Selling books directly to consumers is an often discussed and seldom executed move within the industry. Publishing observers worried about the dominance of online retailer Amazon call for publishers to set up their own direct sales operations, which could theoretically lessen reliance on third-party retailers like Amazon and others. Publishers may be hesitant to do so because of the complexity of setting up such an operation and worries about angering the retailers by disintermediating them — foregoing the normal business-to-business relationship between publisher and retailer and going directly to the consumer.

Macmillan made headlines last year when it began selling a limited number of its books through its Tor.com science-fiction and fantasy website and F+W Media has long sold books directly to consumers through a suite of verticalized stores that sell books, ebooks and other products, many of them produced by third parties. Unlike both Macmillan and F+W stores, Rowman & Littlefield’s ebook store will sell books with digital rights management software, which makes it more difficult for users to copy and share the ebooks.

Per an announcement today in advance of next week’s Book Expo America event (below), Rowman & Littlefield said that its ebooks would still be available elsewhere through its distributors. At launch, 12,000 ebooks will be available.

[Press Release]

Rowman & Littlefield opens its E-book Store

Friday, May 24, 2013 – (Lanham, MD) – Rowman & Littlefield is pleased to announce that on the eve of Book Expo America, its e-book store is now open. The retail platform is fully integrated with the company website, which now gives individual consumers, all types of libraries and other businesses the ability to purchase and download e-books from the publishing company’s extensive list of titles.

At launch, around 12,000 e-books are available through the new platform which has been developed specifically for Rowman & Littlefield. It is closely connected with the publisher’s Unity platform for title development, which houses full title metadata and all the digital assets associated with each new book. This close integration means that the e-book version of each new title is available for purchase from the moment of publication.

Commenting on the launch, CEO Jed Lyons said: “Technology has become a real strength of Rowman & Littlefield, with robust bespoke systems supporting all of the processes that connect our authors with our readers. We know that our academic, library, professional and trade customers all value the ability to access our titles in every format, and this new platform gives us the capability to deliver books instantly to a range of devices including PCs, MACs, IOS and Android. The system uses Adobe Content Server to enable secure Digital Rights Management. ”

Rowman & Littlefield expects the platform to be used by individual readers wanting instant access to its list, and is also enabling libraries to use the platform within their institutional context. In time, the company also expects its distribution subsidiaries, NBN and NBN International, to be able to offer the platform to their client publishers.

Rowman & Littlefield’s e-books are also available through a wide range of distributors.

About Rowman & Littlefield
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. is one of the largest and fastest-growing independent publishers and distributors in North America.

The company publishes in virtually all fields in the humanities and social sciences and enjoys co-publishing partnerships with many influential academic and research organizations, including the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, American Council on Education, American Association for State and Local History, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. While celebrating our 38th anniversary in 2013, we will publish over 1,400 new academic, reference, and general interest books and 11 journals.

We also own National Book Network (NBN), one of North America’s largest distributors of independent trade book publishers and NBN International, a leading distributor of independent publishers in the United Kingdom.

The company has locations in Lanham, Maryland (headquarters); Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania (distribution center); New York City; Toronto; Boulder, Colorado; and London and Plymouth, United Kingdom.

Dubbed Helix, the new service allows Lulu customers to send their book manuscripts through BookLamp’s data machine which tells them how much their book is like other books in the same genre, what themes are present and how intensely.

Related: Visualizing Stephen King | Just How Sexy Is Fifty Shades?

“We provide useful, objective information about what your book looks like compared to the rest of the genre,” said BookLamp founder and CEO Aaron Stanton.

When BookLamp first developed the idea for this service years ago, it was thought that authors would use the information in conversations with agents and publishers to show them just how appropriate their book was for a certain audience in service of securing a publishing contract. With the rise of self-publishing, the service is now designed to give authors an idea of the market they’re entering.

What the service doesn’t do is tell authors what they may want to know most of all: Is my manuscript any good?

“We don’t do subjective analysis – we don’t say whether this is a good manuscript or bad manuscript,” said Stanton. “But, if this is a romance book that has magic in it and you want to know what percentage of romance novels have magic in them, we can tell you.”

