Kindle day: Amazon preps new e-book

Amazon is expected to unveil its latest Kindle Monday and will reportedly offer a new Stephen King novel that is exclusive to the device. 

Kindle 2.0 is expected to be announced Monday in New York. I'll be blogging live from the press conference. It's unclear whether Amazon will announce any applications for the iPhone and mobile phones. In addition, pricing is unknown, but it's doubtful Amazon will drop the $359 price tag too much. 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Stephen King novel exclusive and how it could change the publishing game. That could be a stretch, but it is notable. For the publisher, a Kindle exclusive may generate buzz. However, how many units can an author really move via a Kindle exclusive--the device is sold out more often than not. 

The Journal reports:

It is possible that the King work -- in which a Kindle-like device plays a role in the story -- could be published as part of a physical book at a later date by the author's current publisher, Scribner, an imprint of CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster publishing arm. Scribner last November published Mr. King's most recent book, "Just After Sunset: Stories."

For the record, CBS owns us too. 

To me, it'll be very newsworthy if Amazon actually tells us how many Kindles it has sold. Amazon will tell you that they are selling well, but some quantification would be nice. Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney reckons that Amazon has sold 500,000 Kindles. He bases that estimate on Sprint Nextel data.