Amazon's official word on Big5 state taxes + a Listing of those

I forgot to post the official word from Amazon Kindle Customer Service the other day, at the Amazon Kindle Community Forums, about the state sales taxes that are being added to book orders when one of the Big5 publishers using Apple's "Agency" plan has a physical presence in the book buyer's state.

  When a large publisher now insists on Apple's "Agency" plan, bookstores are, in effect, no longer vendors but "Agents" for the seller.  The Agency-style publisher (who sets the seller prices -- most quite a bit higher now -- is officially the seller.  You'll see, on the book's product page, in those cases, that it's "Sold by" the publisher.  Amazon's announcement:

' Several publishers have recently changed the nature of their relationship with Amazon, moving to a business model whereby the publisher, not Amazon, is the seller of record for their books.  Kindle books sold under this model are subject to sales tax based on the publisher's state tax reporting obligations and the taxability of digital books in those states.  Books where the publisher is the seller of record say "This price was set by the publisher."  Nothing has changed with respect to sales taxes on Kindle books where Amazon is the seller of record. '

  Dictum at the forum posted that Amazon has now updated its sales tax page to include a partial list of "Select Amazon Merchants" "selling items at Amazon.com which may be included in your order, and the states in which they charge sales tax."  You can bookmark the page, shortcut: http;//bit.ly/big5taxes for reference when deciding on book purchases and total pricing.

  Jedikatie adds that a Wikipedia page, shortcut: http://bit.ly/wikistatetaxes has both state and local tax information for each state.

By the way, I had written earlier, sourcing the info, that Apple inserted language into their Agency agreements after solidifying the higher pricing, successfully negotiating that they would be allowed to charge only $9.99 for the "hottest" books.

  These tend to be those in the Top 10 of the NY Bestsellers list and, as Steve Jobs had said in January, "prices would be the same" at both stores.  News reports were that Amazon had then "demanded" that if they agreed to the higher-pricing of the Apple Agency plan, no other store would be able to charge less than Amazon for the publishers' books, the same guarantee Apple "requires" of its publishers.

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
  Check often: Latest free non-classics, shortcut http://bit.ly/latestfreenonclassics.)
Also, a page of links that confine searches to mid-range priced e-books.

iPad as an e-reader? - Not in sunlight. Update3

Len Edgerly, host of the excellent TheKindleChronicles and TheReadingEdge podcasts, is also a long-time Apple fan, and then some.  You can read his Twitter tweets for the last two days to see just how much, as he was in line at 4:30am to get his iPad.  He loves it and has written and video'd first impressions.  The aspect that will interest readers of e-ink e-reader blogs is how the iPad does in direct sunlight, and the images borrowed for this blog entry leave little doubt on that.
  You can read the words in the original, larger image.

Len also did a video of his first impressions.  There is wind noise in the beginning but it clears up within a minute or so.  Near the beginning he shows the iPad and his Kindle (U.S.) side by side, outdoors.




Teleread's Paul Biba points us to an excellent article by Jane which, in addition to spelling out the beauties of the iPad, also draws needed attention to why it is not meant for reading in sunlight (where the Kindle does especially well).  Paul inserts the picture comparison and some text from Jane's report:

'`This is something that most reviews have skipped over:
"The iPad is fairly heavy. It weighs 1.5 pounds versus the Kindle’s 10.2 oz. Plus, it is unuseable in bright sunlight. You really, really need to have some shade to be able to see much of anything. You can see the comparison between the two. The indoor picture is the exact same screen, finger prints and all." '

The article by Jane has plenty of pro's for the iPad otherwise, so please read it.  The iBook reader app is beautiful indoors, though there is no note-making feature on it yet (doable on the Kindle app for iPad).


Since this is an image-happy blog entry, here's a delighful picture by the Denver Post.  The larger photo, slowly viewable upon a click, is done with Adoble Flash but, ironically, cannot be seen by iPad users due to lack of Flash support.

