Kindle DX Promo shut down after "continuous negative attacks"

Ian Lamont — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:08:27 -0400

A website that promised half-price Kindle DXs has been shut down after message boards on Amazon.com and MobileRead.com savaged the offer as a "scam" and questioned the purported business model.

The site, kindledxpromo.com, was launched last week. It sought to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the launch of Amazon's Kindle DX, a large-screen e-reader aimed at the newspaper, magazines, and textbook markets. While the official Kindle DX price will be close to $500 when it goes on sale this summer, the promo was offering it for $244.50. According to a message on kindledxpromo.com which has since been taken down, the discount was possible owing to an arrangement with authors to have their works bundled on the devices for a fee. The company operating the site, Promo Publishers LLC, is not affiliated with Amazon.com.

Doubters were quick to question the promotion when it was launched, saying it sounded too good to be true.

"[A] $250 discount sounds incredible ... but then, I can always find some guy on a street corner willing to sell me a flat-screen TV for $300, as long as I don't ask him where he got it, or how he's licensed to do business from the back of a van," said one MobileRead forums user.

Another user calculated that the cost to participating authors would be high. "If there were 100 authors subsidizing each Kindle DX, every author would have to pay $1222.50 per 500 shipped," said a forum member using the handle 'avaloncourt.' "That's just not going to happen. That doesn't even include any percentage to go to him. That is merely the cost of subsidizing the equipment and not accounting for the shipping aspects."

But David Edenfield, founder of Promo Publishers, told the Standard that his plan was legitimate.

"I thought of the idea for this promotion a week or so ago, registered the LLC, bought the domain, built the site, twittered like crazy, made a lot of sales, and caused a buzz that seems to have taken on life of its own," he said. "Although I only had a few authors lined up, I had an angel investor backing me for a significant number of units with the idea that we could cause a stir, gain some eyeballs, and eventually build a viable business around our promo distribution model."

However, the skepticism expressed on MobileRead and on an Amazon.com thread convinced Edenfield to pull the plug on the Kindle DX promotion.

"As a result of the continuous negative attacks targeted both towards me personally and our business model, we have decided that our brand has been damaged, and therefore Promo Publishers will never be seen as a credible business regardless the information we provide," Edenfield told the Standard.

A email to customers who paid for the half-priced Kindle DXs stated that their PayPal transactions would be reversed.

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Kindle DX Promo shut down after "continuous negative attacks"