The Kindle Chronicles

Author of Ricochet Joe & the new Jane Hawk series

Interview starts at 10:30 and ends at 41:57

"Whatever I was reading in childhood through adolescence, it lifted me up and out. I think it was all of that that made me want to be a writer. I thought it would be the most amazing thing if out there in the world somewhere there was a kid reading something or an adult for that matter that was really getting to them and affecting them as so many people had affected me. And you didn't even know who they were or where they were. It just struck me as a kind of magical thing to be doing. So because I was a reader, that's really why I became a writer."

News

"Amazon May Have Dropped a Clue About a Likely HQ2 Location" by Aaron Pressman at Fortune - January 11, 2018.

"Amazon and Google lead way on virtual assistant dealmaking at CES" by Tim Bradshaw at The Financial Times - January 9, 2018

"Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant compete at CES to control the smart home" by Matt Day at The Seattle Times - January 8, 2018

"This smart suitcase uses Segway technology to balance itself as it follows you around" by Thuy Ong at The Verge - January 4, 2018

"My heart aches for this Segway-inspired auto-following suitcase that won't stop falling over" by Natt Garun at The Verge - January 8, 2018

Tech Tip

"How to pair your AirPods with your Kindle Oasis" by Charlie Sorrel at Cult of Mac - Janiuary 6, 2018

Interview with Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz's web site

Ricochet Joe

The Silent Corner (Jane Hawk #1) and The Whispering Room (Jane Hawk #2) by Dean Koontz

Available for preorder with delivery May 8: The Crooked Staircase (Jane Hawk #3)

Dean Koontz author page at Amazon.com

Books by Kate DiCamillo: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Tale of Despereaux, Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Magician's Elephant

Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot

The Book of Counted Sorrows (Wikipedia)

Content

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Wins Best TV Series, Comedy at 2018 Golden Globes (YouTube) - January 7, 2018

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video

Next Week's Guest

Hafizah Geter, editor of the recently closed Day One literary magazine

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Software Quality Engineer

Interview starts at 12:46 and ends at 41:14

"Somehow the Goodreads would talk to the Amazon/Kindle cloud, so as new notes come in it would sync those down from Goodreads as well. And then they would just show up in your notes and highlights with the name of the person who you were following. I think that would be really cool."

News

"Another big Amazon acquisition, a Peloton IPO--and other commerce predictions for 2018" by Jason Del Rey at Recode - January 4, 2018

"Barnes & Noble shares hit near 24-year low after disappointing holiday sales" by Jessica Dye at The Financial Times - January 5, 2018

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on HQ2 prospects (CNBC) - January 3, 2018

PaddyPower odds for HQ2 cities - January 3, 2018

"This smart suitcase uses Segway technology to balance itself as it follows you around" by Thuy Ong at The Verge - January 4, 2017

CES in Las Vegas

Tech Tip

All about Kindle bookmarks

Interview with Tom Semple

The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space, and Speed [Kindle in Motion] by Scott Parazynski

Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0 Book 1) [Kindle in Motion] by Scott Meyer

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Illustrated [Kindle in Motion] by J. K. Rowling

Ricochet Joe (Amazon Original Story) [Kindle in Motion] by Dean Koontz

Spotify

Prime Music

Audible

Content

David Ignatius will appear on C-Span's BookTV show Sunday, January 7, 2018 at noon EST

BBC iPlayer Radio app for Fire tablets

Next Week's Guest

Dean Koontz, bestselling author of a new Amazon Original Story, Ricochet Joe, published by Amazon Publishing

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Co-founder of Select A Story

Interview starts at 8:33 and ends at 33:40

"An interactive story is essentially a series of interlocking short stories. I think a lot of authors kind of forget about that, and they end up writing a story where at the end of it, it's like 'Okay, you saw a spaceship, and then you thought to call the police and then you decided whether you should call your friend, and then you decided whether you should take a picture and put it on Instagram and then you went on the spaceship and you met the aliens, and it was fine. The end.' Well, yeah, you had a number of choices, but they were all very similar to one another and that is not a story that anyone would write by itself."

