Selling pop culture one chapter at a time

Gonzo pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman has stumbled into a new way to redistribute his books: One chapter at a time using an iTunes-like model of charging 99 cents a pop.

I say stumbled because on this Soundcheck interview (stream above), Klosterman doesn't even know where people can download his work using this new model.

I had to find out by searching Google, finally landing at a "Chuck Klosterman eCollection" page on the Simon and Schuster website.

Once there, the site is easy to use, with bright colors and clear titles enticing one to buy. If you're familiar with Klosterman's books, you know he has the attention span of, well, me. Which means he hops from subject to subject, with book topics running the gamut from Britney Spears to Lakers basketball. Thankfully, in addition to being able to buy e-book chapters ala carte, he sells $7.99 bundles of columns package by topics like sports, rock, pop, media and culture.

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Amazon Kindle, Part 2

I promised to talk about some audience-building things Amazon is doing with the Kindle, and my favorite is what I call "snacking."

Amazon gives its Kindle customers the ability to download for free a sample chapter of any of the 300,000 digital books it has in stock. This does a few things: One, it mimics the experience one has in a bookstore, where you can physically sample a book before buying.

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Amazon Kindle, Part 1

I'm a relatively new user of the Amazon Kindle, and I've become a fanatic.

My lovely wife bought me a Kindle 2 for my birthday, and I've used it daily in the two-plus monthKindle 1 is a dogs since. I've purchased multiple books, newspapers, even subscribed to a blog. Now, I've added a blog from bakersfield.com -- where I work -- to Amazon's list of offerings (more on that in a subsequent installment).

In multiple posts, I'll detail some things that interest me about the Kindle, beginning with Version 2.0 and it's brilliant design. I'll also tackle some amazing but very subtle things Amazon is doing to pull customers into its grasp, as well as challenges and opportunities in local marketplaces.

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