It’s a scenario playing out for busy wantrepreneurs across the nation. You settle into bed with your copy of the Tim Ferriss tome, The 4 Hour Body, but can’t make heads or tails of the section comparing part of the female anatomy to “an Imperial Guard from Star Wars.” Your lady is due home in twenty minutes and you want to make sure to get this right the first time.
Well if you’re savvy enough to be reading #4HB on the Kindle, you can ask Mr. Ferris directly. Amazon’s new @author feature lets readers fire off questions to a writer’s Twitter and Amazon homepage without ever leaving the book.
Amazon rolled out a social network for Kindle readers back in March, which recently earned a rave review from A VC Fred Wilson. Increasingly Amazon is supplanting the forums and reading groups publishers have been trying to build, and doing so with a network scale and hardware integration that few publishers can match.
While the Kindle has been a success and sales of e-books are growing fast, the real tipping point could be the release of an Amazon tablet this fall. Right now Apple dominates the market and the units produced by competitors have fallen flat with critics and consumers. There is a huge market for a number two player if Amazon can deliver a compelling experience at an affordable price.
If they are truly interested in satisfying their customers, of course, Amazon should get a little advice from @tferriss. A “15-minute orgasm” Mr. Ferriss? More power to you.
