Author of Early Riser: A Novel Interview starts at 11:47 and ends at 39:00 News Amazon to buy Eero - in Wired and Yahoo Finance Amazon drops plans for HQ2 in New York (Washington Post) Tech Tips VoiceBrew podcast on Alexa tips (via Bradley Metrock’s This Week in Voice podcast) Interview with Jasper Fforde Early Riser: A Novel at Amazon.com Earl ...…

Author of Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Every Day Interview starts at 18:16 and ends at 42:30 “I wanted to demystify the music itself, and I wanted to humanize the people who created it, because I think we often think about classical composers being these dead, white European guys invariably from Germany and Austria somewhere in the ...…

Author of This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See Interview starts at 13:06 and ends at 45:08 “I have a bunch of regrets about how Amazon is steering the boat these days. One of the things I think they dropped the ball on is they’ve had a hundred opportunities to make Kindle a social platform, and they have dropped it. And t ...…

Author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives Interview starts at 15:43 and ends at 43:50 “You can be super clever and have all your tricks, but fundamentally everything in your life is crowding out something else in your life. At some point you have to choose, and the choice should be thoughtful.” News “The Prime Challenges for ...…

Project Manager for MobiScribe reader/writer by TeamUC Interview starts at 18:37 and ends at 41:06 “It’s basically going to be like a Kindle that you can write on. If you’ve ever had your work documents on the Kindle it must be frustrating, because you feel like you can’t write on your work documents even though you have it in a meeting. So now ...…

Author of Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies Interview starts at 18:51and ends at 43:30 “So much of this stuff that, when we watch 2001 today, makes it feel fresh, makes it still feel futuristic was way ahead of its time at the time that the movie was created." News “The ‘Future Book’ is Here, But It’s Not Wh ...…

Chief Marketing Officer at Open Road Integrated Media Interview starts at 9:51 and ends at 38:35 “I do think we’re unusual in that we consistently continue to market these books day in and day out for many years. I think that’s the benefit we bring to our partners in the Open Road Ignition program, that we are taking those eBooks that they don’ ...…

Forbes contributor & co-founder of Omni Talk blog Interview starts at 7:33 and ends at 41:04 “2018 was a watershed year in terms of how things transpired. This to me was really the year you saw Amazon try to become a physical retailer.” News Amazon holiday press release - December 26, 2018 Sphero Mini Blue: The App-Controlled Robot Ball Tech Ti ...…

Creator of Calibre Interview starts at 9:53 and ends at 43:03 “So the first and most important thing that is different between a Calibre library and your Kindle collection is that you actually own the books in your Calibre library, whereas you stream them from Amazon for your Kindle collection. ” News Bradley Metrock on Barnes & Noble Will Amaz ...…

TV news anchor and author of the Traveler series Interview starts at 10:21 and ends at 41:59 “Writing is a muscle, I think. If you don’t use it you lose that. Because I write every day both creatively and for my job, I think that’s part of what helps me to write as much as I do as quickly as I do. I write under deadline, so creating my own self ...…

Author of We Miss All the Great Parties Interview starts at 2:12 and ends at 35:59 “I had this traditionalist view that I wanted to hold the paper book and feel the turning of the page. I was absolutely wrong in my assumptions. Reading on an eReader felt like reading. It was still this sort of cuddly, warm, meditative, reflective experience. I ...…

Host of the Kindle Chronicles News “Amazon gets into the blockchain with Quantum Ledger Database & Managed Blockchain” by Sara Perez at TechCrunch - November 28, 2018 Bitcoin Price Plummets CoinBase (my app of choice for buying Bitcoin) “Apple Music to launchy on Amazon Echo speakers” by Tim Bradsha at The Financial Times - November 29, 2018 “I ...…

Vice Principal and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research Interview starts at 2:28 and ends at 38:32 “Nobody can see the future, but what we can see from the past is that it unfolds according to certain properties. What [Virginia Postrel, author of The Future and Its Enemies] wrote that was so compelling was that the best properties to help th ...…

