I have to admit this News Release by Amazon surprised me.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1481538&highlight
I have mixed feelings about this. Part of my author side says wow, short stories and essays can be published. Then my curious, albeit often skeptical and analytical brain, says hmmmm, won’t that bring forth a deluge of questionable short stories, articles, whatever? And what about pricing? A lot of authors have dropped book prices to $.99, $1.99, $2.99…whatever. What price will be attached to a “Kindle Single?”
Is it just me or could this be a problem? What do YOU think?
Some authors espouse offering a short story or novella for free or a low price to entice readers into buying their current releases.
Yes, I’ve seen that with several authors, and I think that is a great idea. In fact, I know several authors who have been very successful doing that, and that strategy is already in place and working. However, I’m not getting the feeling of that happening from the News Release. I can foresee this concept going in a totally different direction. I hope I’m wrong.
It’s already happening elsewhere, namely erotica.
They’ve come up with a clever name and marketing.
I hadn’t seen this until I saw it here.
Right now, almost anything goes — think blogs.
Yes, erotica was the first thing that came to my mind. I can well imagine everything getting lumped under the heading “Kindle Singles.” That’s one of my worries. It’s definitely a whole new world. I’m not criticizing erotica. I’m just wondering how this will all play out with erotica, serious short books, essays, etc., etc.
Actually, this begs another question…which actually might be a good thing. I’ve been noticing a lot of erotica and novellas on Amazon all of a sudden. Maybe this has something to do with the winds of change. Will previously published shorter works now be “pulled out” of the mainstream listings? Hmmm, that would be interesting. I’ve gotten to the point whenever I’m interested in a “book,” I try to find the print page length of KB length…just for my own knowledge. I’d rather know the length of what I’m going to read before buying. There are times I love the idea of novella and other times I want to settle in with a long read.