Tech Tip

Find your annotations at read.amazon.com/notebook

Interview with Katie Ernst

Select a Story website

Select a Story skill for Alexa

Cinder/Charming (Select a Story Book 1) Kindle format

"The Magic Door," an Alexa-powered interactive adventure with original stories

"Alexa Skills Challenge Offers $250,000 in Prizes for Best Kid Skills" at Amazon Alexa blog - October 25, 2017

Content

Ricochet Joe by Dean Koontz

Comments

Fintie Folio Case for 9th Generation (7-inch) Kindle Oasis - $16.99

News

Amazon press release on holiday sales

"Amazon's Alexa Won Christmas This Year" by Steve Kovach at Business Insider - December 26, 2017

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Doubledecker Bus Driver in London

Interview starts at 11:20 and ends at 39:30

"The [Fire HD] 8 will be my Kindle that travels with me. I take it to work. We're not allowed to have them in the cab for fairly good reasons. They don't want anything that will distract you from the job of driving."

News

"The Kindle changed the book business. Can it change books?" by David Pierce at Wired - December 20, 2017

Mosaic app at iTunes Store

Tech Tip

Echo Connect and how to set one up

Alexa Voice Remote for Amazon Echo and Echo Dot

Interview with Mark Jarvis

Transportation for London (TfL)

The Elizabeth Line

CeX

All-New Kindle Oasis

BBC iPlayer

The Verb Podcast (BBC) - Jorie Graham interview

"Advertising Standards considers inquiry into Amazon Prime" at BBC - December 18, 2017

Amazon Key in-home delivery

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Edition (Audible) read by Stephen Fry

The Quantum Spy: A Thriller by David Ignatius

The Theseus Paradox (Detective Inspector Jake Flannagan Series Book 1) by David Videcette

by Diarmuid Jeffreys

The Miniaturist: A Novel by Jessie Burton

The Poisonous Seed: A Frances Doughty Mystery by Linda Stratmann

by Max Hastings

Podcasts recommended by Mark Jarvis: History Extra (BBC) and 9yrspodcast (iTunes)

The Guardian and The Independent

Content

Goodreads Choice Awards 2017

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research

Interview starts at 9:06 and ends at 43:24

"I think Amazon feels pretty confident that they could attack any business they want, and the incumbents will spend four or five years resisting before they realize that they have no choice. Whereas a little proactive customer obsession on the part of any of those companies could probably make it so that Amazon decides to go elsewhere."

News

"Kindle will evolve new forms of online literature: Sanjeev Jha, Director of Kindle Content India" by Rahul Sachitanand at The Economic times - December 10, 2017

Amazon announces expansion of Prime free same- and one-day shipping in time for Christmas (press release) - December 13, 2017

Click here to see if Amazon is offering free same-day and one-day Prime shipping to your city or town.

Start a 30-day Prime Free Trial

"Amazon to start selling Apple TV and Google Chromecast" by Ben Fox Rubin at CNET - December 14, 2017

Tech Tip

"Amazon Alexa can now wake you up with music" by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch - December 11, 2017

Kindle Software update

Interview with James McQuivey

"Amazon Brings a Knife to a Mud Fight" at The Reading Edge - February 1, 2010

Echo Look

Echo Show

Echo Spot

Persado

The Stormlight Archive Book Series (including The Way of Kings) by Brandon Sanderson

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky

Content

"2017 This Year in Books" - Amazon's information from Charts

Next Week's Guest

Longtime London listener Mark Jarvis

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Esmeralda and Richard deTrafford of Geraldton, Australia

Interview starts at 16:35 and ends at 40:26

"I don't see any Amazon drones being launched here [in Australia], and I'm sure CASA [Civil Aviation Safety Authority] would have something to say about that. They're coming up with rules for drones and some of that stuff. So I don't see that happening here any time soon."

News

"Australian retailers rally as Amazon gets cool reception" by Byron Kaye at Reuters - December 4, 2017

"Amazon Australia has changed its webpage title to say it no longer just sells books" by Tony Yoo at Business Insider - December 4, 2017

"Amazon's Weak Australia Launch is Great for eBay" by Wayne Duggan at U.S. News & World Report - December 7, 2017

"Don't call it 'Siri': Why the wake word should be 'computer'" by Stephen Harrison at Salon -

November 26, 2017

Cozmo by Anki

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark

"Amazon Alexa Prize Competition winner takes home $500,000 prize" at DayOne, the Amazon Blog - November 29, 2017

Interview with Richard and Esmeralda deTrafford

Geraldton, Australia

The Australian Accent (YouTube)

Myer Market

Shipster by Australia Post

Aldi

Content

Kindle First is now Amazon First Reads

"Bill Gates gives us his top 5 favorite books for winter reading" at Boing Boing

Next Week's Guest

James McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Right-click here and then click "Save Link As..." to download the audio to your computer, phone, or MP3 player.

