If you’re overseas, you’ll have no wireless coverage for your Kindle, which means you can't purchase books straight from the Kindle. Fortunately, Kindle does offer the ability to download the books from your computer. (If they didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have bought it. One big reason I got the Kindle is so that I don’t have to purchase marked up English books here in Japan. The other big reason is that I don’t have to carry books when I go back to the States.)
Here’s how:
- First buy the Kindle Edition of the book. If you’re in the States (more specifically, an area that has Kindle wireless coverage), the book would normally be sent to you wirelessly, but in this case, we have to download it to a computer and transfer it with the USB cable.
- After you purchased the book, go to “Your Account”. Under the “Where’s My Stuff?” section, you’ll find a link – “View Your Media Library”. Click on that.
- You’ll be brought to your Media Library. You should now see the book you purchased. Click on it.
- You’ll now see a page for the book. On the right, you should find a “Download to Computer” link. Click on it, and you can download the book to your computer.
- Next, connect your powered-on Kindle to your computer via the USB cable.
- Kindle will pop up like a hard drive. Inside you’ll see a documents folder. Copy the book you downloaded to that folder.
- Remember to eject or disconnect the Kindle properly, and you’re done! Now it's time to head for Starbucks and enjoy the book!
You can’t download and transfer samples
In case you’re wondering, it seems like you can’t download samples. Samples do not show up in your media library, so I don’t think there’s a way to download them. If anyone knows how, please let me know =)
9 comments:
Hi - this a question rather than a comment....
I'm thinking of getting a Kindle - I'm also based in Japan, so will use the method you blogged about to get books.
But do I have to be in the States to activate the Kindle?
Thanks
Hi Tony, thanks for the comment. From what I recall, there was no activation required for my Kindle. I don't believe you need to have a computer to activate it. But just in case, you should have someone turn it on perhaps. And of course, this refers to the Kindle 1.0, and not 2.0, which got announced today =)
Hey Justin
Thanks for the quick reply - I was actually going for the Kindle 2.0 ... I hope it doesn't change for that!
Cheers
Hey Tony, Definitely let me know how you like the Kindle when you get your hands on it!
Hi, I'm in Australia and thinking a getting a Kindle when I next go back to the states. I was just wondering if you are still able to buy books easily and transfer them onto your kindle. Also have you noticed any other problems or oddities about owning one over seas? Thanks so much
Hi Alexa, thanks for the comment! I have so far had no problems purchasing and transferring books to my Kindle. The only thing you won't be able to do is to view the sample of the books available on Kindle. The samples are sent straight to the Kindle via the network, which isn't available overseas. And since you're not on the network, you won't get updates as well. But I had my Kindle for over year and more without being connected to the network, and it works nicely.
Let me know how everything pans out and how you like it. Personally, there are some parts about the interface and hardware that could be improved, but I still love this gadget!
are daily subscriptions like newspapers and whatnot still viable via the connect-and-download option you describe?
Hi J-rod,
Thanks for the comment. It's a very good point I missed. I think subscriptions will not work when your Kindle is overseas. But maybe it might, if there is a way to retrieve and download the contents from Amazon. Even if you could, that would be quite an hassle wouldn't it be.
Personally, I haven't subscribed to anything, so I can't say anything definite. If anyone knows, please chime in! Thanks!
You can't buy Kindle books unless you have a US address Amazon account and a US credit card..
The way around this is to create a fake US address account in Amazon, buy gift cards with your real any address account and redeem them on your fake US account, then you can buy the kindle books!
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