That is not PhotoShopped or made up.
I now own two thousand one-hundred and seventeen Kindle Books.
And every single one of those is legit and free.
You can amass such an intimidating collection too. Just go to Kindle Nation Daily — daily.
And I didn’t even grab everything that’s been offered for free since I started reading KND!
If the book had vampire, zombie, short story, trilogy, and some other keywords in its title or description, it got passed by. Although I did grab a few short stories that appealed to me in terms of title, writer, or description. But not many.
Ninety-nine percent of those are not public domain, either. They’re writers clamoring for an audience.
For someone like me, who will at least look at the damn thing. And maybe discover that, yeah, this is worth reading and recommending to others.
But at least ninety percent of those are going to fail the first paragraph test or the first page test. If you can’t write, if it doesn’t grab me, it’ll be gone. You had your shot and lost.
And I’ll be saying that in my other blog, Mike Cane Reads, when I finally get around to sorting through this growing collection in the next year. Some of those people should have never wasted their time — or mine. And I’ll let others know what titles — and so-called writers — should be avoided.
This is why I no longer really believe in the Long Tail. There’s just too much crap flooding eBookstores. Crap that will never sell, that isn’t worth storing even for “free.” Amazon and the other bookstores aren’t going to keep doing that. It will become unsustainable.
For professional writers, the Long Tail might kick in. But for those who have no business touching a keyboard and creating a book? They will be flushed away at some future date. And go away unmissed.
Anyway, for those of you who got a Kindle as a holiday gift (or use the iOS, Android, webOS or desktop software), you’ll always have something to look at — without having to pay for it. As to whether that will be a productive use of your precious time, it remains to be seen. I think many people will suffer “free fatigue” and stick with real writers who charge for their work.
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
Hi Mike,
As of this morning (12/31/11) I have 1215 books in my kindle library. Not all of them are free, and of the ones that aren’t, not all of them are under 2.99, but a heck of a lot of them are….You probably have a broader selection that I do, but some of the books I have a suggested by you.
I have to say I am looking forward to your suggestions and criticisms. Also, you forgot to add another way to test whether a book is worth spending time on. If I get so distracted by the crappy proofreading, or if it is obvious that the author is illiterate regarding the rules of grammar, spelling or punctuation I virtually throw the thing across the room no matter how intriguing the idea.
*hug* and here’s hoping 2012 will be better.