Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Deathbed Conversions is a Kindle MatchBook


What's a Kindle MatchBook?

Funny you should ask. I asked, too, because that is the kind of Amazonly-curious person I am.

Here's the short answer:

If you buy (or have already bought) Deathbed Conversions in print format, you can now also purchase the Kindle version for only $2.99.

A marketing savvy person would not say the following:

"What's the point of that? Why would I want it on Kindle if I already ordered the print version? Are you crazy, Amazon?"

Well, clearly, Amazon is not crazy and they are far more marketing-savvy than I am, so there must be a point.

Here are a few that occurred to me:

1. You bought the print version of Deathbed Conversions and you want to share it with a friend. But you know your dear friend never returns books, so you quietly (you would never hurt her feelings by coming right out and saying, "Now, you are going to return this, right?") buy the Kindle version for $2.99, just in case your friend continues to follow the pattern she's always followed and never gives you your book back. You really love your friend, and after all, it's only $2.99.*

2. You bought the print version, but then you felt the need to declutter your home and your book collection, because, let's face it, you have a lot of books. But you still might want to reread Deathbed Conversions someday because, wow, that Oscar Wilde story is amazing, and who knew about Kenneth Clark? And you'd like to look up that little bit about Roald Dahl again. So you buy the book on Kindle for $2.99, and give the print version to your friend, the one who never returns books, as a gift. Now you don't have to resent her. You really do love her. You're going to buy her a coffee tomorrow.

3. You aren't sure you even want to read Deathbed Conversions, so you haven't paid much attention to it. But your aunt in Tacoma wants to read it, so, you buy the print version on Amazon, have it shipped directly to her, and then order the Kindle version for yourself for only $2.99. Your aunt is so sweet, and she loved True Grit and she thought Gary Cooper was the dreamiest thing to ever light up a darkened screen, and she's going to love that book. Maybe you'll even read it someday. It's on your Kindle now, after all.

4. You are going to leave the print version of Deathbed Conversions on your overstuffed bookshelves (you love them that way) and also buy the book on Kindle because your Kindle fits in your purse (if it doesn't, you need a bigger bag) and you're more likely to read this book if you can pull out your Kindle while you're in the dentist's waiting room.

5. Your daughters are always walking off with your books but you always know where your Kindle is. (Unless Ramona is using it to play Stack the States. Do you have a Ramona doing that at your house, too?)

*Note to all of my friends: You are not this friend. I'm pretty sure I am this friend.

3 comments:

Charlotte (WaltzingM) said...

Oh my goodness! Amazon will even look up which books you've bought and tell you which ones are available as Matchbooks. I did not need to know this. I REALLY did not need to know this. BTW… I am totally #4 (although I try to only keep the ones I really love so they aren't THAT overstuffed… only because it takes a lot for me to REALLY LOVE a book.).

Charlotte (WaltzingM) said...

And I just discovered that if the regular Kindle price is less that $2.99, you get it for the lower price! I love Amazon (and not just because my husband now works for them because that's only been 2 months but I feel like I need to disclose that).

Karen Edmisten said...

Oh, I didn't know that about the lower price!