Unless you're buried under a snow drift, you've heard about the new book Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime.
It's why Harry Reid is apologizing to everyone. And it's why Saturday Night Live featured a skit about Harry Reid apologizing to everyone.
But unless you're an e-book reader, you might not yet be aware of the mini-controversy surrounding this book that Kindle owners are stirring up at Amazon.
Background: The Kindle version of Game Change won't be available until February 23, six weeks later than the hard cover. But tech-savvy Kindlers aren't sitting quietly waiting to download a copy, they're posting negative reviews of this otherwise 5-star book to voice dissatisfaction over being treated like second class citizens by the book's publisher Harper Collins.
As of 4:20 (central), there are 34 one-star reviews, all from folks who haven't read this book yet. The situation has created an online war between 'real' book readers and Kindle owners. Mainly because a review written by someone who hasn't actually read the book is about as useful as a Kindle during the 'all electronic devices should be off' phase of a flight.
I've always been a huge fan of on-line reviews but this is the first time I've seen them used this way.
Furthermore, Amazon would like its customers to believe it has little or no control over when the publisher releases the Kindle version of its books:
What's the rationale for releasing the Kindle version six weeks later? Many of the commenters believe it's a way for Harper Collins to get avid Kindle readers to purchase the more spendy hard cover version of this extremely popular book. Or it might be that the electronic version simply isn't ready yet - this situation would be a perfect opportunity to blame someone in IT.
Regardless, the situation is certainly a game changer for publishers.
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