Amazon Expands Publishing Horizons With Short-Form Kindle Singles

Locked into a pricing battle with some publishers over the pricing of e-books with print counterparts, Amazon is expanding its digital-only options -- and its own publishing horizons -- with Kindle Singles.

Described as "twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book," the 10,000-to-30,000 word e-books (roughly 30-90 pages) will have their own section in the Kindle Store and will sell for "much less" than the typical e-book. The content options are wide. Amazon suggests anything from a business lesson to politics, science and essays on current events and includes in the announcement "a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world." Amazon says it is reaching out to publishers and "accomplished" writers.