Light My Kindle

I’ve had my Kindle for eight months now, and I’ve had very few complaints. I’ve previously mentioned how I would like the Kindle to auto-delete samples of books I buy (ie: when I click through from the end of a sample book to purchase the book, the Kindle should be smart enough to delete the sample for me). I’ve since found another task I wish the Kindle and Amazon were smart enough to do: Book Availability Notfications.

I preorder a lot of books, and I recently pre-ordered Denis Leary’s Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid in hardcover. At the time, it wasn’t available for the Kindle, so I clicked the “I’d like to read this book on a Kindle” button and preordered the hardcover.

Either the request buttons work very quickly (which I doubt) or a Kindle edition was already planned but not available for preorder, because the next time I was browsing Amazon I noticed that Denis Leary’s book was now available for the Kindle. I had previously had this happen with Lewis Black’s Me of Little Faith (what is it with these comedians?), and while I didn’t necessarily mind paying $10 more for the book (although I wouldn’t want to pay that price all the time), I would have preferred to read it on the Kindle.

Here’s what I want Amazon to be able to do:

• Notify Kindle owners when hardcover titles they have preordered are now available in Kindle form, before the hardcover is shipped
• Notify customers who clicked the “I’d like to read this book on a Kindle” button when that book becomes available for the Kindle

That doesn’t seem so difficult, does it? It would make me a happier customer, and more likely to preorder books. After being burned twice with this issue, I doubt I’ll be preordering books that I’d rather read on the Kindle (especially not from comedians).

Anyone else have this problem? Do you have a Kindle Wishlist item you’d like to share with the world? Email me at cj@lightmykindle.com.