Amazon Shorts

[tamaranth]

Have just read this blog entry about Amazon Shorts -- short fiction and non-fiction, 49c a piece. They have an impressive list so far -- Audrey Niffenegger, Gardner Dozois, Robert Silverberg, Terry Bisson ...

It's not entirely clear how one 'joins', as an author, and whether there are hoops through which one must jump. I've sent them an email asking for details.

Any comments, information, suggestions, Dire Tales? (Though it all seems a bit shiny and new for the latter.)

EDIT: "There is a slight problem with your order ..."

*** We're sorry. We're unable to sell e-books from Amazon.com to customers in the European Union. You can remove these items from your order by clicking Delete above. Please note that most European Union customers may purchase e-books from our international sites. Visit www.amazon.co.uk/e-books or www.amazon.de/e-books for more details. ***

By what definition is 'we are not going to sell you this' a slight problem?

Comments

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Everything I've heard suggests it's invite-only, for now at least.

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed with the reader vs author perspectives that your contact investigated. I can understand why Amazon are being cautious and having authors "by invitation only" for the time being, because they have a bit of a dilemma. They need some serious content, with a long list of stories, and some more name authors, before the readers are going to take it seriously. But if it gets too big, the buyers will have too much choice, and nobody is going to make any serious money out of it. Then the authors will lose interest.

I have to admire them for giving it a try, though.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

It's got a fair percentage of big-name authors, and there were 7 or 8 items that I'd happily have paid 49 cents for, if only I were a Valid Customer.

I disagree that they need to stick to big names, or be invitation-only, though there probably does need to be some form of content vetting. Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com), the e-book site I tend to buy from, has a mixture of famous authors and new writers, and in general the big names sell anyway (and are given somewhat more publicity on the front page of the site) while some of the smaller authors will do unexpectedly well, either through self-publicity or word of mouth.

Basically, it's an open market, and as long as Amazon organise the site properly, there's no reason why they shouldn't have (for example) my fiction, or yours, tucked away amid the Bs. They won't sell as well as Bujold or Bronte or whoever, but making them available on the same site should be no more a case of 'too much choice' than the traditional book-buying site. My understanding of the Amazon business model is that, though a small number of titles constitute a high percentage of turnover, their success comes from also stocking the hard-to-find, one-sale-a-year titles.

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

By what definition is 'we are not going to sell you this' a slight problem?

By the definition 'you can go & buy it off our international site instead, its not like we're entirely refusing to supply you or anything...'

Unless, of course, said item is not avaialble off the international site instead. Then it becomes a not-slight problem.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Nope, Amazon Shorts are a US-site-only thing. You can buy e-books from Amazon UK but not the Shorts. So, in effect, they are entirely refusing to supply me.

I still maintain that waiting until they have payment details (i.e. well after customer sign-in) before mentioning that the item is not available to the EU constitutes more than 'a slight problem'. I may have missed this info elsewhere on the site: couldn't find it on the main Shorts page or in the FAQ ...

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

Time to find a helpful US citizen to aid you in your quest... (ie buy it for you & ship it!)

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Ship what? it's a text file!

But luckily New Zealanders can order, so I have a little collection of illegal Amazon Shorts sitting on my PDA.