The Skinny on Amazon Shorts

I received the fact sheet below in response to a query for more information on "Amazon Shorts".

I'd be very curious to hear from other authors considering and/or using the program. I'm looking into it to test market some niche fiction related to persons living with autism. All of my previous pubs have been non-fiction, it seems a safe way to test the waters for autism related fiction as I have a hard drive full of it.

Amazon Shorts Author Fact Sheet

Why Amazon

· More than 50 million customers
· Over $6 billion in media sales (TTM)
· Customer base: affluent, highly educated, sophisticated consumers of media especially predisposed to buying literature in both digital and hard formats.

Amazon Shorts Defined

· Unpublished short-form literature (2,000 – 10,000 words)
· Fiction or non-fiction
· For sale in digital form only
· Sold to readers for $0.49 each
· Exclusive to Amazon.com for a limited period
· Visit the store at www.amazon.com/shorts

What Amazon Shorts Can Do for Authors

· Provide a new outlet to sell short fiction and nonfiction to millions of active readers
· Rejuvenate and actively market authors’ backlists
· Maintain visibility of authors in between published projects
· Introduce readers to unfamiliar writers
· Allow for creative flexibility and innovative experimentation, providing a fertile testing ground for future full-length book ideas or expanding into new genres in a risk-free environment.
· Leverage cross-promotion and cross-selling opportunities between author, author’s publisher, and Amazon.com

What Amazon Shorts Can Do for Readers

· Provide instant reading gratification from favorite authors
· Offer a low-cost, easy and low time-commitment way to sample new writers

Amazon Shorts on the Site

· Amazon Shorts are fully integrated into the Amazon.com website
· Book shoppers are offered relevant Shorts while browsing for books
· Shorts are recommended to book buyers
· Shorts buyers are presented with a full author bibliography
· Full personalization features – customer ratings, reviews, recommendations – are included
· Original short stories
· Essays or personal reflections
· Any materials relating to much-loved fictional characters, especially if it’s been a while since we’ve heard from this character
· Additional non-fiction subject matter such as cooking, business, humor, home improvement
· Author laboratory – testing story concepts and gathering reader feedback
Story Examples
· Stuart Woods writes a humorous account of an obsessive, lifelong struggle to find the perfect travel companion in “A Man and His Luggage”
· Harry S. Dent provides an update to his best-selling book The Next Great Bubble Boom
· “Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels” a short story by Audrey Niffenegger
· Edgar Award winner James Lee Burke writes an original coming-of-age drama set in the Depression Era
· Ann Beattie pens a thoughtful essay on the author’s and reader’s relationship with the written word.
Revenue Share
· Revenue split 60/40 between Amazon and author
· Amazon covers all costs for payment, transaction and customer service
How Do I Sign Up
· To be eligible for consideration, an author must have at least one book currently for sale on Amazon.com
· Contact John Hart at johnhart@amazon.com or 206-266-3103