RonVitale

How to Read an eBook on Your Kindle, Nook, iPhone, iPad, Android Device or Computer

Are you a new tablet or smartphone owner and you’re not certain how to get an  ebook onto your device? It’s okay, don’t fret. This article will keep things nice and simple. As a lover of technology, I took the leap into the world of ebooks rather late as I have hundreds of physical books. But now that I have started reading on my Kindle or using the Kindle app, I understand what all the hubbub is about.

In this article, I’ll go through the basics:

• How to purchase a book on a Kindle and then read it.
• How to install the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad, purchase a book and then read it.
• How to install the Kindle app on your Android phone, purchase a book and then read it.
• How to install the Kindle app on your PC or Mac and read a book.
• How to install the Nook app for Android, Mac, iPhone, PC or iPad.
• Some resources on where to get free or inexpensive ebooks or an ebook reader.

Before I get started, keep this in mind that I regularly use a Kindle 3, a Droid X and an iPhone. I’ll spend less time on the Nook as I don’t physically own the device, but that’s not because I don’t like it. The most important thing to realize is that learning how to download books onto a device is easy. What you might not have consider before is the many places you can read ebooks now. Here’s a simple example:

Imagine that you're late for work in the morning and forget your Kindle at home. You're sitting on the train and pull out your iPhone or Android phone and load up the Kindle app. Simply select archived items and you can download the book you left at home (to the exact position you were last at) to your phone and start reading in seconds. When you return home and use the Kindle, you are asked if you'd like to jump ahead to the new location in the book. Think about the power of this feature as your books remain in Amazon's servers in the cloud. If you need to download an old book on a new device, you can. I've tried this out on three devices at once (Kindle, iPhone and Droid X) and I cannot tell you how convenient it is to be able to read something wherever you are at. Stuck in line at the supermarket? Pull out your iPhone and read a few pages and then go home later and synch up the Kindle to your latest location in the book.

With that said, let’s jump right in!

How to purchase a book on a Kindle and then read it.

Step 1: With your Kindle on, click on the “Menu” button, use the arrow keys and then select “Shop in Kindle Store.”


Step 2: On the next page, use the arrow keys to select either a topic (Books, Featured, Things to Try or Recommend for You) or scroll down into the blank “Begin typing to search” bar. Type in the word “Shakespeare.” Use the arrow keys to select “search store” and press the enter button.

Step 3: Use the arrow keys to select one of Shakespeare’s plays. One of my favorites is A Midsummer Night’s Dream so I’ll select that. On the next page, you’ll see the price (it’s free!) and the big “Buy” button highlighted. Press the select button and in a few seconds you will now own the book. Amazon will send the book to you wirelessly.

Step 4: After your book is downloaded, press the home button. You’ll see your new title in your table of contents (in this case A Midsummer Night’s Dream is now listed). Use the arrow keys to navigate to the new book, select and then begin reading.

Tips: Remember, in the example that I used I showed you how to “purchase” a free book. There are many free books available on Amazon and tens of thousands of books priced from $.99 to $2.99. And if you do not wish to purchase books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, there are more than 36,000 books freely available on Project Gutenberg. Scroll to the resources section at the end for more information.

Tip: You can simply connect your Kindle to a computer via USB and drag and drop any .mobi file to the device.

How to install the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad, purchase a book and then read it.

Step 1: Load up iTunes, visit the iTunes store and search for the Kindle app and then click on the download button.

 
Step 2: Once the app is downloaded and installed, connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer using the USB dock. Make certain that iTunes is loaded and then select the device. Once selected, click on the "Apps" menu at the top of the screen and then check the box next to the Kindle app. Synch your iPhone or iPad and once finished the app will be accessible on your Apple device.

Step 3: Load the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad. To purchase books (remember, there are many free books in Amazon.com), click on the "Kindle Store" button, search for the book you would like to purchase and buy it. You'll need to be logged into your Amazon account to make a purchase.

Step 4: Once a book is purchased, visit the Kindle "Home" button. Scroll through for the book you would like to read and click on it. To see your archived items, scroll to the bottom and your table of contents page that lists all the books you have access to for the device and click on the "Archived Items" link. You'll be able to scroll through the books by either author or title. If you'd like to read an archive item, simply click on it.

Tip #1: To bring up the menu options in the iPhone Kindle app, touch the screen. You'll be able to see the "Home" button, search (top right) and viewing options at the bottom.

