The Kindle is fantastic. I have held one of these nifty gadgets in my hand and been blown away with it's clear paper-like screen, long battery life, and amazing light weight.
I no longer have the Kindle I mentioned. I bought it for an Australian customer. She bought a Kindle DX and had it shipped to our worker Maria. Maria bought all the yaoi available for the Kindle and shipped it back to her.
Now the Global Kindle has come out, and my Australian friend wishes she had waited. (But we're helping her sell her old one for her, no prob).
The need for a Global Kindle is more pressing than the USA-only one that was originally launched. I only see the world in shades of yaoi. The UK and Australia have a great demand for English yaoi, yet little supply. I suggest that we make the Kindle the solution for our overseas yaoi fans. Let's make the Kindle investment twice as good for these starved yaoi and manga fans.
Digital Manga, I'm talking to you guys since you've put yaoi on the Kindle with me: Let's offer a Yaoi Kindle Deal. If someone from overseas is willing to pay $259 plus the $18 for Airmail shipping let's sell it to them with $200 worth of free yaoi manga preinstalled.
It won't be difficult to pull off. Akadot Retail and Everythingyaoi.com could become resellers of the Kindle and buy them wholesale. Then we offer them for sale with a selection of yaoi manga the customers can choose from, up to $200. The Kindle attaches to a computer with the same cord it uses to recharge. You can install PRC files on it without registering the Kindle on Amazon. I installed Winter Demon on the Australian girl's Kindle as a free gift to her before I registered it.
Even after loading 30 titles on their Kindles there will still be plenty more for them to buy for it. We will be seeding customers with the ability to buy our books where they can't usually do so. We can't count on these customers to buy a Kindle without this sort of incentive. It's a big investment. But when you offer them such added value I can see two girls pooling their money together to get one. (Then getting sick of sharing and buying their own).
Publishers should do this with the Kindle. Think of it as a video game console. Super Nintendo wouldn't have sold without that copy of Super Mario Bros. 2. Sega Genesis wouldn't have sold without Sonic the Hedgehog. (I'm dating myself, aren't I?). A dictionary or some public domain stuff doesn't sweeten the deal enough. The Kindle should have book bundles preinstalled to give fans of different genres the incentive to buy.
I'm willing to offer the Yaoi Press library as the free books they can select to get with the Kindle. I can't do this by myself, however. We don't have enough books! I need DMP or another Kindle-enabled publisher to join with me on this.
Why am I blogging about this instead of emailing them directly? I would have to commit ritual suicide if I got DMP to invest in this idea and it was a total flop. Consider this post my first step in market research.
Do you want to see this happen? Would you buy a yaoi-loaded Kindle? Then comment!