UPDATE 3 - APRIL 6, 2010 - 3:40 PM PM PST - Original posting was at 2:07 PM PST)
  While identifying the source, I somehow forgot to identify the two main people in the photo.  This is of Len and Darlene Edgerly, up early to get the iPad and enjoying what they see.  This is the same Len Edgerly who made the photos and video in the first section above, in his trials of using the iPad outdoors in sunlight.  Outside of that direct sunlight scenario, which Len and other Kindle users with iPads will be using their e-ink Kindle for, he is thrilled with his iPad, as you'll see in his Twitter stream that I linked you to.

 The Denver Post offers to let us share the larger photos from the slideshow, so I made a straight-viewable non-Flash version also, that iPad users can view.
  Your browser may reduce the size of this 950 pixels wide photo and, if so, then PC users can just press the function key, F11, to see it full screen and then press F11 again to get back the toolbars.  (You can also press "Ctrl" and "+" keys together to increase the size (PC) or "Cmd" and "+" keys (Apple).)  On a laptop you normally need to use a special function key-combo.

SUMMING UP
The readability in sunlight is a not-trivial consideration for those intending to read books outside when on errands or in an outdoor cafe or sunning somewhere.  Also almost all reviewers note the relative heaviness of this device for mainly-reading.  See the very thorough review by Melissa J. Perenson for Businessweek, which includes these aspects.

OTHER UNEXPECTED MISSING FEATURES (besides those covered earlier along with pricing analysis):
Printing
I was surprised to read that you can't print from the iPad basically - it's recommended that you send a document to a computer that will print it.  However, some are making special apps to provide printing.  I think iPad II will have a lot of features added to it.

(UPDATE APRIL 5, 2010 - 3:49 PM - Original posting was at 2:07 PM) - FURTHER UPDATE (#2) at 4:53 PM, thanks to commenters to this topic.
PDFs ARE NOT READABLE BY THE IPAD
I had actually been a little shocked to read in two places that the iPad had no native PDF support.  Thanks to Mary McManus and "Anonymous" for alerting me to the fact that apps are being sold (at reasonable prices) that deal with the PDFs.

It turns out that GoodReader handles both reading of original layout and reflowing of text.  There's an iAnnotate app that lets you add notes to a PDF and there's also something called ReaddleDocs that's more expensive, but GoodReader seems the current favorite at 99 cents.  That's impressive.

Will be back with more tonight.

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
Also, a page of links that confine searches to mid-range priced e-books.

Apple's Agency Plan's Large Effects on Prices and now Taxes

AMAZON IS IDENTIFYING "BIG 5" PUBLISHER E-BOOKS WITH LABELS STATING THE PRICING IS SET BY THE PUBLISHER.

  An Amazon forum message thread posting by "Kindy Kat" points out that Amazon is now identifying books sold under the pricing structure spelled out in Apple's "Agency"-style agreements (these replace the traditional wholesaler arrangements).

  Apple's Agency agreements with publishers are reported as requiring that the publishers ensure that competing online bookstores are using Apple's "Agency" plan if the publisher wants its books included in Apple's iBookstore.

  Pricing must not be lower than Apple's (and Amazon, in return, is insisting that no pricing undercuts theirs then, and the 'agencies' (Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, etc.) no longer act as retailers but will instead take a 30% commission on the publisher's set price.

  The now higher e-book prices on more-popular books were recommended to the "Big 6" publishers by Apple before the iPad launch, per a Wall Street Journal report, and prices for any book from the "Big 5" will be the same at all online stores.  (Random House has not signed onto Apple's iBookstore plan yet, concerned about the large changes.)   This leaves open the possibility that while Apple must be guaranteed that no other bookstore will have lower pricing, another store should be able to have higher pricing -- another smart move if that's how it works, as people would know Apple's price would be the lowest possible from the Big 5.

  I expect (hope) that Amazon got the same guarantee.

  There'll be no need for a book-customer to check out pricing at other stores, as "The prices will be the same."  The latter wording comes from Steve Jobs to Walter Mossberg from an impromptu chat caught on a videoclip at the iPad launch event in January.

  The new Amazon product-page statement is now placed near the top of the e-book's page:

Example: A book, Still Alice, which had been $6.39 and is now $9.99. is identified by Amazon in this way:

' Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
This price was set by the publisher '

IMPACT ON STATE SALES TAXES COLLECTION
  There are also threads about the additional, less-discussed effect mentioned last week here.

