The Kindle Chronicles

Latest Episodes:

TKC 559 Fellow HBS Alum Allen Hughes Apr 20, 2019

Show notes

Amazon's Director of Sales & Marketing for Kindle eReaders & Fire Tablets

Interview starts at 15:36 and ends at 46:17

"We find that customers--whether it's our entry Kindle, our Paperwhite, our Oasis program--you can find voracious readers on any of those devices, reading many, many books a month and really enjoying their devices and consistently using them every day. "

News

"The Inner Bezos" by Chip Bayers at Wired Magazine - March 1, 1999

Jeff Bezos 2018 Letter to Shareholders

Interview with Allen Hughes

Harry Potter: The Complete Collection (1-7) on Kindle by J. K. Rowling

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

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 Public Transit Recording" CD.

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TKC 558 Future Coach James McQuivey Apr 13, 2019

Show notes

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Interview starts at 12:02 and ends at 52:12

"We used Future Fitness to describe this concept, because we wanted to make it clear that it is not measuring a fixed attribute. This is not a personality trait. In fact, we avoid the word 'trait' deliberately, because although there are traits obviously related here, almost everything that we're measuring is something that you can change--if you want to. If you want to become more future fit you can."

News

Press release announcing all-new entry-level Kindle - March 20, 2019

All-New Kindle at Amazon.com

2018 Letter to Shareholders from Jeff Bezos

Interview with James McQuivey

"Introducing Forrester Future Fit: Are You Fit Enough to Share in a World of Intelligent Technologies?" by James McQuivey at Forrester.com - April 1, 2019

My previous conversation with James on TKC 538 in November, 2019

The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress by Virginia Postrel

To take the Forrester Future Fit diagnostic survey, click here: http://forr.com/futurefit

James McQuivey's blog and Future Fitness next steps

Click here to contribute to Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, the organization that is sponsoring James McQuivey's run in the Boston Marathon on April 15th.

Next Week's Guest

A member of Amazon's Kindle team will talk with us about the all-new basic Kindle

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TKC 557 Fantasy Author Michael J. Sullivan Apr 06, 2019

Show notes

Author of the Legends of the First Empire and Riyria series

Interview starts at 10:01 and ends at 43:57

On writing fantasy: "The world should just build in the background. You should get to know it by experience, not by having to be told in page after page and getting a whole world history, because that's boring. People tend to skim that kind of stuff. I like to try and write so if people skim they'll totally ruin the book, and I try to make everything entertaining enough that they won't want to."

News

"Amazon is Making a Rival to Apple's AirPods as Its First Alexa Wearable" by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg - April 4, 2019

"Jeff Bezos, in divorce settlement, retains 75 percent of the Amazon stock he held with his now ex-wife MacKenzie" by Craig Timberg and Greg Bensinger at The Washington Post - April 4, 2019

Interview with Michael J. Sullivan

Age of Legend Kickstarter project

Books by Michael J. Sullivan at Amazon.com

Next Week's Guest

James McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, who will present a webinar April 23, 2019 at 11 - 11:45 am ET titled "Are You Fit for the Future? You Can't Shape the Future with Tools You Don't Have"

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Movies & TV Aficionado Col Needham Mar 30, 2019

Show notes

Founder and CEO of IMDb

Interview starts at 14:54 and ends at 52:50

"In 1990, if you'd have said to me 'You know the service that you've just launched, one day you'll be able to interact with that by voice with a device that's this big in your kitchen.' I'd be like, 'Really?' Now it's kind of like an everyday experience."

News

Fire HD 10 tablet on sale for $100 - a price cut of $50

Kindle Voyage - $130 on Amazon's Woot site ($90 off)

"Open road Integrated Media Shows 36% YoY Revenue Growth in January 2019" - press release March 26, 2019

Association of American Publishers stats for January 2019

Tech Tips

reMarkable tablet ($599) versus Rocketbook ($30) versus MobiScribe ($214)

Kindle for Mac update (1.25.2)

Kindle sort by unread and read coming (Good E-Reader)

Interview with Col Needham

IMDb

"Behind the Scenes at IMDb" by Elias Wolfberg at Amazon's Day One blog - February 28, 2018

Next Week's Guest

Michael J. Sullivan, author of the Riyria fantasy series.