Tip #2: Remember, if you're reading a book on a Kindle and you're out somewhere and have your iPhone or iPad and would like to read that book, it's easy to do so. Simply load up the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad, load the book up and you'll be asked if you'd like to start at the last location you were at. Or, if you'd like, you can jump to whatever point in the book you'd like. Definitely, a useful app to have when you become stuck somewhere longer than anticipated: Doctor's office, waiting in line at a supermarket, etc.

Tip #3: If you would like copy a free ebook to your iPhone or iPad, simply download the free app Stanza. After you've installed Stanza, read these instructions and you'll learn how to transfer books from your computer to your iPhone or iPad.  

How to install the Kindle app on your Android phone, purchase a book and then read it.

Step 1: Visit the Android market, search for the Kindle app and download the app to your phone. Once installed, load the app and review the menu. You can see which books are on your Android phone, in the archive or purchase a book (remember, there are many free books in the Amazon store as well). Once you find the book you wish to read on your device, simply touch the cover to load it and begin reading.

Step 2: To navigate through the Android version of the Kindle app, click the menu button on your smartphone (see the marked off button below), and a pop up onscreen menu will appear. From the menu, you'll be able to go back to the "Home" page of the Kindle app, go to a particular part in the book, add a bookmark, change the color of the page or font size and pull up more options ("Share Progress," "Sync," or "Search").

Tip: Remember, if you're reading a book on a Kindle and you're out somewhere and have your Android phone and would like to read that book, it's easy to do so. Simply load up the Kindle app on your phone, load the book up and you'll be asked if you'd like to start at the last location you were at. (Note: In order for you to do this, your Kindle's wireless needs to be on so that the device can communicate back to the cloud to let the servers know where you stopped reading.) Or, if you'd like, you can jump to whatever point in the book you'd like. Definitely, a useful app to have when you become stuck somewhere longer than anticipated.

How to install the Kindle app on your PC or Mac and read a book.

For those who do not own a Kindle or smartphone, there is still a way to read ebooks: On your PC or Mac. I'm not quite sure why someone might want to read from their computer as the convenience factor is pretty low, but you can do it. One possible scenario: You went on vacation or are traveling for work and you forgot your Kindle. All you need to do is to download the program, install on your PC and then log into your Amazon account. In moments, you'll have access to all of your books.

• Download the Kindle software for your PC.
• Download the Kindle software for your Mac.

 

Once installed, load the software, log in and you'll see your library of books (with little "cloud" symbols in the bottom right corner of the book to show that the book is in your Amazon archived cloud storage). Simply double click on a book you want to read and in a few seconds you can begin reading. It's a great free bit of software, but I not know how useful it will be.

How to install the Nook app for Android, Mac, iPhone, PC or iPad.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, I do not own a Nook so my instructions will be rather basic. Yet I did want to include the links to the Nook app so owners can have an easy means of finding the app for the device they own.

• Download the Nook app for Android. (Or search for the Nook app in the Android market.)
• Download the Nook software for the Mac.
• Download the Nook app for the iPhone. (Or search for the app in the iTunes store.)
• Download the Nook app for the iPad. (Or search for the app in the iTunes store.)
• Download the Nook app for a PC.

And if you need help with your Nook, be sure to visit the Nook FAQ. There are some great tips there and useful instructions to help you learn how to buy a book,  lend books to other Nook users, etc.)

Resources:

Here are some resources to help you with learning more about ebooks or obtaining free books. Enjoy!

• Project Gutenberg. More than 36,000 free books (in various formats) can be downloaded here.
• Smashwords. Great way to find ebooks from indie authors and publishers.
• Kindle Indie Bookstore. Tens of thousands of low priced books are available here. Many priced at $.99 to $2.99. And don't let the low prices scare you off, there are some great books here.
• Nook FAQ. Find answers to your Nook questions.
• Kindle support page. Find answers to your Kindle questions.
• Kindle Boards. Meet and talk with thousands of Kindle users and talk about books and the Kindle.
• Stanza. Free app for the iPhone that allows you to read ebooks.

Hopefully, this article has been helpful to teach you how to load books onto your device. I've loved to read since I was a child and now with access to more books than I can read in a lifetime in the palm of my hand, I fully understand why having ebooks is so great. The next time you're stuck somewhere and are bored you'll have a library at your fingertips. I hope you give reading ebooks a try and, most of all, I hope you enjoy it. Have fun!

Ron Vitale is the author of the young adult fantasy novel "Cinderella's Secret Diary" who never thought he'd give up his physical books for a Kindle.

Blog Tour de Troops: Thank You to All Our Service Men and Women

You should have arrived from Ak Taylor's awesome blog and you're next stop will be at Leia Shaw's. Be sure to check out their great books and take part in their contests to get copies of their books as well! If you're joining the tour late, you can catch up on all of the goodies at the Indie Book Collective.