The service has been in beta since March but will be launched more publicly at Book Expo America in New York next week. It costs authors $49 and currently it’s only available through Lulu but Stanton said that BookLamp is in the process of bringing it to other self-publishing platforms after it has gotten Lulu’s version up and running.

Related: Lulu, Vook and Others Compete for Authors by Adding Services

I don’t mean that metaphorically — I mean, if you visualize the various themes in his books, what would that look like?

Whenever the Book Genome Project analyzes a title, the computer creates a graphic that we refer to as its Thematic Currents. This includes a number of King’s well known books, most of which I grew up reading late into the night (likely later than my parents would have approved of at 13 years old).

So, in honor of good ol’ times from my childhood, I thought it might be interesting to share some of the thematic flows of a few of King’s titles. Let’s take a look… though, fair warning: These graphs do contain some spoilers.

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King:
We’ll start with one of the early King books, ‘Salem’s Lot. I only chose a few of its themes to display in the graph, since having too many gets very confusing very quickly. I chose Houses & Domestic Environments — typically one of the less interesting themes — because the Marsten House plays such a significant role in the story, and also because ‘Salem’s Lot deals so much with the concept of the safe and secure environment of a classic “My Town.”

You can also see the late appearance of “undisguised” vampires at the tail of the book.  For much of the beginning, the vampires are visible only indirectly; no one is doing obviously vampire-like things. In other words, much of the early portion of the book is setup; the ending is the reveal. Other well known suspense authors tend to do this, as well — this is a very significant tell for Michael Crichton, for example, who regularly led his books with long, technical introductions to the setting, right up until the world fell apart and you got eaten by a dinosaur.

Carrie by Stephen King:Carrie was Stephen King’s first published book, and one of his most iconic works. It’s been years since I read Carrie, but you can certainly see the main plot elements appear in these themes. Early on, in the famous opening scene in the girl’s locker room and the school nurses office shortly afterwards, you can see the rise and fall of school environments.

The religious themes are present throughout, but are most apparent when her mother is present. If you remember, her mother is extremely religious, and spends most of her time in the book either abusing Carrie, or insisting that Carrie pray for forgiveness (often, both at once). Finally, probably one of the most iconic elements — represented in red — is Fire & Arson. In the movie, the fire only really appears in the burning of the prom, if I remember correctly; in the book, it burns through the last third of the pages, starting at the prom and moving through town, even past the point of Carrie’s death to some degree.

Different Seasons by Stephen King:Different Seasons is a collection of four short stories, three of which were made into very well-known movies. You can clearly see the beginning and end of “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” and “The Body,” which later was made into the movie Stand by Me. The blue areas in this case are Prisons, and pretty easily define Shawshank Redemption near the beginning of the book.

Notice the small space at the beginning of the story where prisons don’t appear?  That’s Andy’s trial. I didn’t show it in the graph, but you see courtroom themes there, instead. Likewise, themes for Death & the Dead appear far more frequently in “The Body” — a story about a childhood quest to see a dead body — than in other stories. If we were to add the themes for Nazism to the graph, my guess is that you’d be able to see “Apt Pupil,” as well. On an aside, you can often see writing style differences between short stories, as well, as writer’s tend to have a specific intention between one story and the next.

On Writing by Stephen King:I saved what I consider to be the best for last. Not only because On Writing is one of my favorite Stephen King titles, but also because his mix of memoir and writing instruction are really visible in the themes of the stream graph. The pear green represents writing themes (the most visible block), and you see a noticeable increase in this theme as King moves from memoir to “how to” writing instructions about a third into the book.

What you’re seeing is that King begins On Writing talking about his career, shifts into a discussion of his childhood and how he got started writing, and then moves to discuss writing mechanics. When talking about his childhood and first forays into writing, the pure writing themes give way somewhat to school and education themes, and — though I didn’t include it in this graph — newspaper themes (not only did he write for a newspaper, at one point, but ran his own newsletter-like paper for a bit out of his basement).

If you look closely, you can even see where the financial themes come into play, as he describes both the hardship and successes of his life after having kids and the purchase of the paperback rights to Carrie.

Last night, news came out that Judge Denise Cote, who is presiding over the U.S. vs. Apple ebook price-fixing trial set to start the week after next said, “I believe that the government will be able to show at trial direct evidence that Apple knowingly participated in and facilitated a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, and that the circumstantial evidence in this case, including the terms of the agreements, will confirm that.”