  The seller is now the publisher, so taxes will be added to a purchase when the Agency-plan publisher has a presence in the state in which the buying customer resides.

  This holds true for ALL online e-bookstores such as Barnes and Noble, Sony, Fictionwise, Amazon, Apple, etc.

  Complication: The tax is currently not calculated before the 1-click purchase but we will receive info about the additional tax involved after clicking to buy, which will be accepted as an order, though we won't have a way of knowing how much that would be (currently).

  These changes are all taking place rapidly, to go into effect when the iPad launched today, to meet Apple's requirements for publisher inclusion in the new store, and the network programming involved will have to ctach up with the changes.

  Until then, Amazon will need to find a way to advise the customers of added state taxes that will show up after a one-click purchase if the publisher has a presence in the customer's state of residence.

E-BOOKS ARE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE AT FICITONWISE SITE AS WELL (SONY TOO, I READ)
  From a forum thread, "demi" (who contacted fictionwise.com when she couldn't find some books that were on her wish list) posts a response from fictionwise's online bookstore):

'Hello,

Due to industry changes, our content suppliers are currently unable to offer certain titles from several large publishers.  We are working with our content partners to resolve this.

Thanks!

Best Regards,

Linda
Fictionwise Support Team '

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
Also, a page of links that confine searches to mid-range priced e-books.

Kindle for iPad ready + Early iPad reviews - Update

Amazon proved Peter Kafka wrong and delivered the Kindle for iPad app on the day the iPad goes live. Joe Wikert and Len Edgerly have both tweeted that their local stores have plenty in stock -- Joe's shop well-stocked with 400 of them. Mr. Gadget, Len Edgerly was in line before 5am to get his :-)
He later reported that there were a handful of people waiting in line.

I didn't do a blog entry on the iPad News-Gang of 4 who received the iPad a week ahead of time for early review, which allowed Apple to get their most trusted columnists' thoughts out early and spread by thousands of newspaper reports quoting usually their most positive thoughts in the headlines (especially true for the chosen quotes from the New York Times piece by David Pogue, whose report was a true pro/con look - see below.  Pogue has an entertainingly quirky sense of humor while getting to the heart of the gadgets he reviews.).

Gotta hand it to Apple's PR team on how they chose to start the word of mouth though.
  The most amazingly balanced report did come from Pogue, who reviewed it from the opposing perspectives of a person with 'techie' expectations as well as from one with a more 'common man' perspective.  So you get two angles on this from him and he's always straightforward -- he loves it, mostly, while definitely not impressed by it for book-reading or for typing, finding the screen keyboard a 'horrible experience.'

 I'll do a separate iPad-reaction report this weekend.

  Most of them did make clear that getting the wireless book-download-anywhere function which the "boring" and monochromatic Kindle made popular is not possible with the iPad unless you opt for the later model coming on April 24 -- the $629 minimum model (+ $29 for the adapter kit that provides a USB connector + fees for web-data acccess).

I was surprised that although all found it a bit heavy after awhile for book reading, while very dazzled by it for web-surfing (despite blank rectangles on many websites due to lack of Flash support), the book-reader part does not have annotation capabilities yet - you can't write notes to the book you're reading.

That will be a bit odd for students getting these, but one obviously-monied school is giving both new MacBooks and iPads to all students.  And the gist of the reports by The Four is that it's a great device (both beautiful and fast) for consuming data but not so much for creating it.  Most of the four wondered if people will have a good fix on what this new device will do for them while two were imagining it could kill laptops (which, in the present state of the iPad, is ridiculous with so much that is missing on this iPad Edition 1).

But it looks to be a beautiful leisure-type device for quick surfing and short emails. More later. Back to the Kindle App for the iPad.

NOTE that Amazon states "This initial Kindle for iPad release has been tested on the official iPad simulator provided by Apple."
  So, the app hasn't been tested on an actual working iPad yet.

From the press release last night, which mentions in each of the first few paragraphs! the 450,000 books available in the store, probably to point out the iBookstore currently has 60,000 - a figure that's said to includethe 30,000 Project Gutenberg books that are directly downloadable (no cost) to the Kindle but are not counted by Amazon as Kindle users gets those direct from Project Gutenberg.

