Kindle Store arrives in Brazil, Kindle e-readers to follow

The Brazilian Kindle Store, which officially opens on Thursday, boasts over 1.4 million e-books, including more than 13,000 Portuguese-language titles and a number of exclusive works from Paulo Coelho, Vinícius de Moraes, Nelson Rodrigues and Ziraldo.

What's more, Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is now available to independent authors and publishers in Brazil. KPD is supported by a Portuguese-language website that writers can use to make their works available in the country and internationally. The service allows users to set prices and to receive payments for copies sold in Brazilian Reais.

The company has also launched free Kindle reader apps for Brazilian smartphones.

Amazon claims the store will offer the cheapest titles of any e-bookstore in the country and that via the smartphone app, which supports both Android and Apple devices, users will be able to access and read more than 1,500 free Portuguese-language books.

"We're also bringing our latest generation Kindle -- the best-selling e-reader in the world -- to Brazilian customers at a suggested retail price of R$299 in the coming weeks," said Alexandre Szapiro, Vice President of Kindle, Amazon.com.br. "With the launch of free Kindle reading apps in Portuguese, anyone who has an Android phone, Android tablet, iPhone or iPad, PC or Mac, can start reading Kindle books today."