According to Reuters (which has some of the best reporting on this saga so far), Judge Cote hasn’t read all of the evidence (outrageous, given her prediction) but did stress that her premonition wasn’t final (a relieving qualifier that feels like a band-aid on a severed leg).

[Insert reference to film Minority Report.]

While Reuters calls the move “unusual,” I have not yet spoken to any lawyers or those who might know about how unusual it really is. Perhaps it’s not so out of the ordinary for a judge to predict the future like that about a case over which she is presiding.

I have several emails out to lawyers who might be able to shed light on this. I will update this post as necessary.

UPDATE: Several lawyers, including a litigator who has knowledge of such matters, have responded to me privately and strictly off the record due to the sensitive nature of this case. Apparently, given that Judge Cote has seen some of the evidence and much of it has been made public, it’s not “outrageous” that she shared her views thus far with the lawyers for the plaintiff and defendant. That said (and digested), it still offends my sense of fairness.

Disclaimer: I have no strong opinion on who should win the upcoming trial between Apple and the U.S. over the issue of ebook price fixing. My tone of outrage in this short post is based entirely on my sense of justice. It’s simplistic, but I just imagine going into the principals office to settle a dispute with a fellow classmate (let’s call him Eric Holder) and having the principal say before she hears what has happened, “well, I haven’t heard what has happened, but I think Eric Holder is probably right.” Now, in terms of my opinion of who will win, if I were a betting man, I’d bet that the U.S. will win, and I’ll give you odds, too. 

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The rest of the day’s top news:

 
Open Road’s Directions (paidContent)
It’s unclear whether Open Road Media, the splashy digital publishing start-up, is profitable or on its way to recouping $15 million in investor backing, but it’s still kicking and expanding. The company offers six lessons for the digital publishing age.  
 
Simon & Schuster Partners on New Shakespeare Apps (DBW)
Perhaps taking a cue from Sourcebooks, which is selling The Shakespearience interactive Shakespeare apps, Simon & Schuster has partnered with Folger Shakespeare Library to create a set of interactive Shakespeare apps of its own.
 
What It’s Like to Work in Biz Dev at a Publishing House (Pub Trends)
Business development isn’t a typical career path in publishing like editorial or publicity but it’s one that’s on the rise with new hires and promotions at major publishers. Find out what it’s all about.
 
Ruckus Gets Grant to Build New Collaborative Reading Technology (DBW)
Children’s reading platform and publisher Ruckus Media has gotten a grant from the National Science Foundation to create technology that would allow parents to read digitally together even if they were not in the same location.
 
When Children’s Print Goes Digital (DBW)
StorySticker is a new technology that allows parents to record themselves reading a print children’s book and then attach that digital recording to a specific print edition that can be read at bedtime over and over again, even if mom and dad aren’t around.
 
Shindig and DBW Partner to Bring Exclusive Event to the Web (DBW)
The DBW/Workman/AAP networking and panel discussion event next month on women in publishing careers sold out in two days. Limited space and high interest were the culprits. So, we partnered with Shindig to bring you the next best thing. Participants will be able to ask questions of the panel, network with each other and get an exclusive Q&A.
 
Tolino Now Carries Self-Published Ebooks (The Digital Reader)
Tolino, the new e-reading and ebook retail company from Germany will now carry self-published ebooks from Holtzbrinck-owned ePubli.
 
Alternate Routes for E Ink (The Digital Reader)
The company best known for its e-reader screens needs to diversify as e-readers are slowly (and depressingly) headed the way of the dodo.  
 
In Case You Missed It: Your Self-Publishing Questions Answered (The Book Designer)
The Book Designer gets an avalanche of questions on self-publishing every day. Here is a bevy of answers. Authors, self-publishers, indie publishers, big publishers: Build better ebooks! Related: Avoiding Ebook Casualties – The Importance of Quality Assurance.
 
Borders: From the Department of Sad (PW)
One set of Borders creditors that won’t get paid out anything in its bankruptcy: Gift-card holders. Borders had about $210.5 million in unredeemed gift cards when it went belly up. That’s a couple million books that will never get bought.

