TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Amazon Offers Short Stories for 49 Cents

Amazon Offers Short Stories for 49 Cents

News Wire (newswire@telecom-digest.org)
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 10:01:40 -0500

On-line book store Amazon.com,, in what could be a literary equivalent
of snacking, is now selling short stories, and even alternate chapters
or single scenes from novels, for 49 cents each.

"Amazon Shorts," on sale from Monday, have no printed editions and are
only delivered digitally.

"Amazon Shorts will help authors find new readers and help readers
find and discover authors they'll love," said Steve Kessel,
Amazon.com's vice president of digital media. "We hope that by making
short-form literature widely and easily available, Amazon.com can help
to fuel a revival of this kind of work."

Publishers have always had a hard time selling and marketing the
single, short-form work -- the novella, or the novelette, or the even
shorter "novelini," he said.

Customers can now find Amazon Shorts from accomplished authors, such
as Danielle Steel or Tama Janowitz, in various genres and formats,
including alternate chapters and scenes to well-known stories,
personal memoirs, one-act plays and classic short stories.

No digital rights management software is needed to download and read
Amazon Shorts.

Customers have three options for reading a piece:

-- View now: Takes customers to a Web page to read or print out the
Amazon Short.

-- Download: Initiates the download of a PDF file.

-- E-mail: Sends the entire Amazon Short in a plain-text message to
the specified e-mail address.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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