Amazon Books Senior Editor Interview starts at 12:44 and ends at 39:11 “We often talk about accessibility. We start there. We talk about quality of writing. The story is important, obviously. Maybe the thing that gets you over the line is your visceral reaction to the book. How much are you willing to argue for it? You win some, and you lose so ...…

Author of the Breakthrough series Interview starts at 9:36 and ends at 40:28 News Amazon to split HQ2 between two cities (Wall Street Journal) Amazon announces free shipping with no minimum purchase for the holidays My video of a dunk test for the all-new Kindle Paperwhite plus Darlene’s comments Interview with Michael C. Grumley Breakthrough s ...…

Vice President, Macmillan Podcasts & QDT Interview starts at 9:43 and ends at 40:01 “We can think of podcasting as an entry point to audiobooks. They are less of a commitment, they are free, they can actually give you great insights into book discovery. Podcasts can move at a more rapid pace.” News Jeff Bezos in Cambridge! Black Friday deals Ha ...…

Site Reliability Engineering Lead at Shopify Interview starts at 10:07 and ends at 43:36 “If someone were to come around with some hardware that was even 50 percent worse than the Kindle but was opened up for easy highlight consumption, making it easier to see what highlights my friends have done, and all these sorts of things--I would switch i ...…

Joerg Tewes, Head of Kindle Product Management, and Kevin Keith, VP Amazon Devices New Paperwhite at Amazon.com Kevin Keith, VP-Amazon Devices Joerg Tewes, Head of Product Management for Kindle Press Release on new Paperwhite - October 16, 2018 Click here to check for software updates for your Kindle or Fire device Next Week’s Guest Simon Hørup ...…

Host of Evil Genius Chronicles Interview starts at 10:55 and ends at 40:51 “Really and truly [with a DIY book scanning device] I’m moving my hoarding from physical hoarding to digital hoarding. But I’m in favor of that maneuver. The bits and bytes are cheaper to store, and they take up a lot less room, and I’m okay with that.” News Data Guy’s p ...…

David Peach, TKC Reporter-at-Large Links Mentioned in this Episode Digital Book World 2018 Alexa Developer website The Dog Feeder Skill for Alexa Digital Book World Hall of Fame inducts Marie Dutton Brown and Len Edgerly Novel Effect skill for Alex Audioburst Libsyn Macmillan podcasts Readercoin Veronica and the Volcano by Geoffrey Cook OverDri ...…

CEO of Open Road Integrated Media Interview starts at 3:32 and ends at 27:40 “Industry-wide, if you took all eBooks, it looks like it’s going down maybe 7 to 10 percent. If you look at the very top booksellers it looks like it’s down 30 percent.” New Alexa Products The Verge’s Dan Seifert’s first impression (video) of Alexa-powered AmazonBasics ...…

Author of the Joe Dillard and Darren Street series Scott Pratt author page at Amazon.com Jeff Bezos on the David Rubenstein Show - taped September 13, 2018 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 ...…

Director of Deaf Ministries for Baptist International Outreach Interview starts at 12:12 and ends at 40:04 “If I’m getting a book that I’m independently loading on [to a Fire tablet] I tend to do it in the Google Play books and not the Kindle app, mainly because it’s easier to put it on there. ” News “U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary ...…

Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group Interview starts at 5:19 and ends at 36:00 “With respect to blockchain, there’s an opportunity to--I wouldn’t necessarily say disrupt--but to create an alternative to the closed ecosystems that Amazon has with Kindle and that other online platforms have and to provide peer-to-peer trading as w ...…

CEO of Publica Interview starts at 7:05 and ends at 42:10 “So a book token in our eReader app is going to be used as part of the cryptographic protection of the book to authorize you to read it by proving that you bought it. There’s another token that we made called the Pebble (PBL). It’s a ticker on exchanges, and if you want to go looking for ...…

