
Five great Kindle resources

Five great Kindle resources

There are lots of folks who have just recently gotten Kindles…welcome to the Klub!

You may have already had yours for a couple of days.  Most people will be up and reading quickly…the basic operation is easy.  I think that’s one of the keys to its success.

However, you may be looking for more in-depth information.  You may also have just run into some questions.

I’m going to list in this post some places I use regularly which I think will be helpful for you…whether you are a “newbie” or an experienced Kindleer.

The User’s Guide

Kindle Documentation

It’s not as comprehensive as some of the other resources, but it has some great information.  One of the nicest things is that, using the link above, you can read it online on your computer (as a PDF).  If you have the free Acrobat Reader (you can not install it on your Kindle, just your computer), that means you can get to it even when your Kindle is non-responsive.  You can also search it.  It’s the official information, and I do return to it from time to time…Amazon also updates it.  It should be available to you as well on your Kindle. 

eReaderIQ.com

This is not an Amazon site, but hands down the best Kindle resource on the web.  Oh, it’s not for answering questions…it has other wonderful features.  It’s from the folks who do Jungle-Search, and was formerly known as KindeIQ.  If you are a Kindle user, you need to be using this site.

Why? 

First, they list all of the promotional free books at Amazon, and update that frequently.  You can even sign up for free e-mail notifications.  Do I tell you about them?  Yes, but we do it in different ways. 

Second, you can get free notifications when a Kindle store book drops in price.  This can be a huge money saver.  See a title you’d love to get, but don’t like the price?  Just enter it here, and they’ll send you an e-mail when it drops the percentage (or more) that you set.  Books do tend to go down when the paperback is released, but e-book prices also fluctuate quite a bit. 

Third, you can sign up to be notified for free when a book is Kindleized.  Books are added to the Kindle store at a mad pace: the US store averages something like 1000 a day.  If you search for a favorite and it’s not in the Kinde store, add it at eReaderIQ.  They’ll let you know when it happens.  I expect the pace of conversion to increase over time.

Fourth, it is the best way to search the Kindle store…by title, by price, by publisher, by topic…lots of options.  When I say it is the best, I routinely use it instead of Amazon. 

Get free stuff, save money, find the books you want…wonderful!

The Amazon Kindle community

Do you want unofficial answers to your questions?  Do you want to benefit from the experience of other Kindleers?  Do you want to read limericks?  I’ve never been in a better online community.  Answers tend to be posted very quickly and in a friendly way.  Yes, there is some nastiness sometimes…it is the internet, after all.  ;)  Do follow the guidelines, though…that helps.  I find a lot of breaking news there.  Amazon does post there sometimes, and you can easily tell what is official and what isn’t.  You can search it for answers to the questions, or just start your own discussion (serious or silly).   I created a Welcome Thread for it…you may just want to start there. 

Kindle Customer Service

Amazon’s Customer Service is very highly-rated…and I’ve found the Kindle part of it to be even better.  You can reach them starting here:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

One of the coolest things is that you can click a button to have them call you.  My phone usually rings within a second or so, and I’m talking to a person within a minute.  There are some things only they can do for you (like resetting the last page read in a book), but you can call them with questions.  For some reason, some people have trouble finding the information: that’s why I linked to it above.  Be aware that the UK store has different contact information. 

For people who bought from anywhere besides http://www.amazon.co.uk :

Inside the US: 1-866-321-8851

Outside the US:  1-206-266-0927

Inside the US is toll-free…outside is not.  You can call them if you got your Kindle from Amazon.com or from Staples, Target…wherever.

You can also e-mail them, but I find that calling gets me a better response.

Kindle Help Pages

These are in the same place you go to get to Kindle Customer Service:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

I’m counting this as a different one, though, because you can do a self-service search.  It’s not the friendliest search I’ve ever seen, but this is an important place.  It is the official word…and it changes…a lot.   If they change the rules about something, this is where it is going to be.  That’s happened several times since I’ve had my first Kindle.  It’s a good place to search, and to refer people for answers about fees, licensing, operations, and so on.

I also do want to suggest you contact me with questions. 

You can search the website version of the blog:

http://ilmk.wordpress.com

but you can also leave me a question.  You can comment on the About page, or any post you want.  If you want me not to publish the post (in other words, if you want the public not to see it), just let me know in your comment.  I can see your e-mail address from the comment (other people can’t), so I may even contact you directly.  I get an e-mail when there are comments, and I check this often. 

You  can also publicly contact me through

my Amazon Author Central page

That’s a public forum…you can post there and other people can see it.

There you go…five of the best Kindle resources (in no particular order, by the way). 

That’s not to suggest that you are going to need to use them…as I said at the beginning, the basic use of the Kindle is pretty intuitive.  However, you may have questions beyond the basics…those are fun, in my opinion. 

People sometimes preface things by saying that they have a “dumb question”.  In my years as an educator, I’ve never heard (or read) a dumb question that was sincerely asked.  I’ve said before, I consider asking questions one of the best indicators of intelligence we have.  :)

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

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