'...The applets users select from over 450,000 books from the Kindle Store on iPad and features Amazon Whispersync technology that saves and synchronizes customers' last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across their Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, iPad, and more.

The Kindle Store is the only place to find tens of thousands of books added to the Kindle Store by authors and publishers using Kindle's self-service platform. Customers can search for a specific book or browse by genre or author, and can take advantage of all the features that customers enjoy in the Kindle Store, including Amazon.com customer reviews, personalized recommendations and editorial reviews.

Features of the Kindle App for iPad include:

* Automatically Syncs with Kindle and Kindle Compatible Devices: Amazon's Whispersync technology automatically syncs customers' last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for iPad, and more. Customers can read on their Kindle, read some on their iPad or Mac, and always pick up where they left off.

* Beautiful User Interface: The Kindle App user interface is tailored to the large size, look, and feel of iPad. The new user interface with bold colors, animation, and seamless user experience make Kindle on iPad a unique reading experience.

[ That's an interesting paragraph, no? ]

* Customizable Appearance: Customers can choose to dim iPad's screen within the app to make reading easier regardless of the ambient light or time of day. Readers can also choose from three different background colors and alter the font color and size to customize the reading experience and help ease the strain on their eyes.

* Page Turn Animation: Kindle App for iPad offers an interactive experience with page turn animation designed to replicate the look of a page turning in a book. Customers who prefer a simpler, unadorned reading experience can choose the "Basic Reading Mode" option and turn off animation.

The Kindle App for iPad is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore. '

At the Kindle for iPad page, Amazon has added:
    ' Coming soon: Search and instant dictionary lookup '

I certainly hope those long-awaited features are on the Kindle for PC and Mac apps at the same time or before !

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
Also, a page of links that confine searches to mid-range priced e-books.

Why the Agency plan worries Random House & why authors should worry

At Teleread (a great site to keep up with daily), this question was posed.
  Does Random House fear agency pricing because it gives authors too much information?

Two of us didn't think that was the reason.  The following is my response in connection with why Random House (at this time) appears to be avoiding Apple's Agency plan in favor of Amazon's traditional wholesaler plan which offers Amazon customers lower e-book pricing on NY Times bestsellers.

  (On the other hand, there's still time for Random House to change its mind for iPad-day tomorrow morning.)  Here's what I posted there in connection with why I think Random House is hesitating to sign up with Apple's iBookstore and why authors with other large publishing houses should be concerned too, no matter what their publishing houses tell them.

' It's so simple, and Random House sees it.

  For a $22 list price e-book (surprising how many are listed at that high a price), TRADITIONAL WHOLESALER arrangement usually gives publisher 50% of the publisher-set list price, or $11 in this case [from Amazon]. If Amazon sells the e-book at $10 Amazon takes a loss -- loss leader method.

Publisher gets more than [the $10] selling price to book-customers. It's a guarantee [of $11 for the publisher] even during special sales.

  Publisher and author still get $11 regardless of what the bookstore sells the book for.

  AGENCY: For a $22 e-book sold at $14 "Agent" gets 30% commission on fixed-price, or $4.20.

  Publisher gets $9.80 -- less money to give to the author.

  ($11 goes to publisher on the wholesale plan on a [$22 list-price-book even if it's sold as a] $9.99 book, which is more likely to sell than a higher-priced one.

  $9.80 goes to publisher on a $14 ebook NOT likely to sell and even if it does, there's less to give the authors.

  [The publisher] gets to say the e-book is more 'valuable' -

but, as mentioned, the customer is likely NOT going to buy the $14 e-book and so the publisher/authors get even less than that.

  Random House is not stupid. The examples are for the same e-book selling at (first) $10 under the wholesaler plan -- traditional -- and (second) at $14 under the new Agency plan.

 That's more like best scenario for the publisher using the agency plan -- they get even less when the book price IS reduced to $10 or $12. '

($7 or $8.40 instead of $11)

(Adding for the blog)
  The Big 5 publishers seem to hope people will decide to buy the hardcover books under that scenario -- more for almost the same price, on discounted hardcovers -- or at least easily pay the higher ebook price.
  They're in for a big surprise if so.

Amazon and Hachette e-books

The Amazon forum had a posting yesterday
from "The Amazon Kindle Team" about missing buy-buttons
for some Hachette e-books.

