Amazon Shorts

The Amazon Shorts program has been around for almost two years now and you don't hear much about it.  Steve Weber's recent post got me thinking about it again though.

At 49 cents per download it's not like anyone is going to get rich off this system.  Nevertheless, I still see the value it offers in testing the waters for interesting stories as well as cross-promoting other works.  But there's a bigger opportunity with Shorts that I think Amazon should test: subscriptions.

How often am I likely to head to the Shorts section of Amazon for a 49-cent purchase?  Not very often at all.  When I'm on Amazon's site I'm searching for (or researching) a book, not a Short.  These little pieces of content require a different selling approach.  Unlike the pull mentality that partially leads to Amazon's success with books, they need a push solution for the Shorts program.

Let's say there's an author or genre that I tend to like.  Amazon (of all retailers!) knows my preferences and buying habits thanks to the enormous data warehouse they maintain.  Why aren't they mining that information and assembling annual subscriptions to relates Shorts?  This could take what is now an infrequent 49-cent transaction and turn it into a longer-lasting $5, $10 or more transaction.

This sort of subscription product would still be cheap enough to attract loads of customers, resulting in many more Shorts being sold and read.  The best part: Thanks to the "since you liked author A, you'll definitely like author B" product relationships Amazon is famous for, this would increase the exposure of countless authors who might otherwise go unnoticed.  Can you say "book up-sell"?

Comments

[Steve Weber]

Joe,

I agree Amazon could do a much better job with Shorts. Ever since I purhased a couple of Shorts about a year ago, my Amazon recommendations have been clogged with unrelated Shorts. It seems to be disconnected from book recommendations.

[Wayne C. Long]

Award-winning short story writer Wayne C. Long has seen the light about subscription fiction too.

LongShortStories launched June 1,2007 and is already building upon Wayne's international fan base from his work appearing in print media. Check it out!

[Robert Burton Robinson]

Joe,

I tried selling subscriptions to one of my online serial mystery novels, and had only limited success. The biggest issue seemed to be that readers don't want to have to wait a couple of days between chapters. The other problem is that people are concerned about sharing their credit card info.

So, I decided to write a series for Amazon Shorts. It will be like a TV series. Each "episode" will be a stand-alone story of 5,000-6,000 words. But the two main characters will be in every episode. (The length might seem a bit short, but with my writing style, a lot can happen in 5,000 words.)

This way, if readers really like my characters they will want to come back for more stories. My plan is to write two per month.

Hopefully, this will also give more attention to my three mystery novels on Amazon.