So when I heard that President Obama was going to send home most of our troops from Iraq before the holidays, I was ready to do a jig. Our brave men and women have served in multiple tours in Afghanistan since October 2001 and 2003 for service in Iraq. Our troops are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters who have sacrificed time away from their loved ones to do their job. I am extremely thankful and have the most tremendous amount of gratitude for all the troops who have served in those two parts of the world and for all the other service men and women who continue to do their duty all around the world.

And that's why I wanted to become part of the Indie Book Collective's Blog Tour De Troops. I want to give back to the troops. So what's the deal? It's very simple. From November 11 - 14, all you need to do is add a comment to this blog post by leaving me your email address and tell me a quick story about how you are thankful for the troops who help protect our amazing country or, if you're in the armed services yourself, send me a shoutout. I'll then contact all those who enter a comment and send you a Smashwords coupon for a free ebook version of my novel Cinderella's Secret Diary. Then after the Tour de Troops, I'll send all the original blog comment emails to the organizer of the event and your name will be entered into a drawing to win a Kindle.

Yep, it's that simple. Just leave a cool comment about our amazing troops on my blog, put in your email address so I can send you a Smashwords coupon for my book and be entered to win a Kindle. And that's it! For those new to my site and who don't know what Cinderella's Secret Diary is about, here's a short little blurb:

"What happened to Cinderella after she married the Prince? Set in the late 1700s as Napoleon is rising to power, Cinderella embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to come to terms with her failed marriage and her inability to have a child. Torn between the Queen's insistence that she try all means necessary to conceive and her own desires, she agrees to travel to Paris to consult with a witch to help her become pregnant. Her journey leads her to find her long lost Fairy Godmother and aids her to solve the mystery behind her mother's death. Yet the Fey Lord, the Silver Fox, also takes notice in her and her world is suddenly turned upside down..."

Sounds cool, huh? Whatever did happen after "they lived happily ever after"? Now you can find out! And from the reviewer comments on Amazon, from Jessica at From Me to You... Video, Photography & Book Reviews and book reviewer Tania Collins, looks like both reviewers and readers are digging the book. This is definitely not the Disney version of Cinderella!

So to support our troops over this year's Veteran's Day weekend, let's all take some time to be thankful for all the sacrifices they have made to help keep our country strong and safe. Leave a comment in support of our troops and get a free ebook version of my book. It's that simple.

And to help our troops out in a bigger way, please consider making a donation toward raising funds to purchase Kindles for our troops. It's easy! Simply use Paypal and ibcprograms@gmail.com as the address to send money to. Please note on your payment that it's a Troops donation.

Why We Believe in Fairy Tales

I finished watching ABC’s Once Upon a Time and I really enjoyed it. I loved the characters, the premise and how the story drew me in, causing me to want to watch more. Yet there’s a scene in the pilot that really touched me. Henry’s teacher Sister Mary Margaret Blanchard played by Gennifer Godwin says to Emma: “What do you think stories are for? These stories are classics. There's a reason why we all know them. They are a way for us to deal with our world. Even if it doesn't always make sense.”

As a writer myself, I’ve always believed that Sister Mary Margaret Blanchard’s question is so important: “What do you think stories are for?” She believes that they help us deal with the world around us, but I would go a step further and say that fairy tales give us hope. Hope that true love exists and that good will triumph over evil. Tell me this: When the Queen came into the castle to find Snow White holding the bloodied Prince Charming and she realizes that the baby was safely transported away, did you not feel a swell in your heart? All of the Queen’s evil plan and her curse appear to have taken hold of everyone and won the day, but a tiny thread of hope is enough to give us pause to know that all is not lost.

In our lives, there are many problems and dark times, but through it all we fall back on the core values of faith, hope and love. When I was little, I remember seeing my first film in the movie theater. My Uncle had taken me to see Snow White and I became immersed in the story as a little boy, wondering if Snow White would ever wake from eating the poisoned apple. Even as a little boy of only 6 or 7, I hoped that she would be saved and that good would win the day. Forgotten were the difficult times I was going through as my mother had recently divorced my father. For the rest of the movie, I escaped into Snow White’s magical world. Now here I am, at 40, watching Once Upon a Time and getting caught up in the wonder of fairy tales all over again.

