Publish Your Blog for Kindle
By: Keith
I know, I’m late to this party. Amazon has been allowing bloggers to make their content available in the Amazon marketplace for over a year now. Nevertheless, I got a brilliant idea yesterday (or at least it felt brilliant). Why not make my blog available on the Kindle? I couldn’t think of why not to do it, so I did it. It took about 10 minutes, and that’s 10 minutes that I think were well spent. I may never see a dime of revenue, but it is one more place that my name is visible, and it’s free. Again, why not? Plus, it’s nice to see your blog there on Amazon. For 10 minutes of your time, bloggers, you can have your blog available and formatted for the Kindle. What do you have to lose (a few reasons I listed below)? My suggestion to all of you who think you might have something worthwhile to say is invest your 10 minutes each and engage in some self publishing. And, for you aspiring writers out there who need a little motivation to start your magnum opus, this is a small stepping stone to greater things.
Two good reason to do it:
1. The rules are so lax (it’s still in Beta after a year) that virtually anybody can steal your blog out from under you if you don’t claim it. There is no verification in place during the sign up process that proves your blog is actually your own. TechCruch wrote an article over a year ago about the problem, and I think even now, a year later, anybody can publish your writing and make money off your name if you aren’t paying attention. Amazon will take down fake postings, but only if you inform them. Thus, at the very least, you should check. If your blog hasn’t been hijacked yet, you might as well publish it yourself, and if it has been then you’ll want to fix it.
2. There are roughly 7,000 blogs available on the Kindle now. That’s not many considering how many there are total. Getting in now might be a good idea if only for a small degree of exposure.
Some Good Reasons to Have Reservation:
1. I’m not thrilled about selling my blog for $1.99 a month. I think reading blogs should be free. But, I see where Amazon wants to make money, so whatever.
2. Amazon cares mostly about Amazon. Their terms of use are confusing, and most likely heavily in their favor (at least from what I can tell). The benefit to you, a blogger, might not be that great other than simple exposure. It sounds almost as if you’re giving them carte blanche on your content (not that they’d have any reason to steal it or anything) when reading the legalese. Honestly I am not concerned about it. My blog is a whimsical accounting of my life and issues I find relevant as a parent. Anybody who reads it, free or through Amazon, is welcome.
Some screen shots of the process and the result:
Go to amazon.com and go to the kindle store. Click on blogs, and you’ll see a link to follow to publish yours.
This is Almightydad (Kindle Edition) showing on Amazon. Go ahead and write me a review while you’re there!
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You know, I had looked into this a while ago and figured no one in their right mind would ever pay to read my drivel. I think when Apple rejected my iPhone app is when I decided it wasn’t worth pursuing. It does make sense from an intellectual property protection standpoint if I was writing for a business or whatever. I’m definitely torn about the prospect of making my blog available on the Kindle, but will definitely look into it.
.-= PJ Mullen´s last blog ..RedEnvelope has Father’s Day covered =-.
I never thought about this before, but maybe I’ll look into it.
.-= Jack´s last blog ..It Has Been A While =-.
You might be late to the party, but I didn’t get the invitation.I had no idea you could do this.
Pretty cool idea!
.-= Chris @ CleverFather´s last blog ..Children vs Blog: Juggling Family Life and Blogging =-.
I never even knew about this… I’ll definitely be checking it out after work today!
.-= IrrationalDad´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday v. Camping, Day 3 triple play =-.
Another step in my world domination..
Hmmm… this is going to make me rich.
.-= Papa K´s last blog ..Top Ten Best Scary Movies Of All Time (That I’ve Seen Anyway) =-.
Thanks for the heads up, Keith. I didn’t know about this either. I plan to check it out and publish my blog called Principles for Parents. As a holistic physician and pediatrician, I have an interest in letting parents know about the benefits of holistic approaches to kids and their health. I guess I’ll find out soon if Amazon Kindle readers are interested!
.-= Peter Hanfileti, MD´s last blog ..Spleen Energy and Your Child =-.
I’ve been thinking about doing the dad log for a while now, I think You’ve inspired me. I also am interested in the blog to amazon thing. Hey if people will buy your blog, there’s nothing wrong with that. IF THEY WANT to buy it.
Sure reading blogs should be and are free, buy hey, in this cruch we can all use a little extra. yes?
.-= Kindle Covers and Cases´s last blog ..Kindle Kradle Hands-Free Reading Stand for Kindle DX =-.
Dude, I think my blog is good for kindling, maybe not Kindle just yet. Thanks for posting this–I literally had no idea.
I dunno, but doesn’t the Kindle have a web browser, that would allow access to any blog regardless?
.-= Chris´s last blog ..The Original Karate Kids Fight Back! =-.
Chris: I tried to access my blog on the Kindle browser. It’s possible, but it’s ultra slow and the formatting is terrible. The Kindle browser is nothing to write home about.
gracias por le post, la verdad es que no sabía de esta posibilidad de incluir tu blog en kindle. Voy a probarlo!
Per an earlier comment – why would I want to pay to sign up to a blog when I can just use the web browser to access it anyway? Sorry if I’m being dense here.
Hamish: You wouldn’t, of course — if the web browser were any good. The kindle web browser sucks. The main purpose of making your blog available in the kindle store is more for SEO purposes than it is to get people to purchase it. In other words, I don’t expect anybody to spend money to read my blog. But, just having the name out there, associated with amazon in google searched, is of some value.
Good point. The Kindle browser – and I use the parlance of my kids here – sucks hard.