Amazon Singles - A new front in the war

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

I dunno, doesn't this ability already exist on Amazon?

One of my favorite living authors, Kristine Kathryn-Rusch has several short novels/long stories up on the Kindle store

For instance

http://www.amazon.com/Recovery-Mans-...6930092&sr=8-2

I think this is just going to have the effect of driving out the lesser known authors and indies, and replacing it with shorter from the same crap that makes up the bestseller list. Stephen King, Sieg Larrson, James Patterson, whatever junk Oprah is pushing.

I mean, face it, people are sheep when it comes to buying stuff, be it music, movies or books. Why give someone new a chance when they can buy the latest piece of claptrap from the authors they are told they are supposed to read?

Price used to be a factor. But now that is out the window, as a $2.99 novella or story from a big name author is now directly competing with a $2.99 novel from others.

Ouch! Why so judgmental?

[Blue Tyson]

Besides, if you think it is crap (and I definitely do recommend Rusch, she is excellent in multiple genres) then they will be reading shorter crap and wasting less time.

King is better than Larrson, Patterson and Oprah put together, though!

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

A brilliant move, in my opinion.

And yet another reason why Amazon is leading this market. Other competitors are focussed on suing other shareholders or figuring out which stores to close or beating down notions like expanding outside the US or why touch screen is obviously much more important than an always connected device.

Kobo does not yet have a clearly defined author's program. I wonder if that's in their future bag of tricks?

Yep, taking a slice of the market that their dead tree rivals won't/can't work in is definitely worth a shot.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

I dunno, doesn't this ability already exist on Amazon?

No, it doesn't. Here's the press releases as a refresh:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....cle&ID=1481538

Kindle Singles will have their own section in the Kindle Store and be priced much less than a typical book. Today's announcement is a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world.

Emphasis, mine. "Kindle Singles" aren't "short books"; they are a different category of books and will be merchandised separately. They strike me as a 2010 version of "chapbooks". See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapbook.

The potential for creating a new cottage industry of serialists (finally in a nice, not a deadly, way) is particularly encouraging. Charles Dickens, it might be noted did NOT write LONG books; he wrote serials.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

"Kindle Singles" aren't "short books"; they are a different category of books and will be merchandised separately.

Strictly speaking, they shouldn't be anything that recent publishing ventures would call a "book". They won't fit the economics of the modern publishing houses. Going back in time, though, you'd find print analogs in the days of pamplets and folios. Or, as suggested, specific items from the heyday of the literary magazines and the pulps.

If this succeeds in the marketplace it will be the place for the 21st century Conan Doyles, Dickenses (as pointed out), Asimovs and Clarkes, and, possibly Shakespeares. ;-)

Certainly worth a try.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Strictly speaking, they shouldn't be anything that recent publishing ventures would call a "book". They won't fit the economics of the modern publishing houses. Going back in time, though, you'd find print analogs in the days of pamplets and folios. Or, as suggested, specific items from the heyday of the literary magazines and the pulps.

If this succeeds in the marketplace it will be the place for the 21st century Conan Doyles, Dickenses (as pointed out), Asimovs and Clarkes, and, possibly Shakespeares. ;-)

Certainly worth a try.

I think we need to be a little careful about our terminology here...

A book, at least as far as I am concerned is any bound and printed work regardless of length. Generally for adult fiction, works that are not at least 40-50 thousand words are not published as books. That being said, some (a very tiny percentage of all fiction books) are.

Works like this still are published in anthologies and in at least Science Fiction and Fantasy Pulps like Analog and Asimov's, they are still published in magazines (I suspect the same is true of mystery stories since they are the only other genre I know of that still has some pulps that feature relative prominently in the genre).

I would also point out that modern publishing now includes ebooks which changes the economics entirely. Smashwords in particular has been selling everything pretty much every length of story since its inception.

In any case, I agree that a revival of short and intermediate length fiction can only be good in the grand scheme of things. Not only can they help a writer hone their craft, but they can be wonderful in their own right. A novella can be the perfect way to take a breather when you are in the middle of a big series of novels. You take a night or three off (at most!) and visit another author's imagination before getting back to the long series you have been concentrating on.

--
Bill

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

I think we need to be a little careful about our terminology here...

More than a little, actually.
Notice that amazon isn't using the term book at all. As pointed out above, until now, a lot of content sources have done nothing to sort out short form "ebooks" from the "full-length" volumes. Once you factor in pricing issues, you can and do end up with a buyer-beware situation where you find short content sold side by side and priced comparably to longer content, leading to unpleasant discoveries.
As I said, "single" is not a term I'm thrilled with but *something* is needed to distinguish and segregate the unbunded short form content.
Amazon seens to be taking a dual track (I think) by setting up a separate wing of the Kindle store and by putting a $2.99 list-price floor on "full-length" content. Until they announce pricing for the Singles we won't know if there will be a Ceiling on those but it wouldn't surprise me if there was. (Say $1.99)

Over on the gaming side, Microsoft has similar segregation for downloadable games on XBOX Live, with the Indie/Community games separated by both section and pricing from the corporate offerings and the downloadable versions of disk-based games. That way buyers always know whether they're buying a casual diversion or a multi-week challenge. When consumers know what to expect, there is less heartburn to go around for everybody.

As publishing moves deeper into the digital domain these kinds of distinctions are going to become more and more important. Ideally we'd have an industry-wide set of terminology and conventions but the odds of that are just about zero.

[millicent]

Actually Amazon are not the first people in the field. I went to the London Book Fair last year and saw exactly the same idea being talked about by a company called Ether Books. They had already signed up some stellar names in fiction like Hilary Mantel. They have, of course, an app for that.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by millicent

They have, of course, an app for that.

Which automatically limits the content's visibility and market to their App and its environment.

The point here isn't that Amazon is first; we all know they aren't.
The point is that they are bringing it to the Kindle environment, the Kindle customer base, the Kindle apps.
The point is the visibility the content will get; visibility and accessibility.
That means the whole of the iOS user base *and* the Android user base *and* the Blackberry user base *and* the PC user base *and* the Mac user base. Plus the millions of Kindle hardware readers who are already buying digital content by the bushel. With more to come.

Whether or not people want to buy short form content is far from a given but the odds are that enough do want to that writers may once more be able to make a living off short stories.

That would be good, no?
For now, the odds of that happening are more likely through Amazon than through some start-up's private App. Plain and simple fact. That is what makes this BIG news.

When 900 pound gorillas roar, people notice.