As I predicted over two years ago, eBooks will bring readers a resurgence of short fiction. It’s now more accessible. eZines and eReaders have given authors more markets for their short stories, and with the too-busy lifestyle in this culture, short stories provide a quick lunchtime reading escape.
It’s a match made in cyberspace.
Amazon, the corporation that has gone from bookseller to one of the major 7 publishers, leads the way in this new trend with it’s Kindle Singles.
Kindle Singles is for shorter fiction and essays, but it does not include all short fiction. Their submission policy states that nominations must fall between 5,000 and 30,000 words. Although Short Stories are defined by word count of between 1500 words and 40,000 words, short fiction under 5,000 words won’t be considered for the Kindle Single program. These are basically stories published via Amazon’s KDP, but through Kindle Singles they get showcased to readers looking for short fiction to read.
Although I have yet to submit any of Ethan Rose’s or O. M. Grey’s short stories to the Kindle Single program, you can still read some of them on the Kindle, and others you can read for free here or on Ms. Grey’s blog…and in various places around the internet. In fact, just because I’m such a lovely lady, I will give you direct links.
- “Of Aether and Aeon” by O. M. Grey
- “Final Word” by O. M. Grey
- “A Tall Order” by O. M. Grey
- “Dust on the Davenport” by O. M. Grey (podcast)
- “Twenty Minutes” by O. M. Grey, published in SNM Horror Mag, 2nd Place
Additionally, my husband and co-author Ethan Rose has some free stories on his blog. They are all flash fiction, that is under 1500 words, unless otherwise noted.
- “Assignment” (a <100 word flash fiction challenge given by Agent, Janet Reid.)
- “Flashed Fiction” (a <1000 flash fiction challenge given by Chuck Wendig.)
- “The Thief“
- “Fiana Comes Down” (Rowan of the Wood short story)
- “Hi Ho, Hi Ho“
- “Walking“
- “Success“
- “Hiding“
Christine Rose 
This is pretty cool. I looked at their submission policy, and singles get 70% even if they are under $2.99. That’s a big deal, because normally anything under $2.99 gets 35%.
That is a huge deal! Thanks for pointing that out!
Your article encourages me to go back to some of my short stories and expand on them. Thanks! 🙂
Excellent! I love to hear when something I write inspires creativity! Let’s keep inspiring each other.
Ether Books started this already with an app on iPad and iPhone. I have actually been bothering them to pump out an app for Android, but I think they just missed their mark with Kindle pushing out Singles. I don’t know if the stories will be as strong though. Ether Books actually works like a publisher and will reject material if it is bad. They also accept almost any length, just anything shorter than a certain number of words is free. And most stories go for about $.99. We will see where Ether goes after this.
Just looked it up, I didn’t know that Kindle has had this for almost two years now. Wow, first time I have heard about it.
INORITE?!?! Technology moves so fast!!