What Amazon has created is nothing short of extraordinary and as of yet I have heard virtually nothing about it. The new Digital Text Platform site that they have prepared is astounding in that any individual or organization or company can register and receive assistance in the creation of a Kindle version of their work. Registering is easy and somewhat exciting when you realize you are also registering where for them to send the money when someone has purchased your work. Currently the terms under which you would operate once you have published can be seen here and it would appear that as the author you will receive 35% of the cover price. I am looking into the terms and conditions document and will probably see many things I will initially not like, but on first blush it still seems extremely easy to get a work published and into the largest electronic bookstore around.

If you have access to anyone that knows the print industry and can comment on these conditions please send me an email as I would be very interested in interviewing them perhaps for their thoughts on the agreement. Apparently it is a modification of the self publishing that was available for mobipocket books, but it seems to me having your work available at amazon.com would be a much larger incentive to electronically publish than a site that I head never heard of before the Kindle.

If you Hate the terms or Love them pop over to the discussion forums and leave your feedback. I have been toying with a book for almost a year now and can see myself plunging into it with a bit more enthusiasm now that I can really see it getting published. Self publishing is always an option but it was too expensive and I suspect that getting a self published book onto Barnes and Nobles shelves would be quite hard much less having the funds to front the creation of sufficient copies to get any momentum nationally. This format offers a new hope for people that would love to get their work out there, and if it is any good then it may actually prosper and see physical print publishing. For some reason that still seems like my ultimate goal as I am prejudiced to think that an e-Book is somehow less permanent than a true printed one. What do you think? Will that ever change?

Tags: Kindle, Writing