 
 

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DIVERSIONBOOKS Brings Working Partners Titles to International eBook Market

Diversion Books has signed a deal with British fiction packager Working Partners to publish a number of YA and adult titles in digital formats. Diversion will release six books to start, ranging in genre from YA to chicklit to crime novels, with an expected launch date in July of this year. Diversion will act as a full-service publishing partner for Working Partners, handling all aspects of production, distribution, and marketing worldwide for the eBooks.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled about this collaboration,” says Mary Cummings, editorial director of Diversion Books. “Working Partners has an incredibly strong list of titles that have enjoyed immense success internationally, and we are hard-pressed to find a resource with such an abundance of more engaging and diverse content.”

Chris Snowdon, Managing Director of Working Partners says “The growth of e-reading has opened up new ways to publish and we are thrilled to be partnering with Diversion to make a selection of our titles available to readers. Diversion’s team members are proving themselves to be experts in this arena and we look forward to developing the sort of long and mutually successful relationship with them that we enjoy with our many other publishing partners worldwide.”

###

ABOUT WORKING PARTNERS: Working Partners has created some of the most recognized series in children’s fiction since 1994, with strong showings in the young adult and adult fiction markets as well. Working Partners has approximately 100 published projects consisting of over 1000 books, including the Warriors and Beast Quest series, which have each sold in excess of 10 million copies.

ABOUT DIVERSIONBOOKS: Diversion Books is a premier eBook publishing company headquartered in New York City marketing original and backlist works from quality authors. Partners include major media companies such as the Washington Post and Time Inc., many major literary agencies across the nation, as well as independent authors, bringing both backlist and original titles to market with an innovative approach.

While vastly different from the Put Me in the Story platform, which puts the child into a digital book, both aim at customizing reading experiences for children. And there are other platforms out there that allow parents to record themselves reading along with a children’s book for when they are separated from their children, like A Story Before Bed.

A new grant from the National Science Foundation given to children’s platform and publisher Ruckus Media aims to build technology that will allow parents and children to read digital books together even when they’re apart. .

[Press Release]

Introducing StorySticker, the Next Generation of Customized Children’s Audio Book Technology

stkr.it, LLC – built StorySticker turns any children’s book into a personal audio book, launches at BEA

Ann Arbor, MI based software company, stkr.it, LLC today announced that it will launch it’s new StorySticker product line at BookExpo America in New York on May 30th at the Jacob Javits Center. StorySticker is the next generation of children’s audio book technology that enables anyone to create their own personal children’s audio book for the little ones in their life.

“The joy of reading a physical book with a child is universal,” said Mike Newman, President of stkr.it, LLC. “StorySticker creates that joy for out of town grandparents and traveling parents – anytime, anywhere. With StorySticker, any children’s book can become a personal audio book.”

StorySticker makes recording any children’s book simple, easy and fun. The StorySticker audio book works through the combination of a free mobile app (available for Android, iPhone and iPad) or the StorySticker website and a unique coded sticker that attaches to the inside of any children’s book. Any adult who wants to record themselves reading a children’s book can purchase the stickers at a retail bookseller and follow the fun and easy prompts in the app to record an audio book. The recording is forever linked with their StorySticker which is then placed in the book itself. The personal audio book is played back by scanning the StorySticker code or selecting the book from your app library – and the child simply listens and follows along!

StorySticker recordings are saved for a lifetime, turning the book into a family keepsake. “The response and participation we’ve had from parents, grandparents, retailers – and children – during the development of StorySticker has been overwhelming,” Mike Newman added. “Reading real, physical books to children is so important to parents and we’ve created a product that keeps the focus on the physical book, not the digital screen.”

StorySticker will be available at retail booksellers and gift stores across the US and Canada this summer. If you would like a sample please email: scott.evans@stkr.it

###

About stkr.it, LLC
StorySticker was developed by stkr.it, LLC, the innovative developer of products and services that empower individuals to connect their digital and physical worlds. stkr.it products are available online (www.stkrit.com) and through retailers across the United States and Canada. sktr.it also partners with leading consumer-products companies, including CSS Industries and the McCall Pattern Company. They are headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI.

