feature at Amazon and so far, I do like it. There are a few annoyances that with either get worked out or we'll learn to live with. When you share the sample via email, all you get is a message that you are reading a book and a link to the Kindle edition. Twitter is the same, but I don't expect much more in 140 characters. With Facebook, you get a picture of the book cover and a bit of the sample pasted below the are where you can enter your own text. For those who are Amazon associates, you can edit the links in email and twitter to add your affiliate tag, but in Facebook you don't get a chance to edit the links (you can paste them manually into the text box, if you wish). Now, the annoying part - the links all go to the Kindle edition. But, if you are on the Kindle edition of the book (at least, so far), you can't use the Kindle for Web feature and look thru the sample yourself. Instead, you have to either download the sample to a Kindle or App or know that you can click for one of the paper editions and get to Kindle for Web there. What I do like is the ability to view the sample in a larger area (it takes up the full browser area, but not full screen), change the colors and adjust the font size, line spacing and words per line. It isn't quite full access (no text to speech, which would be so dependent on the hardware and software at the other end), but it should offer almost everyone else a size and color combination that they can read on their screens.So far, you can't highlight or cut-and-paste (for rather obvious reasons; although I'd love to be able to highlight a section and then click on the Share button) any of the text. You don't get some of the search-inside features that you may be used to, which allowed you to check out a recipe in a cookbook (samples on cookbooks are nearly worthless, I've found, as they end long before you can tell if the recipe section is formatted well enough to be used when cooking). You also can't jump to a location, just click to navigate a page at a time.
One of the coolest features is the ability to embed a sample into a web page. I've included one here, just so you can take a look:
Any author with a book on Kindle should consider putting this up on his web page. Indie authors would be foolish not to, since the Kindle edition is both their best chance for sales (at least, currently) and no doubt their highest source of revenue. Traditional authors may hesitate, though, as the embedded sample takes you to the Kindle edition. Those wanting to buy paper will have to click to find that edition after they arrive on the Kindle page.
