Several months ago, a well-known writer
(possibly Joe Konrath or Dean Wesley Smith, I can’t remember which) wrote a how-to blog
about breaking into self-publishing ebooks. One tip was to start small by
publishing short fiction as a way of learning the business, including proper
formatting and price points, etc. A number of folks have done exactly this in a
variety of genres, however, Amazon recently announced that it’s pulling any ebook
that is 2,500 words or less. The reason they give is that the book is proving
to be an unsatisfying reading experience for consumers.
So, a couple of things here. If a writer has
created a work of fiction that is 2,500 words or less, it is not a book, it is
a short story, and should be marketed as such. However, since all
electronically published works of fiction and nonfiction, regardless of length,
are called e-books, this apparently has created dissatisfaction among consumers
who feel cheated by the lack of pages. Hmm.
If the complaint truly is about the length
of the work, why aren’t consumers paying more attention to the information
about the ebook on its home page? All four of my books state the number
of pages and make it clear that the pages are numbered.
So, is there more to Amazon’s decision to
pull short fiction? As one writer pointed out on a Kindleboards forum, a
sizable percentage of the short fiction in question happens to be erotica. Some
writers are wondering if this is Amazon’s way of purging certain content from their
inventory?
Amazon’s letter to one author appears in
the GalleyCat blog, which you may find of interest at
Whatever Amazon’s reason for the change (Amazon
likes to change things up a lot), it’s useful information for those of us who are
thinking about publishing original short fiction in ebook formats. I can’t help
wondering, though, if Amazon will change the rules to 5,000 words
next month, or 10,000 the month after that?
2 comments:
Interesting. Thankfully, I myself have trouble keeping a story under 5K and 10K, I'm told is basically a novella.
I shared this on Twitter.
Thanks for your comments, Michael, and for sharing this on Twitter. I also am working on a novella these days, although it's slow going. Novella's are a better option for ebook selling than the short stories.
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