The Amazon Kindle Singles program was the company’s first foray into working with authors directly and set the stage for the fledgling publishing program. The main essence behind Kindle Singles is to give people short reads by authors who find their bodies of work are too short to be a novel and too long for a magazine article. Up until now, this was a US only publishing program and today Amazon announced it has opened up shop in the United Kingdom.
Kindle Singles are editorially curated and showcase writing from both new and established voices—from bestselling novelists and journalists to previously unpublished writers. Independent writers have the opportunity to earn 70% royalties on every Kindle Single they sell whilst retaining the rights to their work. “We wanted to create a venue for these works while still finding the best work of this kind,” said Kindle Singles editor David Blum in an interview with Good e-Reader.com. “Aside from the word count, price is an issue in Kindle Singles, with all works costing between ninety-nine cents and $4.99. It keeps the works affordable and accessible.”
“Since we introduced Kindle Singles in the US last year the response from customers has been exceptional—over 4 million Kindle Singles have been sold to date. We think readers in the UK will enjoy the great range of content we have available so we’re excited to bring Kindle Singles to Amazon.co.uk customers,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President, Kindle EU. “Writers have responded with great enthusiasm and we’ve already got some very popular British writers onboard, with more to come in 2013.”
Most of the Kindle Singles that launched in the UK today comprise of many local writers. Susan Hill, Candia McWilliam, Andrew Taylor, and many more have made their content available. The average price is .99 p to £1.49.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
