If you use the Amazon Kindle app on your Apple device, you should not install the 3.6.1 update for the app.

UPDATE: Amazon has released a 3.6.2 update and removed the warning about the previous edition. The new release includes “Fix for Registration Issue” and “Various Bug Fixes and Security Fixes”

AppNewser has more details:

Do you like reading eBooks on your iPhone or iPad using Amazon’s Kindle app? Then here’s a tip, don’t download the latest update 3.6.1. This advice is coming straight from Amazon. The company posted this note on the app’s listing in iTunes: “There is a known issue with this update. If you are an existing Kindle for iOS user, we recommend you do not install this update at this time.”

Next month, Amazon will change its policy for associates who help readers find free Kindle eBooks online, making certain sites ineligible for advertising fees. Here’s more from the company:

Starting March 1, 2013, Associates who we determine are promoting and meet both conditions below for a given month will not be eligible for any advertising fees for that month within the Amazon Associates Program …
1. At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks
2. 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links

The company predicted that the new policy will only affect .1 percent of its associates and will not count for advertising fees accrued before March 1, 2013.

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Amazon reported today that net sales increased 22 percent to $21.27 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. The release also noted that eBooks are now a “multi-billion dollar category” for the company.

CEO Jeff Bezos had this comment: “After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast – up approximately 70% last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We’re excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection.”

According to CNBC, Wall Street analysts had predicted $22.26 billion in revenue for the quarter. At the same time, Amazon’s net income was down 45 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, falling to $0.21 per diluted share from $0.38 from the same period last year.

Want to make a potentially life-changing New Year’s resolution? Resolve to submit your novel to a writing contest or digital imprint this year.

Here are three ways to get your book out there right now…

How To Submit to Amazon’s 2013 Breakthrough Novel Award Contest: Categories include general fiction, romance, mystery/thriller, science fiction/fantasy/horror and young adult fiction.

How To Submit Your Work To Random House’s New Digital Imprints: Genres include “romance, new adult, mystery, thriller, science fiction, fantasy and horror.”

How to Submit Your Romance Novel to Avon Impulse: “We encourage creativity, so feel free to impress us with what you’ve got! We also have our eye out for great submissions in the following subgenres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Futuristic, Ghost, Gothic, Historical, Magical, Time Travel, Western, Shifter, Small Town, Steampunk, Suspense, Vampire (and others).”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a series of charts comparing privacy policies on various e-reading devices.

They asked an important question and found some unexpected answers: With whom can they share the information collected in non-aggregated form? As you can see by the chart above, Google, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Sony could all potentially share information with law enforcement officials or civil litigants.

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Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple are running $4 sale on David Foster Wallace‘s masterpiece, Infinite Jest.

As of this 5:23 p.m. ET writing, the same book currently costs $8.89 on Google Play and $9.99 on Kobo. This week, Hachette dropped the agency model for eBook pricing, allowing digital book marketplaces to price books as they wish. Will we see eBook price wars without these price restrictions?

paidContent has more about the new eBook contracts: “Hachette’s new contracts with ebook retailers following the publisher’s September settlement with the Department of Justice are now place. As of Tuesday, Amazon had begun discounting some Hachette ebooks slightly; today, the discounts are larger, and Google and Barnes & Noble is discounting as well. Apple is not discounting the ebooks yet.” (link via ohhaiworld)

Amazon has opened its sixth annual Breakthrough Novel Award contest, dropping Penguin as its traditional publishing partner and using Amazon Publishing instead. In addition, the contest now includes categories for five genres: general fiction, romance, mystery/thriller, science fiction/fantasy/horror and young adult fiction.

Submit early, the contest will close after 10,000 entries. The grand prize winner will get a publishing contract and $50,000 from Amazon Publishing. Four other first prize winners will also get a publishing contract and a $15,000 advance. Click here to read the fine print about the book contract and royalties at this link.

Publishers Weekly has joined the contest as well, delivering “full-manuscript reviews” for all the semi-finalists.

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Occupy Sandy Relief NYC, one of the various grass roots community organizations that has popped up in New York City to help hurricane victims in the area, is using Amazon’s wedding registry tool to coordinate donations.

Items on the registry include: blankets, flashlights, coolers, garbage bags, diapers, socks, generators, and cleaning supplies. The team of organizers explains in the registry that all of the items will be shipped to the Occupy Sandy relief outpost at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Clinton Hill.

Here is more from the registry: “We are Brooklyn residents and are in touch with the Occupy Sandy team who will receive the shipped items and organize daily deliveries to priority response areas. We are the updating the registry as we get updates on what is needed most in affected areas. PLEASE pay for the most expedited shipping – these items are needed ASAP! PLEASE NOTE the registry does not update automatically. Your purchases may not be reflected for 24-48 hours, but you will receive a purchase confirmation right away.”

Not surprisingly, Amazon is the most lucrative sales channel for eBooks, according to Revealing the Business of eBooks: 2009-2012, the fourth eBook survey of publishers conducted by Aptara and Publisher’s Weekly. The study, which was conducted in April, found that 68 percent of eBook publishers sell via Amazon making it the most popular sales channel for eBooks, followed by Apple’s iBookstore which is used by 58 percent of eBook publishers.

The study found that 4 out of 5 publishers are now publishing eBooks, which is an increase of 30 percent from three years ago. Making titles available as eBooks is helping drive sales. According to the report, 36 percent of eBook publishers are “realizing double-digit annual eBook revenues,” which is up 100 percent since last year. Still, the report points out that 65 percent of eBook publishers have converted less than half of their backlist titles into eBooks.

Curiously, the report found that while 31 percent of eBook publishers produce enhanced eBooks, only 12 percent of those publishers are finding that these enhancements have a positive impact on sales.

Without revealing sales figures, Amazon announced today that The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is the bestselling book series of all time on Amazon.com. The seven-book Harry Potter series was previously held this record, calculated by combining print and Kindle eBook sales.

Sara Nelson, editorial director of books and Kindle at Amazon.com, stated.: “Interestingly, this series is only three books versus Harry Potter’s seven, and to achieve this result in just four years is a great testament to both the popularity of the work and, we think, the growth in reading digitally during that time. Customers love these books and all three titles are consistently on our Top 10 lists in both print and Kindle formats, and ‘The Hunger Games’ is also the most-borrowed book in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.”

Sales for the Scholastic series have been so high that competing publisher Penguin blamed The Hunger Games for its revenue drop this year. For readers who enjoyed the series, the Lawrence Public Library in Kansas has compiled a flowchart to help find new books to read.