To accommodate all those people who wanted to attend the event but are unable to because of space considerations, DBW has partnered with Shindig to bring the event to an online audience. The Shindig video event platform will allow users to view the event, network with each other and ask questions of the panel. There will also be a Shindig-exclusive question and answer session with some of the event participants and attendees.

To register for this online experience, click here.

Related:

– New Kids Digital Reading Platform Promises Education and Discovery

– Ruckus Launches Its Next Generation Digital Reading Platform

[Press Release]

Ruckus Media Group, an independent family entertainment company, has received a grant from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) to build Read Together While Apart ™ (RWTA) Technology, a collaboration infrastructure that will run on networked mobile and non-mobile devices and supports a parent and their child reading Ruckus’ eBooks together and playing interactive games in the eBook while the parent and the child are not in the same location.

Academic research supports the observation that when a parent and a child are together, the parent can help the child with his/her reading and improve literacy skills. NSF awarded Ruckus the grant to address the positive contributions that collaboration provides in learning to read and to construct and install functionality inside an interactive eBook that enables the co-activity.

The challenge to collaborative learning comes when the parent is not co-located with the child — when a parent is away from the family home serving in the military or on a business trip, for example. Currently eBook platforms do not provide the opportunity for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to work, in real time, with non-mobile devices like desktop and laptop computers; by automating the process and tapping into the growing ubiquity that networked, mobile technology can address, Ruckus’ RTWA technology will provide a parent and child with the experience of being co-located so they can take advantage of the value of synchronous collaboration.

In addition, RTWA Technology, developed in consultation with Elliot Soloway, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan School of Education and Cathleen Norris, Regents Professor, University of North Texas can support a parent/guardian helping his/her child to learn to read (or vice versa in some cases) and will provide parent resources, scenario-based materials that will describe, in words, pictures and videos, specific ways to interact with children using the Read Together While Apart technology to effectively exploit the technology.

“Nothing fosters literacy like parents, caregivers and kids reading and sharing books together,” says Jason Root, Ruckus’ Chief Content Officer. “Storytelling has a rich read-along, read-out-loud heritage. We are honored to have been selected by the NSF to further our idea of utilizing proprietary mobile technology to create remote read-together experiences in real time. Parents may be separated from their children due to military or business assignments or divorce, and grandparents often live in different states or countries — yet they all want to read with their children. Our goal, simply, is to keep families connected through reading, whether they are physically co-located or not.”

Ruckus Media Group has a proven record of creating award-winning, innovative interactive storybooks, and the company’s passion to entertain and educate children while supporting reading and literacy progress drives all its efforts. Recently, Ruckus announced a partnership with Connecticut Public Television to create a station-branded content delivery and mobile engagement platform for CPTV, with plans to incorporate the RTWA technology into the offerings within this platform as well as those developed for public broadcasting stations nationwide.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year 2012, its budget is $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

ABOUT RUCKUS MEDIA GROUP

Ruckus Media Group creates award-winning interactive applications for mobile devices designed to entertain and educate children. Its latest release, the Ruckus app, delights children with interactive storybooks featuring favorite brands (Hasbro, Crayola, SeaWorld); ReadAlong eBook versions of celebrated titles (Curious George, The Polar Express); original content from top names in entertainment (Butch Hartman, The Wiggles); and Video episodes from the best in children’s TV and music (Sid the Science Kid, The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!, KidzBop). Parents are provided with feedback on their child’s experiences within the application, including time spent, and reading tips from educators and parents. Since the company’s launch, Ruckus has been recognized with more than 30 parenting and app awards, including a Mom’s Choice Gold Award for the #1 iTunes bestselling “My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day,” based on the ever-popular Hasbro toy characters and a Kidscreen iKids award for the Crayola Ruckus Readers, among many others.

For a full listing of titles and additional information, please visit our website as well as the Ruckus at the App store and follow Ruckus on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” Now Available for Pre-Order for Customers in over 170 Countries Around the World, Shipping June 13

Kindle Fire HD—with a stunning custom 7” or 8.9” HD display, ultra-fast Wi-Fi, and exceptional battery life—perfect for web browsing, apps, games and books

Instant access to the most popular apps and games, including Where’s My Perry?, Pinterest, NBA JAM, and Asphalt 7—each one optimized for Kindle Fire HD

Today Amazon announced that Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” are now available to customers in over 170 countries and territories around the world for pre-order through Amazon.com, giving customers access to millions of apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines, including more than 300,000 books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.

