Two-tier KF8 roll-out • 24 November 2011 • The SnowBlog
Two-tier KF8 roll-out
So, there are 'enhanced' e-books available from the Kindle store that will only play on your shiny new Fire (which I'm assuming most of you don't have yet because of your lamentable lack of Americanness). There are lots of comics but I've found at least one e-book too with what I understand to be KF8-style content. On the other hand, I'm still on the waiting list to be informed when Amazon releases software tools for publishers to help them create KF8 content. Which raises the question of how those publishers who had enhanced e-books ready for the Kindle Fire managed to do it. Presumably it's the two-tier system I wrote about before. Certain, selected publishers must have been briefed and assisted by Amazon. Or is that an unwarranted assumption? Anyway, assuming it's true, I'm just wondering how they chose their pals. I mean, imagine Snowbooks had been chosen and we'd got Fire-only e-books ready for Christmas when many tens of thousands of people will unwrap the aforementioned tablet and go looking for some content. I mean, a leg-up like that could be worth a lot of money. We could stop buying Mr Kiplings mince-pies and switch to the Waitrose ones. Permanently. So if Amazon are interested in anointing an indie publisher and giving them a real advantage over their equally-deserving competitors, why not choose us? [oh yeah, and I'm sorry for all the times I lampooned/criticised/scaremongered about you guys. No hard feelings.]
Rob
So, there are 'enhanced' e-books available from the Kindle store that will only play on your shiny new Fire (which I'm assuming most of you don't have yet because of your lamentable lack of Americanness). There are lots of comics but I've found at least one e-book too with what I understand to be KF8-style content. On the other hand, I'm still on the waiting list to be informed when Amazon releases software tools for publishers to help them create KF8 content. Which raises the question of how those publishers who had enhanced e-books ready for the Kindle Fire managed to do it. Presumably it's the two-tier system I wrote about before. Certain, selected publishers must have been briefed and assisted by Amazon. Or is that an unwarranted assumption? Anyway, assuming it's true, I'm just wondering how they chose their pals. I mean, imagine Snowbooks had been chosen and we'd got Fire-only e-books ready for Christmas when many tens of thousands of people will unwrap the aforementioned tablet and go looking for some content. I mean, a leg-up like that could be worth a lot of money. We could stop buying Mr Kiplings mince-pies and switch to the Waitrose ones. Permanently. So if Amazon are interested in anointing an indie publisher and giving them a real advantage over their equally-deserving competitors, why not choose us? [oh yeah, and I'm sorry for all the times I lampooned/criticised/scaremongered about you guys. No hard feelings.]