Amazon Shorts: A Writers Perspective

A little over one year ago, the Amazon Shorts launched their program with the short stories of only a few dozen well-known authors and much speculation about how the program would fare. Now, in November, 2006, the program is going strong with hundreds of authors representing over 600 stories selling for 49 cents each. The website boasts previously unpublished short story literature for sale exclusively at Amazon.com, and has expanded to include some of todays freshest literary voices.

The contract buys exclusive rights for only six months, and offers authors a whopping 40% of the 49 cents in royalties. This likely won't fly you around the world, but it might get you down the block! More importantly, the exposure as a featured author at Amazon offers an exceptional branding opportunity.

I decided to try it, but I balked when a writer friend of mine said, You have to fill out a ton of paperwork before you can submit. I thought, What if they dont want any of my shorts? Then, Ive done all that paperwork for nothing. So, I decided to try it without the paperwork and submitted Weighing In, a 2,000 word humorous story about weight discrimination reversed. Since 2,000 is their minimum count, I got in under-the-wire. The maximum is 10,000 words.

Several months later, I finally heard from an Amazon representative, who said they would use Weighing In. He wanted to know if I had a book on Amazon, which is requisite for participation. Unfortunately, my ebook with Double Dragon Publishing, A Promise to Keep, was no longer featured. However, I had contributed to an anthology called, The Muse on Writing edited by Lea Schizas, and even though I was just one of eighteen writers, this qualified me for the program.

Suddenly, all that paperwork felt okayand yes, it was a ton. They wanted a complete bio and asked a number of promotional questions, such as Who do you envision as your target audience? and What makes this short relevant today? and Why would a customer buy this short? By the time I was done with the questionnaire, I had created a complete marketing plan. Not a bad thing at all, because as most authors without an uncle named John Grisham eventually discover, successful sales depend on their own efforts. Amazon offers each author a profile page with bio, photo and complete backlist, but other than that, dont expect Amazon to help.

So, is it worth it, you may ask? It is to me. I suspect more people visit Amazon online in a day than most websites in a yearor even ten years! The association with the giant, in my mind, cannot hurt. After submitting my first story, I promptly searched my files and submitted a second, this one a non-fiction story called The Gold Coin. Thats one of the joys of doing this you only have to complete the paperwork once, and it extends to all your shorts. And I didnt have to wait three months for acceptance; they accepted it the same day as my submission. I am currently searching my files for another story. J

Kathe Gogolewski is an award-winning author of fiction for both children and adults. You may find out more about Kathe by visiting her website at http://www.TRI-Studio.com.

You may purchase her short story, Weiging In for 49 cents here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HDZAXW/ref=sr_11_1/102-5486577-8896114?ie=UTF8

Kathe has a second story availale on Amazon Shorts: The Gold Coin is a true story about paying it forward (remember the movie?) and is available here:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gold-Coin/dp/B000IB0JHK

Related info:
Learn More!

 E-mail this page
 Printer-friendly page