“Not only does Kindle Fire feature advanced hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our content ecosystem, great email and browsing and top-rated customer service, we hope people around the world will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best tablet for an incredible price.”
Designed for entertainment, Kindle Fire HD is perfect for web browsing, apps, games and books. Features include:

Stunning customized HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter and customized laminated touch sensor for 25% less glare with rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle; ideal for movies, apps, and gaming.
Custom Dolby audio and dual stereo speakers for crisp, rich sound.
The most popular apps and games.
Ultra-fast web browsing and streaming with built-in dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi.
Front-facing HD camera for taking photos or making video calls.
Exceptional battery life—Kindle Fire HD gets over 10 hours of battery life.
Easy-to-use e-mail, calendar, and contacts for work or home, including Gmail, Hotmail, Exchange, and more.
Amazon-exclusive features like, Whispersync for Voice and Whispersync for Games.
“Buy Once, Read Everywhere” with the free Kindle app available on the largest number of platforms so customers can use their Kindle books on any of their devices.
Amazon’s top-rated, world-class customer service.
“Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to even more customers around the globe today,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Not only does Kindle Fire feature advanced hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our content ecosystem, great email and browsing and top-rated customer service, we hope people around the world will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best tablet for an incredible price.”

Kindle Fire is a Service

Kindle Fire is more than just great hardware—it’s a service. When a customer orders a Kindle Fire, it arrives pre-registered to their Amazon account and greets them by name. All of the customer’s Kindle content is there waiting for them to download and start enjoying—no long set-up process, and no syncing with a cable. Kindle Fire also comes with instant access to Amazon’s digital content right from the device, including all of the features customers love about shopping on Amazon—customer reviews, one-click purchasing and more. Whenever customers shop on Amazon, or buy a Kindle they know that they are also getting Amazon’s world-class customer service. Customers have been shopping on Amazon for over 15 years, and they continue to do so because of the unparalleled, end-to-end customer experience.

Arrives Pre-Registered

Kindle Fire HD comes automatically pre-registered so customers can immediately start enjoying their digital content purchased from Amazon or shop for new content.

Connect with Bluetooth and HDMI

Kindle Fire HD supports Bluetooth, enabling customers to connect their wireless Bluetooth headphones or Bluetooth speakers to listen to songs or audiobooks. With Bluetooth connectivity, customers can also easily connect to a wide range of Bluetooth-enabled keyboards. HDMI out makes it easy for customers to connect Kindle Fire HD to their big-screen TV to enjoy their favorite videos and photos.

Stunning Custom HD Display

The 8.9” display on Kindle Fire HD features an incredible 254 pixels per inch with a resolution of 1920×1200, meaning that pixels are indistinguishable to the human eye. The 7” Kindle Fire HD features a stunning HD display with 1280×800 resolution that delivers deep, detailed contrast and rich, natural color. Kindle Fire HD a laminated touch sensor to reduce glare and make the display easy to view even in overhead light, and an Advanced True Wide polarizing filter that results in a display that shows the same deep contrast and rich, detailed color from any angle.

High-End Laptop-Quality Wi-Fi—Fast Downloads and High-Speed Streaming

Kindle Fire HD comes with dual-band Wi-Fi and can automatically switch between the 2.4 GHz network and the less crowded 5 GHz network, resulting in better range and less interference.

Stay in Touch with Front-Facing HD Camera

Kindle Fire HD features a front-facing HD camera. Skype created a customized app tailored for Kindle Fire HD that is ready to use out of the box for free HD video calls at home and abroad. Kindle Fire HD makes it easy for the over 250 million customers already using Skype to get in touch with friends and family.

Email and Calendar

The Kindle Fire family features world-class Microsoft Exchange integration, with fine-tuned performance on many of the most critical email functions. For example, typical Exchange accounts sync with the oldest emails first, ending with the most recent emails—Kindle Fire instead syncs with newer emails first, then with older emails, getting customers access to the most recent emails they are looking for. Kindle Fire also features a new calendar app, making it easy for customers to stay connected and keep track of their schedules. The new email client offers support for the world’s most popular email providers—including Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Hotmail and more.

