(press release) @Amazon Books Launches Author Interview Series: "Author Interviews@Amazon"

Customers can contribute questions for their favorite authors via Amazon.com Books Facebook page and books blog, Omnivoracious SEATTLE, Apr 25, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- (NASDAQ:AMZN)--Amazon.com today introduced "Author Interviews@Amazon," the new author interview series that will be available in a new content destination called The Backstory (www.amazon.com/thebackstory). Author Interviews@Amazon launches with five video interviews, including celebrity chef and James Beard Award-winning Tom Douglas, New York Times bestselling debut author Joshua Foer, young adult authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, and Gossip Girl producer John Stephens. New author interviews will be announced via the Amazon.com Books Facebook page and on Omnivoracious.com, the Amazon.com Books blog. Customers will be able to post questions for visiting authors that will be incorporated into each interview. All edited videos will be available on the book's detail page and accessible from archives in The Backstory. "We're extremely lucky to have fascinating and talented authors gracing our hallways here at Amazon and taking time to chat with us," said Mari Malcolm, Managing Editor, books at Amazon.com. "We love these conversations so much that we wanted to share them with our customers. We hope that customers will take the opportunity to submit questions on our Amazon Books Facebook page or through our blog, Omnivoracious. They can also contact us at authorinterviews@amazon.com with questions for visiting authors." The Backstory will feature Author Interviews@Amazon interviews and other exclusive author content such as guest reviews, interviews, authors' favorite playlists, recipes and more. Author Interviews@Amazon interviews, including sample quotes, are included below: Holly Black is the bestselling author of contemporary fantasy novels for teens and children, including her first book, "Tithe," "The Spiderwick Chronicles" with Tony DiTerlizzi, the graphic novel series "The Good Neighbors (with Ted Naifeh), and the mobster fantasy series "The Curse Workers." A quote from her interview: "All my other work has been about fairies, but I've always loved heists, I've always loved capers, and I've always loved noir. So I thought, I'm going to do something totally crazy and come up with this crazy world." Cassandra Clare is the bestselling author of the "Mortal Instruments" series, and "Clockwork Angel," the first book in the "Infernal Devices" series. A quote from her interview: "I really like writing teenage characters more than adults. You love your adult characters, but they're also obstacles." Tom Douglas is a James Beard Award-winning chef from Seattle, owner of ten restaurants and author of four books, including the Kindle Exclusive, "Chef Walks: Seattle." A quote from his interview: "Chefs know. We all know. We get out, we go to each other's places, we know where the best food is around the city, we actually take the time to search out and support all these places." Joshua Foer has written for National Geographic, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Slate. "Moonwalking with Einstein" is his first book. A quote from his interview: "The one thing that tends to describe a lot of 'memory geeks' is that a lot of them are actual, physical athletes. The guy who won this year's U.S. Memory Championship is, as we speak, on a plane to Kathmandu to climb Mount Everest. Because, what else would you do after winning the U.S. Memory Championship?" John Stephens spent ten years in television, was the executive producer of Gossip Girl and a writer for Gilmore Girls and The O.C. He was inspired to write novels for children after reading Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. "The Emerald Atlas" is his first book. A quote from his interview: "I'm a morning writer; I tend to work early in the morning, and even if I'm hungry or thirsty, I don't allow myself to get up and go eat. So frequently, I'll be writing in the morning, I'll be starving, and all of a sudden my characters will magically be eating food!" About Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon. Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, and www.amazon.it. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise. Forward-Looking Statements This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings. SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com, Inc. Media Hotline, 206-266-7180 www.amazon.com/pr