The Growing Popularity Of Kindle Singles: The New York Times has a neat article on its site titled Amazon Broadens Its Terrain, which discusses Amazon’s Kindle Singles. And if you’ve never heard of them Kindle Singles are short works of fiction or non-fiction that can usually be read in one or two sittings. The Times article describes these short works as “novella-length journalism and fiction, known as e-shorts.” And these e-shorts can are being e-published by new authors and very popular tried and true authors like Lee Child, David Baldacci and Jeffery Deaver.
Additionally, the e-short formats makes it possible for writers to create short works regarding events currently in the news and then get those e-shorts out into the hand of the public (through the Amazon website) very quickly. For example, the article discusses the case of author Stephen King who wrote an e-short about the debate of gun control. His e-short is simply titled Guns and it took only a week from the time he finished writing his 8,000-word e-short until it appeared for sale in the Kindle Shorts store.
Most Kindle Shorts cost less than $3 so you aren’t spending a great deal of money if try out a new author’s e-short to see if you like it. And Kindle shorts are indeed short by novel-length standard usually running between 5,000 and 30,000 words so they don’t take a great deal of time to read which is a plus for many people in our busy society.
And on final how-the-advancing-technology-is-changing-the-way-we-work-and-live pondering note one of the reasons that Kindle Shorts are so popular with self-published authors new and old is because they can truly earn money for their work. Amazon takes a 30% cut of all sales; however, that leaves 70% for the author and if you sell several thousands copies of a short that can add up. The average price an author earns for a Kindle Short is $22,000.
So e-shorts in general, and Kindle Shorts specifically, are something we’ll undoubtedly be hearing, seeing and reading more of in the future!
Here’s the link to the New York Times article:
And a second, and Google Shortened, link directly to the Amazon Kindle Shorts webpage if you’d like to check it out!
Netflix’s New Family Streaming Plan: The current Netflix streaming plan cost $7.99 a month and allows two people to log into the same Netflix account (i.e. with the same user ID and password) at the same time and stream different videos. If a third person, say a third family member, tries to log into the same account and stream a third video at the same time he or she would not be able to do so. With the new Family Plan Netflix subscribers can opt to pay $11.99 per month and that will allow up to four people to log into the same account at the same time and stream video content to four different locations. So this new plan will be ideal for families who don’t all want to watch the same television shows and movies at the same time.
Here’s the link to The Verge article which is titled Netflix will offer $11.99 family plan with up to four simultaneous streams:
Have a great day!
Linda R.
References
Kaufman, Leslie. (2013, April 22). Amazon Broadens Its Terrain. New York Times. Online.
Welch, Chris. (2013, April 22). Netflix will offer $11.99 family plan with yp to four simultaneous streams. The Verge. Online.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 
Wasn’t fond of the Gun. First, Mr. King says he’s not responsible for gun violence, but he had one of his books about gun violence pulled off the shelves, just because, which makes no sense. Then he writes about how he’d like to have strangled a mentally-ill 20 year old. What a hero Mr. King sounds like here, not! Other then that the piece is pretty blah, blah, blah heard it before. I think Stephen King is an excellent novelist and short story writer. I also loved his author’s memoir , On Writing, so I know it’s not like he isn’t a good essayist. I wonder if the idea of getting published in a week, made him write fast, and sloppy, and not take the reflective time to say anything worthwhile. Maybe e-singles aren’t the best idea for all.
Thanks for the feedback.
Firstly I’m going to put forth the official public library view regarding hot topics and indeed any and all subjects that can be contained in books, videos and even music titles.
And that official public library view is that public libraries in a democratic country are supposed to be neutral regarding subjects simply as a standard operating procedure – that point is related to the founding ideals of intellectual freedom which ALA has all over their website and are perhaps best expressed by the Library Bill of Rights which basically states that all people from all backgrounds can visit public libraries and access books and other materials that put forth as many views regarding as many subjects as possible.
Here’s the link to the ALA page that has the Library Bill of Rights on it:
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill
And having now put forth the official public library view on hot topics and all subjects I’ll add my personal two cents worth to the conversation – I used Stephen King’s Guns as an example of a popular author being able to quickly put out and e-short simply because it was the example given in the article. I could perhaps have offered better examples of popular self-published authors putting their work up for sale in the Kindle Shorts Store like Michael Connelly, Jennifer Weiner or Jodi Picoult – but I didn’t choose Stephen King because I, or the library I work for, support his view of gun use.
And for my personal two-cents worth I don’t agree with Mr. King’s view on guns either I support gun control legislation including background checks – but as I said that is my personal point of view and not the official point of view of my library.
And as far as Stephen King as a non-fiction writer goes – he is good at fiction but perhaps non-fiction isn’t his forte. Just another two-cents worth.
Have a great day!
Linda