Photos Brought to Life

Photos come alive in stunning high-resolution on Kindle Fire HD. Fire’s mosaic view arranges personal photos beautifully, and customers will be delighted to see their best shots on their TV with HDMI out. Kindle Fire lets customers easily import their photos from Facebook and because their photos are securely stored in the Amazon cloud, they never have to worry about losing their favorite pictures.

Millions of Apps, Games, Books, Audiobooks and Magazines

Kindle Fire provides customers an incredibly large selection of digital content, including thousands of exclusives:

Instant access to the most popular apps and games, including Where’s My Perry?, Pinterest, NBA JAM, and Asphalt 7—each one optimized for Kindle Fire HD.
Millions of books, including over 300,000 titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store. Over 650,000 books are priced at $4.99 or less; over 1.2 million are $9.99 or less. Hundreds of magazines and newspapers—including Vogue, Esquire, National Geographic and Better Homes and Gardens—with glossy full-color layouts, HD photography, and beautifully detailed illustrations.
Over 100,000 professionally-narrated audiobook titles available, with free samples to listen to before buying.
16 or 32 GB of On-Device Storage, Plus Free Cloud Storage for Amazon Content

Kindle Fire HD is available with 16 GB or 32 GB of on-device storage. This large on-device storage capacity is in addition to the free storage Amazon provides for Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud. Amazon digital content is automatically backed up for free in the Amazon Cloud’s Worry-Free Archive where it’s available anytime.

Powerful World-Class Processor—Snappy and Smooth

An HD display and HD content must be driven by a powerful processor and optimized software. The Kindle Fire HD family features world-class processors and an Imagination Technologies graphics engine for lightning-fast HD graphics and excellent fluidity. The 8.9” Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation OMAP4 4470 processor and Imagination SGX544 graphics engine capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second, and both Kindle Fire HD 7” and 8.9” come with higher memory bandwidth than Tegra 3. Combining the latest generation processors with significant customization of the Kindle Fire software by Amazon engineers results in a snappy and smooth experience for the user.

Dual Stereo Speakers and Exclusive Dolby Audio

Kindle Fire HD combines dual stereo speakers with the Dolby Digital Plus audio platform—the standard in high-performance audio—to offer a world-class audio experience. Dolby’s audio suite for Kindle Fire HD includes technology used to adjust volume and deliver easy-to-understand dialogue, and also optimizes for headphones versus speakers. All of these pieces combine to create an exceptional audio experience that results in clear, crisp and balanced sound quality.

10 Hours of Battery Life

Kindle Fire HD is optimized to deliver high performance without sacrificing battery life, delivering over 10 hours of battery life.

Thin and Light

Even with a custom display, a powerful processor, extra speakers and dual-band/dual-antenna Wi-Fi, Kindle Fire HD 8.9” weighs only 20 ounces and is just 8.8 mm thin.

Beautiful Leather Covers

Covers for Kindle Fire HD feature a premium textured leather exterior in a variety of colors and a subtle woven nylon interior to provide our lightest and thinnest form of protection. The integrated magnetic clasp ensures the cover remains securely closed while in a backpack, purse, or briefcase. The cover automatically wakes Kindle Fire HD upon opening and puts it to sleep when closed, making it easy to dive right back into whatever content a customer is enjoying.

Customers can discover full details and order Kindle Fire HD at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.

Pricing and Availability

Kindle Fire HD 8.9” is available for preorder starting today for just $284 at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.

Kindle Fire HD 7” is available for preorder starting today for just $214 at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.

Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” will be available for order and ship June 13 to customers in Ireland and Gibraltar from www.amazon.co.uk; for customers in Austria and Luxembourg from www.amazon.de; and for customers in Monaco from www.amazon.fr.

Kindle Fire HD is also available at various retailers around the world. Customers can discover stores and location at www.amazon.com/KindleRetailers.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is our most-advanced e-reader with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design. The latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD features a stunning custom high-definition display, Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end, laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support, dual-antennas and MIMO for faster streaming and downloads, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine—and it is available in two display sizes—7” and 8.9”.The all-new Kindle Fire features a 20% faster processor, 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es and www.amazon.com.br. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.