I found myself in Barnes and Noble yesterday afternoon after visiting the UPS store, and I was browsing the books as I do. I was happy to note that all the copies of my book (which I previously took a picture of) were gone. I hope that means some lovely people in the neighborhood picked up the book and are even now launching a WordPress blog.
Up to the third floor I went to look at the science fiction and I saw Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery on the bookshelf. After reading the back I was intrigued so I snapped a pic of it with my iPhone (using the Amazon app, since I knew it would be cheaper at Amazon) and was on my merry way.
When I got home Amazon had found the book and send me a link to the physical copy, which features a link to the Kindle version as well.
Before I continue, I should explain what a Kindle is, for those not in the know. The Kindle is Amazon’s eBook reader. Basically, you can get books downloaded to your Kindle over the air. You don’t need to sync it to a computer at all, just buy a Kindle book at Amazon and in a few minutes it shows up on your Kindle without any user interaction. It is very cool, and I enjoy my Kindle.
Knowing my love of gadgets and instant gratification I am sure you must think I instantly bought the Kindle version, right? I would have, except for one thing: the price. The Kindle version costs $9.99 (which is the typical Kindle price) while the physical book costs $10.17 for a brand new copy. Saving $.18 just doesn’t make the Kindle version all that attractive to me, especially when I was flipping through the book in B&N and I thought to myself, ‘This is a well made book.’
I’ve just ordered the physical copy.