One of the publishing trends that I’ve become aware of since I’ve had an e-reader is that of the Kindle Single. This is what we might in the past call a short story or essay or reporting piece. The challenge for these short pieces is that up until now, they have generally not been stand-alone pieces. They appear in anthologies or magazines or sometimes in a collection of pieces by that author. Publishing the piece all by itself just hasn’t generally worked.

The Kindle Single ranges from 5,000 to 30,000 words, can be in one of a number of genres, and either can be an already published work on the Kindle platform or one considered for publication as a Kindle single. Kindle’s editors make selections. Authors, if selected receive 70 % royalties on publications priced between 0.99 and 4.99. Here is Amazon’s Kindle Single Submission Policy.

It seems to me that this opens up a new avenue for authors to get their work published, and known of itself–not lost in a journal or anthology. It also affords publishers the chance to publish authors without the laborious process of writing and editing a full length work, or waiting for there to be a collection of short stories. The site Good E Reader notes that Penguin and Random House are now publishing short stories in this format and that all this may lead to a renewal in this form of publishing.

I’ve not dipped into this area yet. I would be curious if readers have found some good short stories in e-published form? And if any writers come across this, has this been a way to get your writing out, and more importantly, have you seen many sales?