There's a world out there between articles and novels, and Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle wants to jump on the tweener prose market.
The leading online retailer is introducing Kindle Singles, giving short-form fiction its own place to shine within Amazon's bustling e-book marketplace. Singles will offer up content that is between 10,000 and 30,000 words long, so now may be a good time to dust off that graduate school thesis that always deserved a larger audience than your unimpressed professors.
"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," reads this morning's release. The content will naturally be offered at lower priced points than conventional-length e-books.
I was an early critic of the Kindle, going as far as calling the original model a $399 paperweight. However, my tune changed shortly after its launch three holiday seasons ago, when I was able to dust off a cheesy coming-of-age novel that I wrote in college and seamlessly have it published digitally. At no cost and with little effort, I have managed to move more than 100 copies of a forgotten story that I had only hoodwinked two friends into reading in the real world. It obviously isn't a nest egg builder for me, but it's comforting to know that words don't have to die in the digital age.
Amazon has taken the lead in virtual self-publishing, and this was long before Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) began offering e-book marketplaces for the gadgetry that they have introduced over the past year.
Amazon has also taken charge to make sure that its Kindle offerings aren't limited to the namesake readers. Apps are available for Apple iOS, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android, and Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry devices -- no Kindle required. Even PCs now have access to the more than 700,000 e-books available as well as the digital versions of leading newspapers and magazines.
Kindle wants to be everywhere, regardless of the state of its actual reader. The new Kindle Singles offering will help buff up the already established brand, even if publishers in the past have been able to get away with selling Singles-sized content through Amazon's e-book store.
Apple, Barnes & Noble, and gadget pioneer Sony (NYSE: SNE) haven't really put up much of a fight to secure original -- and in some cases exclusive -- content, so you have to like Amazon's move to remain aggressive in a niche that it continues to dominate.
I wonder if I can stretch this into a 10,000-word buy thesis for Amazon.com shares.
Have you ever tried to publish something through Amazon's Kindle bookstore? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