Editorial Director at Thomas & Mercer Interview starts at 16:49 and ends at 43:56 “It’s interesting to think about readers around the world being able to find these books about a chemistry teacher turned homicide detective in Seattle, Washington. And I think that’s the global power of stories. Great stories are something that appeals to everyon ...…

Author of the Tracy Crosswhite and David Sloane mysteries Interview starts at 1:30 and ends at 35:00 “I’d say the primary difference between Thomas & Mercer and my experience with Big 5 publishing is that Thomas & Mercer never stops selling my books. When I’m with a Big 5 publisher, my book would come out and there would be publicity leading up ...…

Partnerships Manager for the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator at Boston Children’s Hospital Interview starts at 7:44 and ends at 28:24 “One of the barriers with voice in general is you don’t know what’s out there. You don’t really know like you do with a phone what app options you have, so it’s a little bit harder for people to find ne ...…

Jim Jones, right, Associate Professor of Management at University of Nebraska at Omaha Interview starts at 9:03 and ends at 40:50 “In the classroom, I really do strongly feel that attention is so critical to actual understanding that the more that you can remove the electronic connection and the focus on inputting electronically or--even worse ...…

Links to items mentioned in this 10th Anniversary episode First episode of The Kindle Chronicles (TKC 1) with Baratunde Thurston on July 26, 2008 My interviews with Jeff Bezos in 2012 and 2016 Transcript of my 2012 Bezos interview (via Kindle Nation Daily) Kindle Oasis Interview with Russ Grandinetti, VP Kindle Content, in 2010 TKC 338 with And ...…

Author of Departure, The Extinction Files and The Origin Mystery Interview starts at 13:07 and ends at 43:36 “I feel very lucky about the timing. The Kindle had just come out. I would go home from work and read my Kindle every night, and I thought, ‘There’s got to be a bunch of people like me that are doing this that I could write a story for.’ ...…

Author of Somebody’s Daughter Interview starts at 17:04 and ends at 43:26 “I think there’s nothing more terrifying than the realization that someone you thought you knew--whether it’s your spouse, your parent, your sibling, someone you thought you knew really well, someone in your family--has been keeping some kind of secret from you.” Photo by ...…

Founder & Chief Trailblazer of Retirepreneur Interview starts at 16:01 and ends at 40:10 “I went deep into Kindle and the electronic piece, and then I began pulling back some. I would tell you right now I am right down the middle. I’m a hybrid.” News Amazon’s Prime Day starts July 16th at 3 pm ET “How to Get Primed for Amazon Prime Day” at Wire ...…

Author of the Deadly Edits and Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries Interview starts at 16:16 and ends at 44:12 “What I try to do is after I get up and have my coffee and my toast, is to come into my office and sit down and write at least one scene, the next scene in the story. I do that usually seven days a week.” Tech Tip My comparison of Alexa, Siri, a ...…

Seattle Music and Arts Pioneer Interview starts at 9:38 and ends at 44:45 “There it was, the [Seattle] head tax. ‘We’re going to do it, this is what we’re going to do. It’s going to address homelessness. We’ll collect the money--we don’t know how we’re going to spend it yet, but we’re going to hit these businesses with this tax.’ That’s just no ...…

New Owner of Digital Book World Interview starts at 12:01 and ends at 43:50 “Everything with books orbits discoverability. That’s the billion-dollar problem. That’s the problem that Apple has never figured out yet. That’s the problem that Amazon has sort of figured out.” News Target dazzles me with service Rebranding Prime Mayday! Mayday! The e ...…

Author of “The List” in Amazon’s The Real Thing Collection Interview starts at 13:23 and ends at 39:21 “I think we look at the Big Five publishers as being kind of set in their ways and really traditional, but I actually think that everyone is looking to try new things. I think everyone is realizing that just putting out a hardcover in the exac ...…

Senior Editor, The Information Interview starts at 11:36 and ends at 43:50 “[Amazon’s HQ2 decision] will be before the end of the year, unless something radical changes. I don’t think it’s imminent. It’s probably--I’m guessing here--but it’s probably months away. I would guess like towards the end of the summer, early fall. That’s really not ba ...…

