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Kindle to Sell Short Stories for $3.99

E-reader teams up with Atlantic editors on new project

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 5, 2009 12:24 PM CST

(Newser) – The Kindle will begin selling short stories next week picked and edited by The Atlantic magazine. Amazon's e-reader will offer two a month for $3.99 each, with the first two appearing Monday from Christopher Buckley and Irish writer Edna O'Brien. The latter writes her fiction in longhand and had never heard of the Kindle until this deal, notes the New York Times. The stories are exclusive to the Kindle.

The plan could provide a home for stories too long for magazines but too short for a book. Buckley's piece, for instance, is 15,000 words. “Sure, ideally, I would like it printed on archival paper and bound in red morocco with gold embossed for a limited edition and signed by the author,” he tells the Times. "But if the Kindle edition “grabs some eyeballs—and I guess grabbing eyeballs is what the Internet is all about—then I’m all for it.”

The Kindle will offer short stories.
The Kindle will offer short stories.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos displays a Kindle in this October file photo.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos displays a Kindle in this October file photo.   (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
mehrheit
Dec 7, 2009 2:04 AM CST
Both you and spatula are focusing on the wrong thing here, IMO. How can you presume to tell the authors how much they can charge for the fruits of their labor? Which is another part of the problem: Amazon makes exactly this presumption. I don't know if the publishing industry is as slimy as the music biz, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that publishers make more than the authors, per copy sold.
mehrheit
Dec 7, 2009 1:56 AM CST
You realize that your DSL line does not actually involve the movement of atoms, right? ;-) In all seriousness, why is this a rip off? I can think of many reasons not to support the kindle, or the digitization of physical media in general (not the least of which being the death of local book stores - been to a music store lately?), but price isn't one of them. When you buy a book, are you buying the paper it's written on, or the words it contains?
JimW
Dec 6, 2009 9:39 AM CST
All I can add to it is this: If you haven't tried one, don't knock 'em. I admit I was skeptical, but the woman wanted to try the newest gadget, so we got one. I haven't read out of books much for awhile , mostly computer as I do a lot of work, etc. on it anyhow. Since we got the kindle, I have read a pretty good stack of books on it so far. Very cool to sit down with something so lite, no back-lit screen, and it works just like the inventor says: Like a book, when reading, it pretty much just "disappears." Use for a tool OR a toy. Try one Joe, you'll dig it.

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