CEO of Score Publishing, producer of Digital Book World 2018

Interview starts at 15:44 and ends at 43:43

"The Echo Show is an incredible glimpse into the future, because the future is going to be words come out of your mouth, and that's how you engage the computer rather than typing on a QWERTY keyboard or moving a mouse."

News

"Amid Takeover Talk, Barnes & Noble Posts $30 million Q2 Loss, Stock Sheds 10%" by Jonathan Ponciano at Forbes - November 30, 2017

"B&N Has Disappointing Second Quarter" by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - November 1, 2017

"Barnes & Noble's sales hit by the curse of Harry Potter" by the AP - December 1, 2017

"To save itself, Barnes & Noble is pivoting to books" by Thu-Huong Ha at Quartz - November 30, 2017

"Why Barnes & Noble Wants Smaller Stores" by Phil Wahba at Fortune - November 30, 2017

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

"No takeover for Barnes and Noble after that earnings bomb" at Yahoo Finance - November 30, 2017

"4 Reasons Barnes and Noble Failed the Nook" by Jessie Nuez at Babble - 2013

"Amazon's Alexa heads to the workplace" by Dave Lee at BBC - November 30, 2017

Interview with Bradley Metrock

Score Publishing

Digital Book World

Alexa Conference - Keynote by Ahmed Bouzid, CEO Witlingo (and original head of product for Amazon's Alexa and Connected Homes initiative)

Tellables, Earplay (TKC interview with CEO Jon Myers in November, 2016), and Novel Effect

VoiceFirst.FM

AWS Reinvent

Tim O'Reilly's Tools of Change conference

Author Earnings (Hugh Howey and Data Guy)

Apple's iBooks Author

WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up To Us by Tim O'Reilly

Outro Music:

"Happiness (in F major) by Bradley Metrock on Mountain Radio Silence, used with permission

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Editorial Director, AmazonCrossing

Interview starts at 18:00 and ends at 43:42

"One of the magical things about publishing is that when you get together with other people who work in this industry and immediately we share a common bond, this passion for bringing books to readers. It's not unique. It is really wonderful to stand in a room full of people who are putting everything on the line toward that effort every day and who are excited to hear about the work that we're doing to bring more diversity to literature through translation." (Photo by Dean Whitmore)

News

"How the Kindle was designed through 10 years and 16 generations" by Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch - November 20, 2017

Chris Green on The Kindle Chronicles in April, 2016

Firmware updates page for Amazon devices

Tech Tips

Fire HD 8 - $30 off for Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Fire HD 10 - $50 off for Black Friday/Cyber Monday

"YouTube is Back on Amazon Echo Show" by Bret Kinsella at Voicebot - November 21, 2017

Eddie Mikell's Echo Dot setup for the car (YouTube)

CoolStream Duo Bluetooth adapter ($29.99) at Amazon.com

Interview with Gabriella Page-Fort

Books published by AmazonCrossing

Chad Post's Three Percent blog at University of Rochester

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch, translated by Lee Chadeayne

The Glass Blower Trilogy by Petra Durst-Benning, translated by Samuel Willcocks

The Great Passage by Shion Miura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan, translated by Yuri Machkasov

P.S. From Paris by Marc Levy, translated by Sam Taylor

A number of titles from Petra Durst-Benning

The House by the River by Lena Manta, translated by Gail Holst-Warhaft (discovered through the AmazonCrossing submissions portal)

A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa, translated by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown

The Honest Spy by Andreas Kollender, translated by Steve Anderson

An American Princess by Annejet van der Zijl, translated by Michele Hutchison

The Judgment of Richard Richter by Igor Štiks, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac (discovered through the submissions site)

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro, translated by Takami Nieda (discovered through the submissions site)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett [Kindle in Motion]

"AmazonCrossing Editorial Director Gabriella Page-Fort Named 2017 PW Star Watch 'Super Star'" by Porter Anderson at Publishing Perspectives - September 6, 2017

Content

Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, illustrated by Jill McElmurry

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Amazon Senior Vice President

Interview starts at 20:45 and ends at 43.37

"It was the first time we were building a device, so we had a lot to learn. After that the team and as a company we got better each time. So our second Kindle was developed more quickly, and now as you know that team is launching Kindles and Fire TVs and Fire tablets and Echos and more every year."

