Lead time for Kindle book release ahead of print release date - experiences?
 

I came across a mention of Dan Brown's Lost Symbol (that is, the final title; I knew he was writing a new book, and what the working title was) by chance somewhere and went to try to preorder it for Kindle. No dice -- it's not listed on the product page (Amazon.com: The Lost Symbol: Dan Brown: Books). Oh well.

Checked to see if it was listed in the local library consortium's computers, and it wasn't, so I made a bookmark for the search form (basically bookmarked the GET form submission) so I could check back from time to time.

On a whim I checked again 1-3 hours later, and this time I found that one of the local libraries in the consortium had ordered it! I immediately hit the "request item" link, entered my library card number, etc. ... and found that I was #6 on the list on a just-announced book that just showed up in the system. There must be locals who literally sit on the library's website hitting refresh to see if some book they want is listed yet.

If there is a Kindle version by the release date, I'll go ahead and get that so I'll be able to read the book again as often as I want, but I'll still keep the library 'hold' active; Mom (who introduced me to Mr. Brown when The DaVinci Code came out since she knows I like scifi/fantasy crime stories) will want to read the book, so I could let her borrow it, and I'll probably get it very quickly upon release because I know the consortium will order more than six copies for a highly anticipated book like this one (end result - #6 is about as good as being #1 with regards to wait time).

I've been told by a few people that Kindle editions of new books often don't appear on Amazon pages until a few days before the print edition of a book comes out - has this been others' experiences? I did click "I want to read this book on Kindle" -- just in case. I also put a note in iCal to remind me 7, 2, and 1 days before the release date to see if a link to a Kindle edition is added to the product page.

I guess we'll have to see, but I'd be very, very surprised if a hotly anticipated book like this one doesn't have a Kindle edition by release time. I'm surprised it doesn't have one now because I can imagine that there'd be a ton of people wanting to preorder for automatic download on release day and all the news coverage spurred by the press release/announcement of the release date and title would push the book into the minds of people who have read his other books, or have some other reason to want to buy this one. Some people may forget to keep checking back if they only want a Kindle version and not a dead-tree book.

It really seems to depend on the publisher. Quite a few genre titles have been showing up for pre-order as of late -- Jim Butcher's Turn Coat did, for example. The new Sookie Stackhouse (coming out May 5) is also available for pre-order. Yet others that I'm sure will be out in Kindle format (upcoming books by George RR Martin, Jacqueline Carey, and Lynn Flewelling) aren't available for Kindle pre-order, only paper.

I've seen it both ways. The free cookbook was available for pre-order weeks before it actually came out. On the other hand, I've seen new-releases for which no Kindle page existed until the paper book actually shipped.

I'd be happy to be able to pre-order more Kindle books.

I really wanted to pre=order George Pelecanos' last book on the Kindle, but it wasn't available at all until the day of release.

I'm not too willing to pre-order a Kindle book when the price is $14 or higher, because when it becomes available, the price suddenly drops to $9.99. That was definitely the case with Tea Time for the Traditionally Built -- the latest in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency -- and I suspect will be the case for Sookie Stackhouse #9.

I'm hoping so.

Amazon won't allow preorders until the finished eBook has been uploaded to their servers.

Dave