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BOOKS AIR DROPPED ON YOUR DOORSTEP

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This could happen sooner than you think!

Amazon’s CEO said that the company plans to use drones to make deliveries, offering the possibility of a massive domestic surge in a technology now best known for gunning down Islamic militants in Pakistan and Yemen.

The company suggested delivery drones could reduce shipping time to a mere 30 minutes after an online order. But the buzzy announcement will require, first of all, a massive reworking of regulations around unmanned aviation.

The online retailer’s CEO and founder, Jeff Bezos, introduced the in-development delivery mechanism, Prime Air, on 60 Minutes. Immediately after the segment, Amazon put up a video showing a delivery via the drone, and a portion of its website describing Prime Air.

“They are effectively drones, but there’s no reason they can’t be used as delivery vehicles,” Bezos said. “I think this looks like science fiction, but it’s not. … We can do half-hour delivery and carry objects we think up to five pounds (like books!), which covers 86% of the items we deliver.”

Bezos said he believes Amazon could be using the drones for deliveries in as little as four years, but acknowledged there’s no way the drones could be making shipments before 2015 because of required approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration. While he didn’t elaborate further on the regulatory process, airlifting packages to customers will undoubtedly be met by a mountain of approval processes, making Bezos’s timeline particularly optimistic.

The drones could make deliveries from 10 miles away from one of Amazon’s 96 fulfillment centers, he said. All Amazon would have to do is enter in the GPS coordinates of the delivery address, and, fueled by its electric motor, the drone would go off, deliver the product, and zip back to the warehouse, he said.

“lt will certainly just be a matter of years,” he said.

Small businesses from dry cleaners to sushi chains have been releasing viral, gimmicky YouTube videos featuring drones as delivery vehicles this year, making the unusual move of using machines associated with war for marketing purposes, as BuzzFeed noted in July. Amazon is now taking that one step further.

*Information taken from www.buzzfeed.com

Book Sales On The Rise

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BooksLooks like the last quarter of 2013 was a good one for book sales…

After falling for three consecutive months, bookstore sales rose 6.3% in September, to $1.30 billion, according to preliminary estimates released Wednesday morning by the Census Bureau. Despite the rebound in September, bookstore sales for the first nine months of 2013 were down 1.5%, to $10.10 billion compared to the same period in 2012.

For the entire retail segment, September sales were up 3.1% and rose 4.3% for the January-September period. Analysts were optimistic that sales would remain robust through the holiday season.

*Statistics courtesy of Publishers Weekly

Spend the Holidays in Scotland

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Best Places to Spend Christmas: Edinburgh

If you’re a writer seeking inspiration during the busy holiday season, try Edinburgh, Scotland. Hey, it worked for J.K. Rowling!

This quaint but bustling town is the perfect place for creative types, from arts and theater to boutique shopping and dining. During the holidays, a special light show, including spectacular fireworks, can be seen illuminating the sky from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. If you like hearing carolers, you’ll delight in seeing and hearing Bagpipes play “Amazing Grace” around the Sir Walter Scott Monument. While there, you may choose to have your holiday meal at Witchery by the Castle (near Edinburgh Castle). Highlights include fine wine and Loch Duart salmon. The Balmoral is the perfect place to fill in a few pages of your journal before nodding off to sleep.

 

Amazon News

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In November 2013, Amazon launched Kindle MatchBook, a service that lets customers buy steeply discounted ebook versions of books they’ve already bought in print (from Amazon, of course) on Tuesday. Publishers must opt-in, and some already have with some 75,000 ebooks were available for $2.99 or less. Of course, it may prove difficult to persuade publishers to sell popular ebooks at such sharp discounts. NBC News’ Helen A.S. Popkin the selection “70,000 shades of blah,” pointing out the lack of bestsellers by authors such as Stephen King, E.L. James and Dan Brown along with classics by the likes of Mark Twain, Maya Angelou and others.