I believe in the power of stories and of the imagination. In my writing I try to get to the core of why we love, hope and keep our belief that good will triumph over evil. An important thing to remember though is that these fairy tales also have darkness attached to them. Over the centuries, they have been watered down little by little. In the original Brothers Grimm version of Snow White, when the evil Queen arrives at the wedding and all realize she poisoned Snow White she is punished “for her wicked ways [with] a pair of heated iron shoes. [They] are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is then forced to step into the iron shoes and dance until she drops dead.” Definitely, not light reading for little kids. The original stories of the Brothers Grimm had such dark parts in them to teach people that there are those who would do us harm. Evil is not imagined, but a part of our world. We often forget the original fairy tales and most adults brush off such stories as childish.

With Once Upon a Time, I hope that the storyline will be dark and we’re able to see how the characters pull through the curse to find their own happy ever after. (I expect there's a great chance of this because we haven't seen much yet of Rumpelstiltskin.) And for me, I look forward to watching the rest of the series for with all the violence and darkness in the world these days, it will be nice to escape for a short while. Yet when the show is over and I come back to the land of reality, I hope that some of the characters' belief in love and goodness will stay with me.

Ron Vitale is the author of the fantasy novel "Cinderella's Secret Diary" who never gave up hope of finding his own happy ever after.

Guest Post by David N. Walker

I'm trying an experiment with including posts from different writers. Although David Walker and I come from different backgrounds, I like the core message of this post: Look around, see people as they really are and appreciate the wonderful life around us (at least, that's how I interpret this post). Here's a little about him:

David N. Walker is a Christian father and grandfather and a grounded pilot. He cofounded Warrior Writers Boot Camp with Kristen Lamb. You can read more of his posts on his blog or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

When we think of miracles God performs and has performed for His people, many of us think first of the parting of the Red Sea. Certainly seeing such a body of water parted so two million people could walk across on dry land—and then letting the water come back in and inundate the army chasing them—is a true miracle.
 
Another one that may come to mind, is the felling of the walls of Jericho by a trumpet blast. Or the delivery of a man from the depths of the Mediterranean to dry land by a large fish. Spontaneous combustion of a large altar after it had been doused with water.

How about in the New Testament? The feeding of the multitude with the loaves and fishes. Jesus’ walking across the water? The empty tomb?

We can all think of countless miracles throughout the Bible, but in my opinion the greatest miracle of all is not recorded in God’s written word. It’s the miracle by which He takes people steeped in the things of this world—mired in our own lusts, focused on the things we want for ourselves—and changes us and adopts us into his own family.

When I was a young man, my focus was totally on myself. What I wanted. What I deemed to be good for me. Well, when my daughter was born, her welfare shot to the top of that list, but it was still my list.

Waitresses were not individual human beings. They were conveniences there to serve my desires. The same for store clerks, bank tellers—you get the point. The world revolved around me and my needs and desires.

Even when I devoted time to a worthwhile organization like Optimist International, I was actually pursuing what I perceived as my own best interests. Being the president of a club or the lieutenant governor of a zone gave me a certain stature that I hoped would help make me more successful in business. If I helped kids or my community or whatever along the way, that was okay, but it was really all about me.

Then one day a series of reverses brought me to see myself as God saw me, and it wasn’t pretty. I realized I wasn’t doing such a wonderful job of running my life, and I asked Jesus to come in and take it over.

Some things changed almost immediately. Some changes have been a long, slow process, but God took this lump of clay and changed it into something entirely different.

Those waitresses and clerks and tellers that used to be faceless conveniences to serve my wants now are wonderfully made human beings. When I begin to patronize a new restaurant, I want to get to know the waitresses, cashiers and others. I want to know their names and them to know mine. I want to know that they’re born-again brothers and sisters who will someday live in God’s presence. I want to pray for the well-being of those who are Christians and for the salvation of those who are not yet.

My purpose here is not to blow my own horn about how wonderful I’ve become—I’ve still got a long way to go. My purpose here is to try to describe the magnitude of the miracle God performed in getting me off the road I used to be on and onto the road I’ve been following since my salvation—stumbling at times, veering off to one side and needing correction more often than I’d like to admit, but still being led by Him where He wants me to go.

Back in the 1980s there was a praise song that contained the words, “From glory to glory He’s changing me . . . changing me and transforming me . . .” That’s the miracle I’m talking about, and in my opinion, remembering the person I was 40 or 50 years ago, that miracle makes parting the Red Sea look like child’s play.

A graduate of Duke University, David spent 42 years as a health insurance agent. Most of his career was spent in Texas, but for a few years he traveled many other states. He started writing about 20 years ago, and has six unpublished novels to use as primers on how NOT to write fiction. Since his retirement from insurance a few years ago, he has devoted his time to helping Kristen Lamb start Warrior Writers’ Boot Camp and trying to learn to write a successful novel myself.