ebookporn

*sigh* Amazon, I really mean you no ill will but you are really working hard to be a dick. ~ eP

writingbox:

Today I received an e-mail from Amazon about one of my short stories (the shortest one I have ever written). The email was as follows:

Hello,

During a quality assurance review of your KDP catalog we have found that the following book(s) are extremely short and may create a poor reading experience and do not meet our content quality expectations:

<Name of Short>

In the best interest of Kindle customers, we remove titles from sale that may create a poor customer experience. Content that is less than 2,500 words is often disappointing to our customers and does not provide an enjoyable reading experience.

We ask that you fix the above book(s), as well as all of your catalog’s affected books, with additional content that is both unique and related to your book. Once you have ensured your book(s) would create a good customer experience, re-submit them for publishing within 5 business days. If your books have not been corrected by that time, they will be removed from sale in the Kindle Store. If the updates require more time, please unpublish your books.

This is causing some lively debate online. What are your thoughts?

Tim Waterstone, the original founder of the UK bookstore chain Waterstones, is making preparations to launch a new digital book business that promises “a rich reading experience for time-poor readers.” Called Read Petite, its model resembles that of several other simliar “shorts” publishing programs around the world.

While being able to read short fiction and excerpts is a nice option to have in a subscription service that is not the reason one would choose a regular site to purchase content. If you don’t offer all books at a monthly fee then what is the point? Read Petit is a nice proof of concept but a poor long term strategy. ~ eP

ralibrary:

image: kodomut

As television programs grow progressively more uninspired and yawn-inducing, I find myself more inclined to log onto the kindleboards and shortstorysymposium to hunt for short fiction “episodes.”

It wasn’t long ago that I shared the formerly popular sentiment that…