Constant Reader's picture
Constant Reader from Central OR is reading Nothing but fucking Shakespeare, for the rest of my life May 31, 2012 - 5:02pm

I was listening to Adam Carolla, and the author being interviewed apparently publishes Kindle Singles. Seems like these are basically novella length books (also non-fiction apparently) that you submit to Amazon and they 'publish' (what this means is open to interpretation) and push the piece as one of these Kindle Singles. Also, there is a slight difference in the royalties cut, apparently. 

They also promise a 4 week response time (just got a response on a frigging short story after 150 days! Yuck.)... anyone else think this is interesting? I do have a couple of novella-length pieces that I don't want to pad out with fluff/filler. I don't think they are ready for publication, but still...

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading Comic books and motorcycle riding guides May 31, 2012 - 8:51pm

What a boring, flamebait question. 

Just kidding. 

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading Comic books and motorcycle riding guides May 31, 2012 - 8:51pm

I was looking at the Kindle singles page:

Kindle Singles is here to offer a vast spectrum of reporting, essays, memoirs, narratives, and short stories presented to educate, entertain, excite, and inform. Our writers take you places you can't get to any other way, on journeys of fact and fiction that share these common threads: they're the highest-quality work we can find, and at a length best suited to the ideas they present.

It sounds great.  I'm going to look into it a bit more.

They seem to have a lot of big names involved.  The submission page is here: Kindle Singles

Nikki Guerlain's picture
Nikki Guerlain from Portlandia is reading Necronomicon Book Three May 31, 2012 - 9:36pm

This interesting.

jacks_username's picture
jacks_username from Louisville, Kentucky is reading Flashover by Gordon Highland May 31, 2012 - 9:37pm

I better finish my novella in that case.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading Comic books and motorcycle riding guides June 1, 2012 - 12:37am

And decide on a pen name.

ReneeAPickup's picture
ReneeAPickup from Joshua Tree, CA is reading The Sound of Lonliness June 1, 2012 - 1:14am

I've been idly looking into this as well, they started posting on duotrope. Seems cool, really.

Constant Reader's picture
Constant Reader from Central OR is reading Nothing but fucking Shakespeare, for the rest of my life June 1, 2012 - 1:48am

@Sparrow Idly? Adverbs are the devil.

Howie, you magnificent bastard, God love ya. Well played.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Lexington, Ky. is reading Strangers in the Land by Stant Litore. June 1, 2012 - 7:34am

So what is the difference between this and normal self publishing? More press from Amazon?

Deets999's picture
Deets999 from Connecticut is reading Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore June 1, 2012 - 10:23am

I submitted a novella to them last week - looking forward to see if it goes anywhere.  Though maybe I won't hold my breath for a response in 4 weeks.

Chris Davis's picture
Chris Davis from Indiana is reading A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews June 1, 2012 - 11:35am

I just picked up the kindle single Richard Greener did a couple weeks ago. It was worth a read for $0.99

Bob Pastorella's picture
Bob Pastorella from Groves, Texas is reading Horror comics, and This Dark Earth by John Hornor Jacobs, and more Horror comics. June 1, 2012 - 11:41am

What this amounts to is that Amazon is now a publisher. They've already made million dollar plus contracts with other writers, and are now testing the waters with new and unpublished writers. Quicker turn around BUT there's still a gateway, which is good. If you want an even quicker turn around and no gateway, you can still just upload your ebook and promote this shit out of it for 24/7/365 and beyond and pray you make some money and don't get slammed by the hater reviews. 

OtisTheBulldog's picture
OtisTheBulldog from Somerville, MA is reading your mother's diary. Your sister's too. June 1, 2012 - 2:29pm

Interesting and worth following. 

Question - do they set a price or does the author set a price? 

Michael J. Sullivan's picture
Michael J. Sullivan from where unlikely heroes dwell is reading Under the Dome June 4, 2012 - 10:18am

It's a great program to be in if you can get accepted. There turn around is not as fast as they claim. It took about 3 weeks for me to get my rejection. But worth trying for sure.