The check was in the mail. I didn't cash it, however.
Drowned out in the buzz about the yet-to-appear Kindle DX a couple of weeks ago was the semi-related announcement that Amazon was opening the gates of remunerated e-publishing not only to newspapers and magazines, but to everyday bloggers. Among the first to “sell out,” as he headlined it, was my industry colleague Steve Yelvington, who blogs at yelvington.com.
Yes, you now can pay a monthly fee to Amazon.com not just to read the New York Times or LA Times or Chicago Tribune on your current and future Kindle. You also can pay them to get yelvington.com, although ”I don’t know whether anyone will buy it (and I have my doubts, since the idiot who manages this operation gives away the same content on the Web),” he noted.
Well, us journalist types at the end of the alphabet need to stick together. So as of today version 11.0 of “The next miracle” is also available in a Kindle edition (is that version 11.1?), and the low monthly price of $1.99 “includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet.”
- Line up, sign up, subscribe today.
Plus, “Kindle Blogs are auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle and updated throughout the day so you can stay current.”
Plus plus, “It’s risk free—all Kindle Blog subscriptions start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price.”
Plus plus plus, I already know how to make money on the Internet! Just look at the check at the top of this post!
Yes, in early 2000, I succumbed to another e-publishing siren song. I signed up with MightyWords.com, which billed itself as ”a definitive digital marketplace for the written word.” According to Library Journal, MightyWords, which was launched by the evocatively named Fatbrain.com, “offers authors and publishers a new digital channel to read, write, buy, and sell written content, including essays, short stories, chapters, and additional works.”
“By creating the first digital marketplace to read, write, buy, and sell ideas, MightyWords will unleash a wealth of written content and will create a powerful distribution channel that will significantly affect the publishing world,” said Chris MacAskill, Fatbrain.com CEO. Well, who could resist? Not me. Even though it was available for free here at owenyoungman.com, I uploaded my 1997 travel essay “From Hong Kong to Hershey: Or, I Liked the Thick Chocolate Shake More Than the Thick Soup of Snake” and waited for the royalties to roll in.