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West Puts Law Books on Kindle
In a move that is most certainly a sign of the technology times, legal publisher West said yesterday that it is releasing e-book editions of 29 of its most popular law books. The releases include the book co-authored by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia legal wordsmith Bryan Garner, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges.
West is offering the titles for electronic download to be read on Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. Just this week, Amazon dropped the price of the U.S. version of the Kindle by $40 to $259. (Tip: If you have an iPhone, download the free Kindle app and read these books on your phone without spending $259.)
It is an interesting array of titles West has selected to put on the Kindle. Some are oriented to law students, such as 1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School and Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success. Several are directed toward marketing and career-building, including The Leading Lawyer: A Guide to Practicing Law and Leadership, Marketers Handbook of Tips and Checklists, and The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development.
Several titles from the "Law in a Nutshell" series are among the new e-books. Several others focus on women lawyers, among them Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women's Success in the Law, The Woman Lawyer's Rainmaking Game and Women Attorneys Speak Out.
West's announcement said that all of the titles are now available on Kindle, but I was unable to find several of them. It may be that they will take a couple days to appear. Of those that are available, the e-books are cheaper than their hard-copy counterparts. Amazon lists the Scalia-Garner book in hard copy for $28.75, while the Kindle edition is $16.47. The paperback of Andrew F. Popper's Rediscovering Lone Pine is listed for $13.45, while the e-book version is $9.99.
West's announcement of the e-books quoted Mike Suchsland, a senior VP: "We've been fascinated by the shift lawyers and law students in particular are making toward smartphones and electronic book readers. Customers have responded favorably to our various iPhone and iPod touch apps, so we see this as a natural extension of our advanced media strategy - making key content accessible on a variety of mobile devices, beginning with the platforms from Apple and Amazon."
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 9, 2009 at 11:30 AM | Permalink
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