon in the last few days…
   Amazon now sells more Kindle books than hardcover and paperbacks combined.  For every one hundred h/p they sell they sell one hundred and five Kindle copies.  So much for the people who said eBooks would never catch on.
   The other item from the big A is that they now have their first million seller self published author.  John Locke, the novelist not the philosopher, has sold over a million of his books on Amazon.   I’ve not read any of his books yet.  I plan to.   His Kindle versions sell for 99 cents each, which certainly is a good bargain.   Most of his covers show very leggy girls from the waste down, which either indicates his books are filled with leggy girls or he's a leg man.   I will try one and report back.
   Speaking of bargains, I bought eight of the most famous Henry James novels in a single file for the Kindle for 99 cents.   The file is very well done as far as the text goes.   You certainly can't beat the price.
  Which brings me to pricing of Kindle books.   There's a new trend from publishers where the books seem to be priced just a few dollars below the discounted price of a hardbound.   For example, the novel Swamplandia by Karen Russell is bookstore priced at $24.95.   Amazon discounts the hardbound to $13.72.   The Kindle price is $12.99.   To make it even more ridiculous the paperback price is $10.17.   Will someone explain to me how the Kindle price can be higher than the paperback?   On the Kindle there is no printing cost, no shipping cost, no warehouse cost, no return cost.   Why do they think they should make more money on a Kindle than on any other distribution form?   The truth can be found in only one of two explanations:   The publishers are utterly stupid OR they are trying desperately to hang on to an outdated model.
   Let me look a little more closely at the self published books.   At least the price is right.