Slashdot Mirror
The Kindle Skews Amazon's 2011 Best-Seller List
destinyland writes "Amazon's released their list of 2011's best-selling books, revealing that 40% of the best-selling ebooks didn't even make it onto their list of the best-selling print books. The #1 and #2 best-selling ebooks of the year weren't even available in print editions, while four of the top 10 best-selling print books didn't make it into the top 100 best-selling ebooks. 'It couldn't be more clear that Kindle owners are choosing their material from an entirely different universe of books,' notes one Kindle site, which points out that five of the best-selling ebooks came from two million-selling ebook authors — Amanda Hocking and John Locke — who are still awaiting the release of their books in print. And five of Amazon's best-selling ebooks were Kindle-only 'Singles,' including a Stephen King short story which actually outsold another King novel that he'd released in both ebook and print formats. And Neal Stephenson's 'Reamde' was Amazon's #99 best-selling print book of 2011, though it didn't even make it onto their list of the 100 best-selling ebooks of the year. 'People who own Kindles are just reading different books than the people who buy printed books,' reports the Kindle site, which adds '2011 may be remembered as the year that hundreds of new voices finally found their audiences.'"
I know it makes you feel special to use phrases like "DRM shackles" and flaunt your circumvention of it. But how does that have anything to do with the book's qualities as "commuting fodder"? The truth is, it doesn't. A Kindle book can be read on just about any device, regardless of the DRM. The only reason to attempt to bring the "shackles" of DRM into it is to tell the world that you're a smug, self-satisfied douche who is far more concerned with being smug and self-satisfied than with any practical issues with DRM.