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TKC 555 Creativity Whisperer Austin Kleon Mar 23, 2019

Show notes

Author of Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad

"When I first started out, if you had told me that my books were going to be shelved in Self Help, I would never have believed you. And when I first got started I had no idea there was such a thing as an illustrated gift book. I just didn't know that those genres existed in publishing. The really fun thing for me about doing this kind of book is that it allows me to be as weird as I want to be in a mainstream format. That is the great gift that these books have given to me."

Links related to my interview with Austin Kleon:

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon - Available for pre-order with release on April 2, 2019

Other books by Austin Kleon at Amazon.com

"The Gulp" at Austin's blog - March 18, 2019

My interview with Austin Kleon on TKC 295 - March 26, 2014

Austin's book tour schedule starting April 2, 2019

Next Week's Guest

Col Needham, founder and CEO of Amazon's IMDb, the number one movie website in the world, with more than 250 million unique monthly visitors.

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TKC SXSW19 3 Crypto and Gaming Mar 16, 2019

Show notes

The Gaming Hall at South By Southwest

On this last of my TKC updates from South By, I will tell you why I'm not going to sell my small stake in Bitcoin any time soon. Also, a tourist's view of the high-energy gaming track at SXSW.

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TKC 554 South By Southwest Mar 16, 2019

Show notes

Len on the main escalator at the Austin Convention Center

Neil Pasricha, director of the Institute for Global Happiness

Neil Pasricha's books at Amazon

"Four Ways of Looking at South By Southwest" by Len Edgerly at Medium - March 14, 2019

The Texas Tribune

John Hickenlooper and Pete Buttigieg websites

CNN Town Hall with Pete Buttegieg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXD8uFU-xgM

CNN Town Hall with John Delaney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HxWAL5RDMM

"Nothing to Be Written" VR project by the BBC

Next Week's Guest

Austin Kleon, author of Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad - available for pre-order with delivery April 2, 2019

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

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TKC SXSW19 2 South By and Senior Living Mar 14, 2019

Show notes

This is the view from the big escalator at the Austin Convention Center, where I am attending a session about the Hope and Hype of Blockchain. Also in this TKC Extra I share an unusual experience I had yesterday while visiting senior living communities with my cousin Peter, who is blind. Thanks for listening!

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TKC SXSW19 1 Hi from Austin Mar 12, 2019

Show notes

I plan to upload brief segments each day this week from Austin, where I am attending South By Southwest through Sunday. So much to learn!

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TKC 553 Extinctions Expert A G Riddle Mar 07, 2019

Show notes

Author of Winter World

Interview starts at 17:30 and ends at 43:00

"My books almost always deal with an extinction-level event or the pushing of humanity to the brink at times."

Comments

Mark Isero's Kindle Classroom Project

Kindle Direct Publishing eBook Quality Dashboard

Interview with A G Riddle

A G Riddle's books at Amazon.com

My interview with A G Riddle in July, 2018 on TKC 520

News

Amazon to stop selling its Dash buttons - Fast Company and BBC

Last-Ditch effort to save NYC Amazon Jobs - The Hill

"How Amazon Taught the Echo Auto to Hear You In a Noisy Car" by Dhananjay Motwani at Wired - March 4, 2019

"How Amazon's Algorithms Curated a Dystopian Bookstore" by Joel Saget at Wired - March 5, 2018

"Amazon to reportedly close all of its 87 pop-up stores in the US beginning in April" by Todd Haselton at CNBC - march 6, 2019

"Health Venture of Amazon, Berkshire, JP Morgan Has a Name: Haven" by Anna Wilde Mathews at The Wall Street Journal - March 6, 2019 (Note: My audio erroneously says the third partner is Chase instead of JPMorgan.)

Next Week's Show - Almost-Live from South By Southwest Interactive

TKC 555 on March 22 - Bestselling author Michael J. Sullivan

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