MacKenzie Scott should have gotten Kindle in the divorce
But she can still build the e-book future we’ve been waiting for. Here's an open letter to the author.
ear MacKenzie,
As an author, I don’t have to tell you that books are important. Nonfiction books are full of all of our best research and knowledge. Novels are full of our dreams and ideas and visions. But despite the proliferation of online media these past decades, e-books have remained stagnant—largely unsharable and undiscoverable online.
It’s easier to follow someone’s thoughts on X, than be notified of an author’s next book on Kindle. And while online articles can go viral on social media in minutes, books require a $10 Kindle purchase, or a 12-week wait from Libby, the library app.
Online media is widely shareable and discoverable, but e-books remain locked away in walled gardens.
You could solve that. You started Amazon because of your love of books and your desire to make them more widely available. If I’m being honest, I’d hoped you’d get Kindle, Audible, and Goodreads in the divorce. I would have loved to see you combine them into the reading app of our dreams and give them to the library, with an endowment that would make books free and instantly available to everyone.
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