Jennie writes: I’m trying to buy a Kindle book on the Kindle app for iPhone, but I can’t find any “buy now” buttons, or even a link to the Amazon Kindle store. Am I missing something?

Hi Jennie! No, you’re not missing a thing. Thanks to Apple’s strict rules regarding so-called “in-app” purchase on the iPhone (I won’t bore you with the details, but you can read all about it here), Amazon removed a handy button on its Kindle app that used to lead iPhone users straight to the online Kindle store.

The good news, though, is that you still can buy Kindle books directly on the iPhone (or the iPad, for that matter)—and in fact, the process is almost exactly the same as it was before.

You can't buy Kindle books from the Kindle iPhone app, but you can through the online Kindle store for the iPhone's Safari browser.

For the iPhone:

• Open the Safari web browser on your iPhone and type amazon.com into the address field; you should arrive at the iPhone-optimized version of Amazon’s online store. Did you land on the standard Amazon site instead? If so, try typing iphone.amazon.com into Safari’s address field instead—that should do the trick.
• Scroll down until you see the section marked “Shop All Departments,” then tap “Kindle,” followed by “Storefront.”
• At this point, you’ll have arrived at the same page where the old “Kindle Store” button on the iPhone Kindle app would have taken you. From here, you can search the entire store, or browse books, newspapers, magazines, or Kindle “Singles” (short stories, essays, and other short works, which typically cost $3 or less).
• Once you find a Kindle book you like, tap its link, then make sure your iPhone is selected in the pull-down menu marked “Send wirelessly to.”
• Tap “Buy now” or “Try a sample,” then go back to the iPhone Kindle app; your new book should start downloading automatically. No problem!

Amazon's new Cloud Reader boasts an iPad-optimized version of the online Kindle Store.

For the iPad:

• Launch the Safari browser and type read.amazon.com into the address bar.
• You should arrive on Amazon’s “Cloud Reader,” an online version of the Kindle e-reader for PC and Mac web browsers, as well as the iPad—and in the top-right corner of the page, you should see a button marked “Kindle Store.” Go ahead and tap it.
• Bingo! You should be be looking at the touch-optimized Kindle Store for iPad, complete with a swipeable row of recommended books and about two-dozens categories to browse.

Have more questions about Kindle for the iPhone—or Apple’s new App Store policies, for that matter? Let me know!

Note: This post was updated on January 23, 2012, to reflect changes in Amazon’s online Kindle store, the arrival of the Cloud Reader, and other developments.

Tagged as: iPhone, Kindle, Reader mail