Things I Love: The Kindle Community

One thing that I love about owning a Kindle is being a member of the Kindle Community.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disparaging the Nook, Kobo, Sony, or any other brand of eReader on the market.  I don’t know much about whether or not they have strong communities available to them.

What I do know is that, as a Kindle owner, I have a huge, strong community available to me.  If you are a Kindle owner and haven’t checked out the community, you can do so here (and you don’t have to own a Kindle to be there, all are welcome).

Here are some of the things that I love about the community.  First, the Kindle Community gives readers unprecedented access to authors.  Not all authors show up there, but there are several that do.  Readers can often ask questions of authors and get actual responses (not just a form letter from a publisher).  This is really great for me as a reader.  It’s also great for me as a writer.  It means that I have the ability to hear from my readers what they like, what they want, and what they think.

Second, readers can get together by genres.  They can discuss what books they liked and what books they didn’t like.  The best part about discussing what books they didn’t like is that readers can say why they didn’t like it.  This can provide feedback for the author, but it can also guide other readers.  It also doesn’t mean that it will hurt sales; sometimes it can even help sales (I hear you thinking, “How?”  I know, I’m doing the creepy mind reading thing again).

There are many ways that complaints can help sales, but I’ll just give you an example of one.  Let’s use sex (some of you are blushing, I can tell).  Someone complains in the forums, “This would have been a good book if it weren’t for the graphic sex.”  Suddenly, lovers of graphic sex are one-clicking themselves silly (wow - that really sounded dirtier than I’d meant it to).

Or someone says, “This would have been a good book, but I would have liked to see a bit more physical contact between the romantic leads.  I found it hard to believe that these two people would have no sexual contact at all.”  And this tells readers who prefer less graphic works that this book is safe.  And they start one-clicking away (notice how much less dirty this seems when we are talking about those who don’t like graphic sex in books, weird, huh?).

The third, and possibly most important (to me), reason that I like the Kindle Community is the ability for authors to interact with each other.  Don’t get me wrong, I cherish EVERY interaction with a reader.  It’s very special to me, and even after over 20 years of writing, the glow has not faded.  But, never before have I had the ability to utilize the support of other authors who are NOT personal friends (although they often become personal friends). 

For the first 20 years of my writing career, the only writers that I had feedback from were personal friends who were also writers.  Sometimes, I worry that their opinions may be biased (even though we try to be brutally honest).  With the Kindle Community, I have had the chance to share my work with other writers who have no bias.  This allows for objective feedback, which allows for writers to improve their craft. 

This community is great for writing in the long run.  It’s great for writers (and quite exciting) but it is also great for readers.  You can expect that the quality of the books (or blogs) that you purchase will continue to improve even more over time.  An author that you enjoy now should be even more enjoyable for you as time rolls on, as they get the opportunity to understand what their readers want, and where their writing can use improvement. 

The Kindle Community is a great resource for readers and writers alike.  If you haven’t checked out the Kindle Community, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of three blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind, Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day, and You Be the Editor.

For comments, questions, notes or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.