In addition to the success of the e-readers, self-publishing authors are also benefitting, with the #1 and #4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011 being published independently using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

"We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO.

"And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we’d also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the author of ‘The Mill River Recluse,’ and Chris Culver, the author of ‘The Abbey,’ for writing two of the best-selling Kindle books of the year," he added.

Throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week in the US, with the Kindle Fire, the Kindle Touch and the Kindle in the top three spots of the Amazon.com best-seller charts. There is no information about how many Kindle Fires, the latest in the family, were sold since its introduction in the market a few months ago.

Other data revealed that gifting of Kindle books was up 175% between this Black Friday and Christmas Day compared to the same period in 2010, with Christmas Day being biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads.


Did you get or gift a Kindle this festive season? Let us know what you got through Twitter and Facebook or leave a comment below.