Amazon  on Thursday opened the virtual doors to a new Spanish-language eBook store. Dubbed "eBooks Kindle en Espanol," it is tucked within the Amazon Kindle Store.
The new offering also has features specially implemented for U.S. Spanish-speaking customers, like extensive help pages and phone and e-mail customer support in Spanish.
All this means U.S. customers can now shop for Spanish-language books in the new store or set any Kindle device to access a customized shopping experience designed for books in Spanish.
Spanish Authors Rejoice
The Spanish-language Kindle bookstore is launching with bestsellers like
"El Alquimista" by Paulo Coelho, "Cien años de soledad" by Gabriel García Márquez and "Juegos del Hambre" by Suzanne Collins.
In all, the store has more than 30,000 titles, including the exclusive nonfiction work, "El Libro de los Manuales," from Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, the best-selling Spanish-language author of all time on Amazon.com. The store also offers books from Nobel Prize winners Gabriel García Márquez, Camilo Jose Cela and Mario Vargas Llosa, popular titles from best-selling authors such as Julia Navarro, Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Isabel Allende; more 1,000 free classics in Spanish; and exclusive Kindle Singles in Spanish.
"I believe that many more people will have access to great stories from diverse authors with this improved digital experience, and Kindle readers will also now get to read my new work, 'El Libro de los Manuales,' available exclusively in Spanish from the Kindle Store," said Coelho. "I am grateful to all of my Hispanic readers in the United States for their ongoing support to my entire canon."
Other Cool Kindle Features
The new $79 Kindle and many free Kindle reading apps can also be customized for Spanish-language reading and navigation. We asked Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, his take on Amazon rolling out a Spanish-language store. As he sees it, it's about time.
"Amazon is an e-reader company and it certainly makes sense for them to allow customized translations," Enderle said. "Having that capability with regard to any reader product should be one of the advantages you get when you to go an e-reader.
"We deal in a Web world, and the Web world is international. Language capabilities should be part and parcel to an e-book service."
Although the Spanish-language bookstore is well-publicized, Enderle said Amazon is doing many things that people aren't talking as much about -- but that are especially innovative. He points to a utility for blind people that runs on the PC and reads books, as well as a high-contrast mode that allows people with poor vision to read the books. Then there's X-Ray for the Kindle Touch.
"X-Ray graphically showcases where each character is within the book in a chart. And also, if you are looking for key phrases, it will graphically showcase them," Enderle said. "X-Ray can also create a one-pager that describes the entire book. So if you are in a reading club and you forgot to read that week, you just use this utility and it will give you the major points in the book."
Based on your interest in this article, here's something that may be of interest to you also:
This article relates to the following term(s) that also match our recommendation: Kindle. ( Close)
 Recommended Reading: The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses Synopsis: The History of Wireless reads like a novel. It chronicles the discoveries and inventions that led to today's mass market. Available for the Kindle and in paperback.
 Gift Suggestion: Give your favorite children the gift of an amazing adventure in reading. Check out one of the hottest new series of the year: The Mason Dexter Adventure Series chronicles the adventures of Mason Dexter, a resourceful middle-school boy who builds amazing tech gadgets and saves America from impending doom. The Mason Dexter Adventure Series is available now on Amazon.com. Perfect to read on the iPad, Kindle, Android eBook readers, or any computer with Amazon's free Kindle app.
|
