Okay, call this Kindle Week.

The Authors’ Guild launched a protest at Amazon, and the Kindle specifically, for the eReader’s ability to do Text-to-Speech. What that means is that your Kindle will read out loud to you if you don’t want to eyeball the pages. The Guild feels that this steps over the line into Audiobooks.  With Audiobooks making up about a billion in sales to publishers and writers, you can see the concern for an issue that’s crossing into a legal gray zone.

As a writer, I agree with the Guild. Maybe I haven’t launched that NY Times Best Seller just yet, but I’d like to know that myself and my legal representative have cut the right contract to cover such things. So fellow writers, be warned, but don’t be limiting. Ereaders are a new and growing market. Embrace the change that’s going to net more sales. 

And, I’ll keep a weather eye on the progress of this smouldering argument. The early money says Amazon might win - but the early money thought Google would emerge victorious from the brouhaha over plans to digitize entire college libraries.

For more info, check out the Authors’ Guild.