Amazon

What began as fan fiction for Twilight, has turned into a bestselling series of novels for Vintage Books. E.L. James‘ romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey has sold more print and eBook copies combined on Amazon.com, than the top selling romance book sold in all of 2011, according to new data from Amazon.com.

According to the data, which was shared with eBookNewser by an Amazon spokesperson, the book is currently selling 6x more Kindle books than print books. It is also the top selling romance book of the year so far in both print and Kindle format.

James recently sold the film rights to the series to Universal Pictures. Focus Features will partner with the studio to market and distribute the the film.

Amazon is now selling “eBooks Kindle en Español” in the Tienda Kindle. This will include titles written in Spanish originally as well as translated titles. These Spanish language titles are aimed at the large Spanish speaking population in the United States and thus are available in the United States.

Spanish speakers can set their Kindle and Kindle apps to Spanish language and shop for titles in their language, as well as access the social features in the Kindle in Spanish.

Amazon also has some new Spanish language customer service pages including a phone number and email support in Spanish.

Martin Crosbie, the author of My Temporary Life earned more than $45,000 in one month from paid sales and loans from the Kindle Store during the month of March.

Crosbie credited the sales, which very much surpassed his $100 in income from February and January, to letting his book be available in the Kindle Lending Library. Crosbie stated: “Because of Amazon, and KDP Select in particular, I can now call myself an author – before my experience with this program that was only a dream. Through KDP Select, I have been able to get my work to thousands and thousands of readers quickly and effectively. My experience with KDP Select is truly life-changing.” Read more

One of the hot new gadgets which debuted at CES 2012 is about to hit the market, and it solves a problem that I’m pretty sure very few people have.

SolarFocus, an Asian solar panel maker, is going to be shipping their second Kindle cover in a couple weeks. This one is built just for the Kindle Touch, and it includes an LED light, battery, and a solar panel.

SolarFocus is boasting that their cover can charge the Kindle Touch and that it offers a 3-month-long battery life. It’s due to ship on 15 April, and the retail is $80. That might seem a little expensive, but Amazon’s own lighted covers cost $60. Those covers come with a light but no solar panel. I would think that the $20 difference is worth it.

Amazon

Amazon took another step in its recent push to expand its video streaming service today. The company announced a partnership with Sony and said that Amazon’s Instant Video app would be available on PlayStation 3 consoles.

As Amazon points out in the press release, “This makes the PS3 system the first and only video game console system to offer Amazon Instant Video.” This does not, however, make Amazon the first video streaming service available on the PS 3. Netflix, Hulu, CinemaNow and Vudu, among others, are already available on the gaming console.

PS3 users can download the Amazon app for free but will have to sign up for the Amazon Instant Video service ago use it (much like you would for Hulu or Netflix). It is free to Amazon Prime members.

Amazon has been selling Android apps for the past year, much like iTunes and Google Play. But unlike its competitors, Amazon hasn’t offered developers any way to sell upgrades and content to users from inside apps; they could just sell the app. That’s bout to change.

Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon is currently testing a new purchase option for their appstore. Here’s more from the article: “The service being tested allows both subscriptions and purchases of individual items within apps, according to Maria Ly, co-founder of Skimble Inc., a seller of physical fitness programs that has been involved in Amazon’s pilot for about a month. Kinley Pearsall, a spokeswoman for Seattle-based Amazon, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.”

Amazon’s not talking, but I’m sure that many developers are eagerly awaiting this development.

Bloomberg

If you tried to buy a Kindle book in the last hour in the United States, you were probably unable to do so. For some reason Amazon pulled the buy button on all eBooks available from Amazon.com. As of 3:55 pm ET, the issue appears to have been fixed on most titles.

For example, if you tried to buy a bestseller such as The Girl Who Played With Fire, the Kindle price is unavailable. And it says, “This title is not available to customers from: United States.” This is especially crazy news, since Harry Potter books just became available in the Kindle store today and Amazon even sent out a press release about it today.

GalleyCat has more: “In the Kindle Forums, user Duncan Lockhart posted a message reportedly from Kindle Direct: ‘We are currently working on a website issue that is affecting the buy box for Kindle books. Some Kindle books are not displaying pricing information and show as unavailable. We anticipate the issue will be resolved shortly, and will update the network when it’s been fixed.’”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is breaking news and has been updated as more information has become available.

Rumors are circulating again about the Kindle Fire 2. The recent series comes from DigiTimes, which suggest that the Taiwan-based manufacturer Catcher Technology has already received orders for the new tablets from Amazon.

DigiTimes has more: “Catcher will supply the chassis to Amazon from its plants in Taizhou, China with estimated gross margin to be more than 40%, the sources noted. In 2012, Catcher is estimated to increase its number of CNC machines to 15,000 to help boost capacity and satisfy the strong demand from the tablet PC industry, especially the iPad, the sources noted.”

The new device will reportedly have a larger screen than the current 7-inch screen and is expected to come out in May or June.

I was browsing the Kindle Store today when I realized something. It’s been quite some time since I last looked at the higher eBook prices, and that’s always been entertaining. Now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but some Kindle eBooks are rather expensive. I like to sort through the list and chuckle while pondering if anyone actually buys the eBooks.

The most expensive eBook currently in the Kindle Store costs $6,232, and it’s on sale for a healthy 20% off. The 5th most expensive Kindle eBook costs $5,300. All 5 titles are from the same publisher and they look to be reference manuals that you mind find on the shelves in an institution.

1. Nuclear Energy
2. Compounds with 13 to 162 Carbon Atoms
3. Noble Metal Systems
4. Selected Soldering and Brazing Systems
5. Selected Copper Systems

That’s the rumor going around right now, and while there’s no real evidence for it, it is a delicious rumor.

The French blog Revioo is reporting that Amazon is holding an event next week.  We don’t know what Amazon plans to talk about, but Revioo has learned that the invite says “share information about Amazon in France.” They also reported that this bears a striking resemblance to the invite that Amazon sent out last year when the Kindle Store launched in France.

As much as I would like this rumor to be true, it would seem to be unlikely. The Kindle Fire would need access to mp3 & video content and the Amazon App Store to be as profitable in France as (everyone believes) it is in the US. Amazon is currently selling the KF at a loss, and it is widely believed that the content sales make up for the difference. And those stores are all limited to the US, so unless Amazon launches them in France next week I doubt that the KF will be launched.

But I will be on the edge of my seat next week, waiting to read the news.

via Revioo