News

Amazon Key

"Amazon will start delivering packages into the homes of Prime members" by Jason Del Rey at Recode - October 25, 2017

"Amazon Key Flaw Could Let Rogue Deliverymen Disable Your Camera" by Andy Greenberg at Wired - November 16, 2017

"Amazon's Hall of Spinning Knives" by David Gaughran at Let's Get Digital - October 20, 2017

"Alibaba Singles' Day Racks Up $1 Billion in Sales in 2 Minutes" at Bloomberg - November 10, 2017

"Amazon's Prime Day Generates Estimated $1 Billion in Sale" by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg - July 12, 2017

"Alibaba's Singles Day Sales Hit New Record of $25.3 Billion" by Tiffany Hsu at The New York Times - November 10, 2017

Jeff Bezos 1997 interview by Richard Wiggins (YouTube)

Amazon's Black Friday deals

Tech Tips

All-New Kindle Oasis

My video review of the new Kindle Oasis

Fawlty Towers

Echo Show

Garmin Speak

Interview with Steve Kessel

"Amazon SVP Steve Kessel returns from sabbatical to work on 'super secret' project" by Tricia Duryee at GeekWire - February 4, 2015

"Meet the Guy Behind Amazon's Secret Retail Store Plans" by Jason del Rey - February 3, 2016

Harry Bingham on TKC 469 - July, 2017

X-Ray for Authors

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Best Books of 2017 selected by Amazon Books editors

"Amazon just revealed the most popular Kindle books of all time" by MJ Franklin at Mashable - November 14, 2017

Content

A Look Back at Kindle Bestsellers

Next Week's Guest

Gabriella Page-Fort, editorial director for AmazonCrossing

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Author of I Wore My Blackest Hair

Interview starts at 12:34 and ends at 39:39

"I'm not sure about the future of Amazon [Publishing] in the literary world at large. I do think that for my book it's been really interesting working with them and being able to answer those questions [about audience] and also to challenge myself more about how do I see this book existing in the world and what kind of spaces do I want it to enter and what kind of people do I want it to encounter. I think that working with Amazon has been interesting in that way, because they do have a very broad reach, and a very established way of doing things that for me has given a lot of structure to thinking about the book being out in the world."

News

Brad Stone interviewed on Wall Street Journal Moneybeat Book Club podcast - November 4, 2017

"Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: "Told You I'm a Tech Buff" at TMZ - July 14, 2017

"Kindle with your kale? Amazon to sell electronic devices in Whole Foods stores" by Matt Day at The Seattle Times - November 9, 2017

Amazon Prime Now

Tech Tip

"Kindle e-readers to get Audible" - Michael Kozlowski Good E Reader video - November 2, 2017

Creating Alexa Voice Profiles - Amazon video

"Alexa Adds the ability to recognize different speakers' voices" by Kevin Murnane at Forbes - October 12, 2017

Interview with Carlina Duan

I Wore My Blackest Hair by Carlina Duan - available for pre-order from Little a with delivery November 14, 2017

The Black Maria and Teeth by Aracelis Girmay

The Dark Noise Collective

Morgan Parker

Goodreads book giveaway for I Wore My Blackest Hair (ends November 13, 2017)

"Writing as Fuel" by Carlina Duan at The Michigan Daily - July 23, 2014

Day One, Amazon Publishing's weekly digital literary journal

Vanderbilt University MFA program

Morgan Parker interview on TKC 391 - January 28, 2016

Content

A Polish eBook subscription service

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Best Books of 2017 as selected by Amazon's book editors

"The Internet Archive 'Liberates' Books Published Between 1923 and 1941, and Will Put 10,000 Digitized Books Online" at Open Culture - November 9, 2017

Next Week's Guest

Steve Kessel, Amazon Senior VP and head of the team that created the first Kindle

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!