UCG Booklets Becoming Available on AMAZON.com

January 6, 2012

United Church of God publications available for download in the Apple iBookstore.

The United Church of God follows the biblical admonition Jesus Christ gave His disciples, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). It has always been our intent to share the truth without cost or obligation. We provide our church services, Kingdom of God Bible Seminars, television programs, printed literature and an array of Internet publications and ministerial services free of charge.

Regarding electronic distribution of our materials, many of our booklets and the Bible Study Course are available within the Apple iBookstore and the Barnes and Noble website. This allows those who have an Apple mobile device or Barnes and Noble Nook to download the Church’s literature at no charge. So far more than 128,000 booklets have been distributed via these two online stores!

Now, we are excited to announce that our booklets are becoming available at Amazon.com—the world’s largest bookseller and largest marketplace on the Internet. Readers will be able to download our electronic booklets (ebooks) to their Amazon Kindle tablet e-readers (Kindle, Kindle Touch and the new Kindle Fire) via the Amazon Kindle store. Also, if they have downloaded the Kindle App, they can download and read these on their Apple devices (iPad, iPhone and the iPod Touch) as well as to Android-supported smartphones or tablets.

With our literature available for the Amazon Kindle via the Kindle Store, we are able to reach millions more individuals who use the Kindle to read electronic books. It has been reported that one million Kindle devices were sold each week this past December 2011! Further, Amazon reports that more people download Kindle books than all their hardcover and softcover books combined!

United Church of God publications available for download in the Amazon Bookstore.

This wonderful opportunity to reach potentially millions more readers comes with a slight drawback, initially. Amazon requires a minimum of 99 cents to place any electronic book on its site so it can cover its wireless distribution costs to the Kindle device. However, we are able to state at the beginning of the booklet description that it can be downloaded for free at www.ucg.org. Also, Amazon provides the opportunity for its users to notify them if a particular electronic book is available at a lower price elsewhere. Since we offer our booklets for free at ucg.org and at various Web locations (ucg.org, Apple iBookstore and BarnesandNoble.com) we can ask Amazon to match that lower price—making the download free.

As you see above, we are very pleased to have been able to do this successfully already with our electronic booklet “What Happens After Death?” It is now listed for free—as we planned and prayed for. So, you may see 99 cents listed as the price on some booklets at Amazon. But with your help we can let Amazon know that an electronic booklet is available for free. If you have an Amazon account, go to one of our booklets listed at http://amzn.to/twztuk (this is a shortened Web address) and look for any ebooklet with the list price of 99 cents. Then, click on the title and on the next Web page look for this link in the Product Details section: “tell us about a lower price.” You can let Amazon know that this booklet is available for free at another Web location (ucg.org, Apple iBookstore and BarnesandNoble.com).

If you don’t know if a booklet is available at other online location besides ucg.org, go to www.ucg.org/booklets and note which booklets are available at the Apple iBookstore or Barnes & Noble. Copy the Web address for the booklet at one of these online stores and post it within the online form provided by Amazon. This will let Amazon.com know that the booklets are available for free at another online location. It will be Amazon’s decision to lower the price.

We are really excited about this opportunity and the potential numbers of people who can easily download our booklets to their mobile devices. This is a great opportunity to distribute the gospel message in such a large way via the world’s largest bookseller!

Peter Eddington and Aaron Booth—Media and Communications Services