Kindle Singles: A Big Opportunity for Smart Writers

Just last week, Amazon announced the launch of Kindle Singles, a new imprint specializing in short nonfiction works of 10,000–30,000 words—which, if you didn't know, isn't considered a marketable length for any traditional print publisher.

I see this launch and immediately wonder:
Why didn't an innovative publisher announce an imprint like this to take advantage of the growing e-reading audience?

Why did it have to be Amazon?

Publishing insiders have talked about the possibility of this new form/genre for more than a year. (See Shatzkin here, point 3!)

But no one stepped forward (to my knowledge) to innovate in this way. I suppose that no traditional publisher can yet see a way to make enough money to invest resources in it. But I know there's a smart editor out there who could make money on it with the right connections and support.

In any case, you, dear nonfiction writer, ought to carefully consider if this launch could be an opportunity for you.

I can speak from a decade of experience behind the scenes in publishing: Most books are greatly and embarrassingly inflated in word count, just to meet a page count or pricing threshold for print publication.

You've read these books, I'm sure, and you can tell when it's happening. It feels like the book wasn't edited. Actually, closer to the truth: The book was just put on a milkshake diet.

In any case, Amazon is looking for serious writers to contact them for this program, and my guess is they don't quite know what they're doing yet, because there aren't any submission guidelines.

And it's too soon to tell how selective they will be, or what the editing process is like—but no matter. Even I am thinking if I have an appropriate project!

Wired's Gadget Lab has an interesting prediction as a result of the announcement:

Two further possibilities, particularly if other e-book retailers follow suit with similar chapbook-length offerings: digital-only publishers (or offshoot imprints) could emerge to produce works specifically for this format, or the additional revenue and marketing stream of electronic publishing could lead print publishers to produce more short-form books in print.

The lovely thing about Kindle Singles is it inspires people to envision how it will be useful for their own field of work. Case in point, Nieman Journalism Lab envisions newspaper series:

News organizations already have tools to drive that kind of attention — their traditional and web publications. What they haven’t had is a platform that made the sale and consumption of Single-sized text easy. Instead of building or renting their own e-commerce platform — and instead of building their own devices or apps — news orgs can hand that job off to Amazon and reach a broader potential audience than other solutions might.

Related (if you're curious about this phenomenon):

Here's the official press release from Amazon announcing Kindle Singles
Wired's Gadget Lab has the best editorial coverage of the announcement
Atlantic announces it will publish short stories on Kindle that will not be available in magazine
Also check out Amazon's DTP service (you could self-publish whatever you like through this service, for free—ideal for any length of work, partial works, full works, collections of works, etc)

Once Kindle Singles gets under way, I'd love to hear from authors who are accepted into the program—for interviews and continuing coverage on this blog.

Jane FriedmanAuthor

Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).