Kindle "Singles"

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Robrealm

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I'm sort of new to the Kindle world. Could someone explain the difference between a common e-book and a Kindle "single" ? Are "singles" short stories and/or novellas?

Thanks
 

nils

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Singles are shorter works, 10k to 30k words, and with a narrower price range than full books. Other than that there is no difference I think.
 

johnnysannie

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What are the possible advantages of being listed as a Kindle Single?

Interest for your other works; I've not done a Kindle single but I do have a short fiction piece through No Boundaries up on Amazon alongside my novels. I've had readers who read the story first - because it's cheap - and that sparked their interest in the longer works.

Oddly - or at least to me - the short "Absolution" is momentarily my biggest seller on both Amazon UK and Amazon Germany, probably because of the low price.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Okay, here are their criteria:
Kindle Singles Criteria
• Length: 5,000 to 30,000 words
• List price: $0.99 to $4.99
• Original work, not previously published in other formats or publications
• Self-contained work, not chapters excerpted from a longer work
• Not published on any public website in its entirety
• We are currently not accepting how-to manuals, public domain works, reference books, travel guides, or children's books.
I'm out of the running for those on two counts:

Original work, not previously published in other formats or publications.

Not published on any public website in its entirety
.

Everything I have up is previously published, and it's all available on every public website.
 

EveLanglais

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What a fantastic option for shorter works. I like that they allow a lower price point with the 70% royalty structure. It's also interesting that they're screening these works. Has anybody gone thru that process?
 

Piper Brooks

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Does anyone know the other criteria that they are looking at for publishing? Their screening criteria?
 

jnfr

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I have two friends who are published under Singles. So far I believe there are only about 100 Singles that have been published by Amazon. There is an editor who chooses which to publish under the Singles name, and he seems to have his own criteria which like any editor aren't entirely obvious on the surface.

They do great publicity for the Singles, though, and my friends have had very good sales figures with theirs. The 70% royalty rate means you can sell low and still make decent money on them too.

For at least one of my friends Amazon provided copy-editing and formatting as well, and she was very happy working with them.
 

seeAlliwrite

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Well, I got rejected from the Kindle Singles programme, but have gone ahead and put the book out myself anyway. Launched it today. Good luck, little book! There are links on both my blogs if you're interested...
 

Sue_L

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I've been thinking about submitting a piece to Kindle Singles. Does anyone know what their typical response time is?
 

uscgbyron

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It sounds to me like an avenue for Amazon to act as an agent/publisher for Short Story authors, instead of going the self-published route. Just my initial impression. I've been to busy writing and putting short stories up to really take a hard look at Kindle Singles. Maybe once I start making it into the Smashwords Premium catalog...
 

HistorySleuth

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It sounds to me like an avenue for Amazon to act as an agent/publisher for Short Story authors, instead of going the self-published route. Just my initial impression. I've been to busy writing and putting short stories up to really take a hard look at Kindle Singles. Maybe once I start making it into the Smashwords Premium catalog...

That's my impression too, since it seems a person can go ahead and put a short on Kindle anyway, like SeeAlliwrite has done. I'm just trying to figure out why Amazon is doing it.

Obviously they can afford to hire an editor, so is this to eliminate some of their slush? In other words, are they testing the publisher waters with the shorts to eventually do it with the books? Plus the you-can-only-sell-through-here implied by the, "Not published on any public website in its entirety" in their Kindle Shorts criteria that James posted above. Will they try that with their books too?

Maybe they are trying to weed out the works of lesser quality by putting it in one area. That's what I think is going on Kindle Shorts, then we will get Kindle Select whatevers (like approved novels, non-fic etc), then the rest will be a section of everything else they didn't approve that you can still download if you want. Just seems like it might be something to that. But who knows.
 
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NewKidOldKid

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That's my impression too, since it seems a person can go ahead and put a short on Kindle anyway, like SeeAlliwrite has done. I'm just trying to figure out why Amazon is doing it.

I just wanted to say I LOVE the cover in your signature!
 
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