Amazon's Kindle Expands Its Library

Amazon said Friday that the Kindle will get 5,000 additional titles from Simon & Shuster for its e-book library.

Simon & Shuster is a unit of CBS, which is buying CNET, parent of ZDNet.

With the Simon & Shuster deal, Amazon adds titles like Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” The companies said the “great percentage” of Simon & Shuster’s backlist will be on the Kindle by the end of 2008.

In a statement, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos outlined a few Kindle details and reiterated comments made at the D6 conference earlier this week. Among the notable nuggets:

• After a Kindle purchase (all resources), customers increase their total book purchases 2.6 percent times;
• Kindle books account for 6 percent of book units that have both Kindle and physical versions;
• Amazon’s goal is to put every book into an eBook.

Simon & Schuster picked its titles based on popular sales of physical books over the last 12 months on Amazon. Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

Also see: Does the Kindle have iPod-ish potential?

• Amazon’s Bezos: Our Kindle supply issues almost fixed
• Amazon.com buys Audible; March into digital content distribution continues
• Are Amazon and Apple on a digital content collision course?
• Amazon’s Kindle: Can it make its technology invisible?

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Credit: ZDNet