Does the Church publish to Kindle?

[bensonmcconkie]

Wow, OK. I'll back off then.

I should've specified: I meant Kindle library, as in:
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b?i ... 1286228011

The Gospel Library is great for android (Kindle Fire) but doesn't work on Ereaders like the Kindle Paperwhite.

I'm was (and am) wondering why the Church doesn't make them easily downloaded and available on such ereaders.

[ggllbb]

At one point, there was a project for Gospel Library for Kindle ereaders. That project was abandoned or put on open ended hold. I don't know the reason, but it could be either not being able to get enough volunteers to work on it. A more likely reason could be that the kindle is not an app based device like android, windows or IOS, so it doesn't really fit the same paradigm.

There are available much of the content of the gospel library that can be installed on a kindle, but it is not the same as Gospel Library. Some is available from the church and others are available from third parties.

As far as I know (I haven't checked for a long time) there are no plans to attempt Gospel Library on Kindle ereaders.

[EmilyHedrick]

Thank you for everyone's posts. I wanted to respond to some of the comments that have been made.

Yes, the Church is officially in the Kindle Store. We have been publishing a selection of e-books into Amazon, iTunes, Deseret Bookshelf, and the LDS Online Store. We are slowly opening other new channels for publishing as well. Not all Church materials will be available in e-book format but we are taking core materials and releasing them as they are created.

As to the cost, yes, there is a cost associated with publishing e-books to Amazon. I've spoken to Amazon directly and they would not allow us to publish our e-books for free through their site. They will price match a few of our titles (making them free) but that is something we have no control over. We will always price Church e-books to the lowest option available. Pricing is dependent on file size. It will be between ($0.99-2.99) per title.

Kindle's Documentation:
Only if you sign up for Select, in which case you will get 5 free days every three months. Otherwise you can add your book for free on another site (B&N is the biggie) and Amazon might price match it. You will have no control over if/when they price match, or for how long they will do so.

We are looking at branding our e-books in such a way that our readers will know these e-books are officially from the Church. We are still in the process of creating an identifier on the cover art. Unfortunately anyone could post e-books to sites and have the author from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". This makes it very confusing to those who are trying to find official Church e-books.

I recommend following the Interactive Books and Magazines wiki page. Any new information on e-books or direction is updated there. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any feedback or have an interest in volunteering to help publish/research/test.

[bensonmcconkie]

Thank you for your post, hedrickef. And thanks to everyone else for helping me understand everything.

This wouldn't completely remove the issue of multiple authors (some official, some not, and indistinguishable between) but maybe it would help if the Church created an (official) author page:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help

Just an idea.

[EmilyHedrick]

That is a great suggestion! I will look into that today and see about getting the Church into this. Let me know if you have any more ideas like these. I appreciate everyone's feedback.

[russellhltn]

Unfortunately anyone could post e-books to sites and have the author from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". This makes it very confusing to those who are trying to find official Church e-books.

If find that rather odd. Sure there are publications that are public domain, but who is the legal author?

As for the ones not in public domain, it seems to me that copyright law would have something to say about that. I would imagine that Amazon would most cooperative if it was bright to their attention.