Author of the Frank Adversego Thriller Series Interview starts at 11:14 and ends at 35:51 “Alexa’s pretty primitive. I think it’s very concerning from a cybersecurity point of view, because people have already learned how to spoof Alexa. Just a few days ago they came up with the equivalent of a dog whistle-type command that you couldn't hear, b ...…

Editor-in-Chief of Good E-Reader Interview starts at 3:45 and ends at 33:51 News “Amazon Go cashier-free store could be headed to SF’s Union Square” by Matier & Ross at The San Francisco Chronicle - May 13, 2018 “The Information hires NY Times’s Wingfield” by Chris Roush at Talking Biz News - May 15, 2018 The Information “Trump personally pushe ...…

Authors of Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey Into the Heart of America Interview starts at 9:43 and ends at 39:14 “James Fallows: ‘Through my reportorial lifetime I’ve seen a number crises for the American system, which the U.S. has so far managed to muddle its way through. That does not guarantee continued muddling, but I personally am more he ...…

Traveler, teller of tales, reviewer of eReaders Interview starts at 15:25 and ends at 41:53 “To be honest, I haven’t met one person outside tech nerds like myself that use it [Kindle’s X-Ray feature.] I very rarely use it. I kind of go ‘Let’s see what this is about.” I think it takes away from the immersion of reading. If I’m interested in some ...…

Longtime Kindle Chronicles listener Interview starts at 18:14 and ends at 43:00 “It was very clear what was missing [in Seattle’s Amazon Go store]. There was no Kindle, no Fires, no place to scan and order one. Maybe that’s because you can just walk out, and they figure if they’re going to lose inventory they want it to be five dollars or under ...…

Author of Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen Interview starts at 15:50 and ends at 41:48 “It’s not that I sought out to be published by Amazon. It was that Amazon happened to be the people who believed in me and my book, and they’ve been so wonderful to work with. I do feel also that Little A is a tiny imprint within a huge company, so ...…

Creator of the Kindle Classroom Project Interview starts at 15:29 and ends at 43:19 “I don’t think that the Kindle makes reading any more fun, but a lot of students--especially 9th Grade boys who have been turned off of reading, they get a Kindle, and the Number One thing that they do is they bump up that text size, because they don’t like it t ...…

Author of The Punishment She Deserves: A Lynley Novel Interview starts at 12:25 and ends at 36:50 “The late Sue Grafton said something to me that was really helpful on time. I was talking about difficulty I was having in the book with a character. She said to me, ‘If you know the question, you do know the answer.’ That was really helpful, becau ...…

Co-founder and CEO of Goodreads Interview starts at 14:30 and ends at 36:54 “People read along, and then--for as long as there’ve been books--after you’re done reading, you you go talk about the ideas, the stories, the concepts that you read about. That’s actually a good metaphor for Goodreads and Kindle. Kindle is where you read alone. Goodrea ...…

Readly U.S. Contact Interview starts at 12:48 and ends at 40:51 “Everyone for a long time has been trying to reinvent the magazine experience on digital, or even the newspaper experience on digital. I was one of those who came out and said, ‘Why?’ What you need to be doing is expanding your brand. People know your brand. Don’t think about shoe- ...…

Brittany Kaiser, Co-Founder, Bueno Capital and CryptoHQ Interview starts at 16:20 and ends at 22:29 South By Southwest Links “Wyoming Passes 5 Pro-Blockchain Laws” at Consensys - March 15, 2018 “Despite some glitches, VR cinema takes a leap forward at SXSW 2018” by Omar L. Gallaga at the Austin American-Statesman - March 15, 2018 “Wyoming’s Blo ...…

Author of Closer Than You Know Interview starts at 9:29 and ends at 43:09 “I look at certain authors that are greatly esteemed in the moment as literature. But I think, frankly, a lot of what passes as literature today will not stand the test of time, because there’s no story in the story. You have 350 pages of a character examining his navel a ...…