Today in TechKindle now lets you ask an author questions, right from the ebook
If you've ever found yourself suddenly struck with a question as you're devouring a novel, a clever tool on the Amazon Kindle wants to bring you the answer, right from the source. The Kindle's brand new @author feature lets you direct your pressing inquiry toward the actual mind behind the ebook page. You'll need a Twitter account to get connected, since the social network powers the @author program. On your Kindle, highlight the puzzling sentence, word, or passage of text and type out your question starting with "@author."
Your question will also be public, so anyone who has purchased something from Amazon can respond, though odds are you'll be holding out for the author themselves. Of course, you could go pose your puzzlements directly through Twitter itself, but the idea is that you can ask anything as it pops into your head without needing to leaving the book and interrupt your experience.
The @author program is currently in beta, so at this time only a handful of Twitter-savvy wordsmiths are signed up. So far the list includes Susan Orlean (author of The Orchid Thief), thriller author J.A. Konrath, New York Times bestselling financial writer Robert T. Kiyosaki, and more. For the full list, check outAmazon's @author page, where you can also toss your questions toward participating writers if you don't have your Kindle handy.
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