Amazon calls the new initiative Kindle MatchBook, and in many ways it resembles what the company's AutoRip program did for music; buy a physical version, and receive a digital copy to go along with it. But whereas the MP3s you get from AutoRip are always free, the retailer will be charging a nominal fee — between $0.99 and $2.99 — for the Kindle version of a paperback or hardcover you've ordered. Some titles enrolled in the program will be free, however.

I called for something like this back in 2011. Of course, I called for the Publishing Industry to spearhead it, not the company responsible for the disruption of the Publishing Industry.

Old habits die hard.

Joe Stracci