We are considering purchasing a kindle. We enjoy reading and rereading certain authors. For example, I have all of the military books by WEB Griffin. If I want to have them available on a kindle do I need to purchase each of them individually or is there some other way to purchase the entire collection at a discount?
Thanks in advance!!
You can buy Kindle books without actually owning a Kindle (there’s reader apps for PC or mobile devices), so you can go ahead and just browse Amazon to see what the prices are for yourself. Unfortunately, I don’t think they really do package discounts or anything like that.
It’s still pretty limited, but it’s better then nothing. Especially for people that want to read a book on their Kindle, but also want a book for their bookshelf.
There’s no way in general. Just like hardcopy, sometimes there are “boxed” sets of Kindle books made available, permitting you to buy in groups, usually at a small discount. But just like their print analog, boxed sets are the exception, not the rule.
There is also Amazon Matchbook, which allows you to buy Kindle copies of select books that you’ve previously bought from Amazon in dead-tree form at a discount or even for free. When I checked it out, though, only a few of the many, many books I’ve purchased from them over the years were on offer.
Cool - didn’t know about that - only a few here as well, but one was free!
For what it’s worth, you often can find “complete works” or “collected editions” of authors or series that are old enough to be in the public domain. (In such cases, some or all of the works in these collections are typically also available individually for free.)
I second the recommendation to browse Amazon and see what’s available. You can shop for Kindle ebooks directly from a Kindle itself, but I find it’s easier to do so on Amazon’s website from a regular computer.
My current Matchbook selection is disappointing. Supposedly they’re adding new ones all the time.
Note: often, the “complete works” is in one file, and may affect navigation. I know some people were complaining about the ASOIAF “boxed” set’s Kindle was inferior to the buying individual volumes, even if cheaper.
Kindle Reader or Fire?
Do check out Project Gutenberg, lots of old stuff on there. Griffin isn’t though, not old enough.
Concur on the match-book thing being pretty pathetic - I found maybe a dozen of my past purchases listed, and none of those were ones I cared about reading again.
You can purchase books from anywhere (except Apple iBooks, I believe) and use Calibre to convert them for the Kindle. If they’re from a DRM’ed source (e.g. Barnes and Noble, perhaps Kobo) this requires some extra work and I won’t go into details due to concerns over copyright issues (my attitude: if I acquired the book legitimately, and am not planning on sharing it, but am converting just for my own use, there’s no moral issue).
There are DRM-free sites as well, though their selection isn’t great. Baen Books is a good source for science fiction and fantasy, all DRM free, Weightless Books ditto. Baen has also issued a number of CDs of current and past books which are free (do a search for Baen CD Fifth Imperium).
As far as purchased books go, Amazon is virtually always cheaper than B&N. I had a Nook for a while (until some bastard stole it) but now have a Kindle. I still browse B&N and get books from there on occasion.
And you can get library books for the Kindle (not the Amazon lending library, but the Overdrive tool that many public libraries use). If the book is available in Kindle format, it’s nearly seamless. If it’s not, a Nook with the Overdrive app is actually easier.