Last fall, Amazon announced its plans for Kindle Singles, an attempt to make short stories and content of similar length to its e-reader. It was a call, in Amazon’s words, to “serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world.”
And today, the first set of Kindle Singles is available in the Kindle Store.
These pieces run between 5000 and 30,000 words (around 30-50 pages) and range in price between $0.99 and $4.99.
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The first set of Singles includes original reporting, essays, memoirs and fiction. Specific titles are Evan Ratliff’s bank heist story “Lifted,” Brendan Koerner’s story of jazz king Teddy Weatherford “Piano Demon,” and “Leaving Home,” three short pieces by novelist Jodi Picoult. Also included, the launch of the first ever TEDBooks, including three titles based on the popular TEDTalks.
Amazon says that the initial response to the announcement of the Singles was “great,” and it plans to launch more Kindle Singles in the future.
Amazon touts this move, in part, as an opportunity for writers to publish content in a shorter form. But the move to publish shorter pieces – “compelling ideas expressed at their natural length” – is an interesting one for other reasons as well, particularly in light of questions about the ways in which e-readers are shaping what and how we read. As magazine and newspapers struggle to figure out new way to monetize online content and to handle subscriptions, will this shorter-length content sell on the Kindle?
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