' We recently signed an "agency" agreement with Hachette and we are working with them to offer their books under these terms in the coming days.  This means we will not be selling Hachette ebooks in the interim.

  Update: Hachette has disallowed the sale of Kindle books except on agency terms effective as of 12:01 am this morning.  We came to terms late last night but we cannot be operationally ready to sell their ebooks on agency terms until two days from now -- April 3 -- when we will also cut over for the other publishers that are switching to agency.

  If we can get a two day extension from Hachette to continue selling their ebooks under the prior terms, we can have the Hachette ebooks promptly back for sale today.  If not, then they will be back on April 3. '

People who do business programming know how true this all is, but the rush (requested by publishers) to get contracts in place -- so one CAN sell books at all because Apple's conditions of selling iBooks in its iBookstore require that publishers do not allow any other bookstores to sell at lower prices than Apple's -- has invited not a little chaos.

OTHER BOOKSTORES
Sony has announced it will be doing the same with some temporary inability to access certain books not yet priced in the site software to show the Agency plan.  See FinancialTimes for some detail on that.

  Under Apple's Agency plan, Amazon and other online bookstores are no longer wholesaler bookstores, now having to agree instead to being an 'Agent' with no say on actual selling prices.  The traditional way had booksellers buying at about 50% of the higher List pricing set by the publisher and then setting the bookstore price, with special sales possible. (No longer.)  The bookstores are now pushed to make customer prices 30% to 50% higher.

  This will be true for Barnes & Noble as well as for Sony and other bookstores online, thanks to Apple and Steve Jobss' preference for stiffing customers rather than participating in an atmosphere of 'competitive' pricing and they've ensured that other bookstores will not be allowed by the Big 5 publishers to price ebooks lower than Apple's e-book prices for the Big 5.

EITHER / OR
  If Amazon did not agree to Apple's Agency pricing, then the publishers would have had to choose either Apple or Amazon to sell their books.  They naturally would go to the bookseller-agency that will allow them to set higher prices.  So, in the name of competition, we get much higher prices thanks to a company that has not sold one e-book before this Saturday.

WHO WILL BUY AT THE HIGHER PRICES?
 From all I read, there will not be many buying e-books at $15 for a digital book that cannot be loaned or given away -- one that is not 'owned' in the traditional sense.  Macmillan appears to not want e-book sales at all unless they can price them close to discounted hardcover prices.

  Random House, who has not gone with the Apple plan yet, has estimated they could lose 7% in revenues from the plan, probably because they may actually calculate in consumer interest in buying the e-books at higher pricing.

  If Random House doesn't sign with Apple under Agency terms by Saturday, the books won't likely be sold there -- or Apple may allow them to use Amazon's traditional plan while having e-books in the Apple store, which would make the Amazon Random House e-books more competitively priced.  But it would cause other publishers to feel they could choose one plan with Amazon and an Agency plan with Apple, so Apple's not quite as likely to allow that.

VARYING SPIN ON AMAZON "CAVING" OR "CONTINUING TO WIELD VAST MARKET POWER"
  I noticed that a tech news-site's Amazon' columnist characterized Amazon's agreements Thursday with Simon & Schuster and with HarperCollins as "caving" to the publishers while at the same time describing Apple's as "agreeing to" their pricing (nice difference) without mentioning that Apple was reported by the Wall Street Journal a week before the iPad launch as *recommending* that the publishers set the higher pricing.

  My comment about that was posted for the night but was deleted the following morning and no comments allowed after that.  One has to wonder about newspaper publishers' fear of making Apple unhappy.  Or it just could be that the columnist did not want to display any disagreement with what he said (at least not anymore).

When the Hatchette e-book buy-buttons were missing on some books, he of course chose to characterize that as Amazon "wielding its power" ... but it's Hachette that doesn't want the books made available until the software is in place to sell them for higher prices starting immediately.  At least today he wrote, finally, that Apple had "forced" the higher pricing on Amazon.

  But, back to columns less bent on spin.  The Wall Street Journal reported it this way:

' There are clear signs of the glitches and confusion that many expected would accompany the adoption of a new e-book pricing model.

