The easiest way to get books onto your Amazon Kindle is by downloading Kindle books from the Kindle store, but the Kindle email system is useful to transfer files onto your Kindle. If you have downloaded books from a free Kindle book site or if you have personal documents and photos that you want on your Kindle, you can send them to your Kindle from your personal email address to your Kindle email address. Amazon will send files from your Kindle email address to your Kindle for a small fee.
How to Set Up a Kindle Email Address
Whenever you need information about your Kindle, go to the " Manage Your Kindle " section of Amazon.com. You must be logged into Amazon to use this section. In "Manage Your Kindle" you will see a section called "Your Kindle" which has information about:
- your Kindle's friendly name ("Alex's Kindle")
- your Kindle's warranty
- your Kindle email address
Click on "Edit Info" to create your Kindle email address. This will open a pop-up box where you can choose a word for your Kindle email address. If you type "dolphin" then your Kindle email address will be "dolphin@kindle.com". After you have chosen a Kindle address, click "update information." When you get back to the original screen, your information should be updated to show that you now have a Kindle email address.
How to Allow Email Addresses to Send Files to Your Kindle Email
Only approved email addresses can transfer files to your Amazon Kindle email address. Scroll down the "Manage Your Kindle" page and you will see a section called "Your Kindle Approved E-mail List" with empty boxes. This is where you can add your home and work email addresses so that you can send books, Word documents, and jpg photos to your Kindle. Type in the address that you want to use to send books to your Kindle, and click "Add Address" on the right side of the box. The list of addresses will grow as you add email addresses.
If you want to share books with another Kindle user, that person needs to add your personal email address (not your Kindle email address) to their list of approved email addresses. You can not send protected documents through the Kindle email system, so you can not send a password-protected Word file or a book you have downloaded from Amazon. However, you can send non-protected documents, such as free ebooks from Project Gutenberg.
How to Use Your Kindle Email Address
Once you have set up your Kindle email address and approved your personal email address, you can start sending files to your Kindle. Remember that Amazon charges a fee to send books over the Whispernet network. The fees are 15 cents per megabyte in the United States 99 cents per megabyte outside of the United States.
From your home email address, attach the file you want to send to your Kindle. You can a lot of popular file types, including:
- document files (.doc, .rtf, and .txt files)
- photo files (jpeg, jpg, png, and gif files)
- ebook files (pdf, .mobi, .azw)
Sometimes it can take a little bit of time to get your book from your Kindle email address to your Kindle, especially if the file is large. You can check the status of your Kindle book transfer in "Manage Your Kindle" on the far right side of the page. Look for "Delivery Status" and you will see titles that are pending delivery. Once books have been successfully delivered to your Kindle, the date of their delivery appears in the "Delivery Status" section.
If Amazon can not put your files on your Kindle, you will get an email to the email address you use to login to Amazon.com explaining that there is a problem with the file. If you are unsure about how much it will cost to send a file to your Kindle, you can set a limit to how much you are willing to pay to transfer documents in "Your Personal Document Charge Limit" which is in the "Manage My Kindle" section. These limits apply to each document, and Amazon will email you if the file you are trying to send exceeds the amount you have approved.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
