There’s nothing new about being single

There’s nothing new about being single

Believe Amazon and you’ll believe that writers have spent years (“more than a century” to use their words) struggling with the dilemma of whether to write under 10,000 words or over 50,000. From this standpoint, the online books-and-more retailer today announced the launch of Kindle Singles, non-fiction works twice the length of a New Yorker magazine feature or the equivalent of several book chapters, delivered via the company’s ereading platform, Kindle. The idea is simple, and well presented in Amazon’s brief press release. But is the premise true? And is the idea actually that new?

Kindle Singles will be published as ebooks, viewable on Amazon's Kindle ereader and other Kindle-enabled devices. Copyright: Amazon.com

Amazon are certainly right that publishers tend to lean towards certain rough page targets, defined by genre and accompanied by specific price points. There are a whole range of reasons for this, ranging from how books are produced (in folded sheets that deliver sets of 32 page sections), to considerations of the spine width visible on a bookshop shelf to the weight and feel of a book in a purchaser’s hand (and the potential purchaser’s associated interpretation of the value of the product). When you’re selling rather more intangible ebooks, these production and physical issues obviously become less important, making Amazon’s aim of serving up “ideas and the words to deliver them” in succinct morsels sound like an appetising plan.

But hang on a sec… doesn’t this all sound a bit like Oxford University Press’ “brilliantly concise” Very Short Introductions series, or Penguin’s beautiful Great Ideas project? Even Amazon’s strapline seems to nod to the latter: “compelling ideas expressed at their natural length”. Given that all Amazon will say about pricing is an intention to come in at “much less than a typical book” we don’t yet know whether Kindle Singles will undercut the ebook versions of these series (all available on Kindle) or not. And despite Rob over at The Fiction Desk’s suggestion last year that short publications were becoming more marketable because time-pressured bloggers are more inclined to discuss and review them, I doubt there’s huge PR potential in yet another big-ideas-in-short-form concept.

So if the idea’s not new, what are Amazon up to? For me, the most intriguing thing about today’s announcement isn’t the format or the intended broad subject coverage. Rather it’s the idea that Amazon are inviting authors and publishers to work with them to create these new products, even providing an email address to start the conversation. So if you classify yourself as an “accomplished writer” or “serious thinker”, shoot off your pitch to digital-publications@amazon.com now. I might just try it myself.

3 Comments

Are Kindle Singles the next big idea? | Kingston Publishing
October 13, 2010 12:12 pm

[…] Are Kindle Singles the next big idea? Posted on October 13, 2010 by kingstonpublishing| Leave a comment Amazon’s latest grand plan is to publish “compelling ideas at their natural length”, effectively delivering big ideas in easy to swallow ebook morsels, supplied via the Kindle platform. MA Lecturer Anna Faherty isn’t convinced the big-ideas-in-short-form concept is all that new. But there is something about the project that’s grabbed her atttention. Read more on Anna’s blog. […]

Four horsemen of the apocalypse at the ICA « mafunyane
October 22, 2010 11:01 am

[…] and protect our content”. In terms of his own organisation’s strategy he referred to Amazon’s Kindle Singles concept and said HarperCollins were also exploring short-form ebooks. Aside from short fiction he raised […]

Hacked off Kingston prof is a Penguin Special | Kingston Publishing: inspiring future publishers
September 24, 2012 4:03 pm

[…] sound a bit like the Kindle Singles concept that appeared a couple of years ago, except they come complete with gorgeous Penguin […]

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