E-book titles sold by Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group were absent from Amazon.com Inc. Thursday due to technical issues, for instance.  The publisher said it had reached a deal with Amazon to sell e-books under the new "agency" model but its titles won't be available on Amazon until Saturday.

"It's not about retaliation, it's about logistics," said Maja Thomas, senior vice president of Hachette Digital.
  A note on Amazon's Web site states "we cannot be operationally ready to sell their e-books on agency terms until two days from now—April 3." '

Amazon will still be able to sell other, smaller-publisher books at lower pricing but with a higher net amount going to the publisher and authors.  Apple is of course trying to prevent that by snagging the other publishers and not allowing them in the iBookstore store unless they agree not to give their books to other bookstores unless those other bookstores adopt the Apple pricing plan.

  Apple has a dazzling product and they don't need to spoil it with these shenanigans but it's been Jobs' way of operating.

MediaBistro's Jason Boog writes that Hatchette explained the situation of unavailable e-books, in a letter to its agents and authors:

' ...The email continued: "However, as with any transition, we expect there will be a few hiccups along the way, and you may even see some short-term interruption in the availability of our eBooks, especially in the first few days, as systems are being adapted to accommodate changes.  We fully expect any such issues to be resolved within the first week, as we smooth out the new processes." '

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
Also, a page of links that confine searches to mid-range priced e-books.

Tip: Moving files to Kindle w/o USB cable - UPDATE2

Tip of the day for those who don't want to use the USB cable to transfer a Kindle-readable file from a computer to the Kindle.

  Joel Anderson uses his computer to send his Kindle book files to his http://docs.google.com storage area and then uses his Kindle web browser to go to http://docs.google.com/m, the mobile version of that Google docs page, to just download the file(s) direct to the Kindle.
 This will not work with a PDF file, but it will work with .prc, .mobi, or .txt files.

UPDATE - (Same day) This DOES NOT WORK with ORIGINAL Kindle 1 ("Kindle Classic") mode.  It does work with the 6" Kindle ("Kindle 2") (released February 2009) and the Kindle DX (U.S. and Global on both Kindles).  Apologies for not checking the Kindle 1 when I wrote this.
  (I'll try one of the focused file-upload/download sites later.  If anyone else does in the meantime and finds an upload/download site that works with the Kindle 1, please let us know.

  As he said on the popular Amazon forum thread on unique use of the Kindle, "Don't know if this is unusual - but I've found it handy to upload .mobi files to my Google docs in order to download them to my Kindle. Handy when I've got files on my computer, but no cable to move them to the Kindle."

See the Google docs support page for information about how to use that page for documents.  You can share documents or just store them or convert them to Google-docs format (where that is possible) to edit them.

UPDATE2 - Same day Correction for storage limits, which are 1 gig for free accounts vs info on sample-illustrations showing 10,240 MB (10 gigs).  It's definitely 1-gigabyte storage for free + 25 cents per each additional gigabyte.

Apparently, you can store up to about 10 gigs 1 gig of documents there at no charge.   If you need more, you can buy additional storage at 25 cents per gigabyte. There's a $5/year plan to upload up to 20 gigs, and there are additional plans for heavier needs.

Here is the "In a nutshell" explanation by Google about file size limits.

'   * Docs: Each doc can have a maximum size of 500K, plus up to 2MB per embedded image to be converted to Google Docs format.
  * Spreadsheets: Each spreadsheet can be up to 256 columns, 200,000 cells, or 100 sheets, whichever is reached first, to be converted to Google Docs format. There's no limit on rows.
  * Presentations: Files in .ppt and .pps formats can have a maximum size of 10MB or 200 slides to be converted to Google Docs format; files uploaded from the Web can be up to 2MB.
  * Stored files: Files that you store but don't convert to Google Docs can be up to 1 GB each. '

Not bad!

See the Size Limits page for more detail (file formats etc).

Here's the "Getting Started" guide and the "Take a Tour page."

Thanks to Joel on the tip for transferring files to your Kindle without needing to use the USB cable connected to a computer.

  There's no charge for a transfer of Kindle-compatible file from a website page.  HOWEVER, PDFs can't be downloaded direct to the Kindle.

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
Also, a page of links that confine searches to mid-range priced e-books.