# The big secret about Kindle Singles



## James Fraser (Mar 15, 2013)

I've haven't got round to trying this before, but I wanted to confirm whether or not it was true.

Perhaps some of you KBers have released work as Kindle Singles before and can shed some light on this.  Perhaps it's true, perhaps it's bollocks?

Anyway, I've heard that the sales for Kindle Singles can be absolutely immense because Amazon actually promotes them for you heavily and automatically.  If you use a Kindle Single as a gateway to your other work - much like the loss leading strategy of using a permafree - you can get huge sales as a result.

With Singles you also get to keep 70%...  Even if you price at $0.99 which is pretty cool.

Apparently it's not as hard to get on Singles as some might say (provided you know what Amazon are really looking for).


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

There certainly aren't as many titles on that list, so that's got to help.

Of course, I have no idea what Kindle singles are?  Just short stories and novellas? What makes them a "single" and how do they end up on that page?


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

You have to submit your short work to the Kindle Singles program.  They reject most subs.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

A lot of Kindle Singles seem to be essays, so it's not just short stories.


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## Katy (Dec 16, 2010)

Yes, they reject most stuff. 
They like literary and non-fiction, but aren't much interested in any genre fiction. 

My 47N editor sent them a piece of mine, and they rejected it. *shrug*


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## Mathew Reuther (Jan 14, 2013)

Mostly they go for essays, memoir, that sort of thing. They were interested in my pitch a while back, but I didn't end up finishing (yet) the piece I'd discussed with them.

I wouldn't think that you'd have much hope of anything genre-fiction related.


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## AgnesWebb (Jan 13, 2013)

I've been totally intrigued by this as well. It can't hurt to submit!


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

I have a Kindle Single out there. It isn't one of my best selling titles by a long shot. Even though I think it's one of my better stories.

I've seen less promotion from Amazon for it than I have for my other works. My guess is that it varies by work  and author.


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## DCBourone (Sep 10, 2012)

Bookgrow--

I have a Kindle Single.

As far as I know, George Berger's Midnight, Hugh Howey, and I are the only Kindle Singles on this board.

I don't think it is a good model for leveraging name/books/etc.--for the following reasons:

1. The gate is very narrow for indies.  Of approximately 400 Kindle Singles, only 82 are fiction.

2. Of the fiction titles, less than 20 appear to be 'indies'--this would include me and George Berger.  Hugh
    might be considered a separate case, as I believe that 'Wool' had already become a bestseller, and his
    status/sales/talent a known quantity.  All of the other fiction Singles are from writers with a very, and
    I mean VERY, extensive pedigree, multiply published by majors, magazines, etc.

3. Even Kindle Singlehood means nothing in terms of sales, absent self-promotion, genre recognition, any,
    every, and all of the tools you see discussed here to maximize visibility of a work.  Injured Reserves
    sold 500 the first month, nominally promoted by Amazon, and about 1 a day since then.  I have done,
    let's call it 'extremely minimal to non-existent promotion' on my own, and the work itself is without genre,
    classification, or definable market, so interpret as you will.

4. Of the tens of thousands of indie titles published every month, it would be reasonable to calculate
    that in the class 'fiction'/'a short designed by the writer to fit this category'/'success--approval by
    Kindle Single editor David Blum/etc., the odds of success are on the order of....10,000 to 1?  I would
    say, numerically, that it is fantastically hard/unusual/bizarre to be selected as a Kindle Single AS AN
    INDIE.

5. A reasonable mind, absent a known and definable pedigree, an 'in' so to speak, would consider Kindle
    Singles to be a severe outlier.  Of course this is an unreasonable business, motivated equally by passion,
    and delusion.

6. Submit your best work.  And carry on.


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Consuelo Saah Baehr is another Kindleboarder with a Kindle Single.


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## callistafox (Jun 9, 2013)

I just submitted a story, a memoir, to the Kindle Singles program and am waiting to hear back. I have another book I'm publishing serially through KDP called Suite Dubai. My chances aren't great, I know. But I've been sitting on that story for almost 8 years and didn't know what else to do with it. 

Callista Fox


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

If Amazon didn't run with DCBourone's Injured Reserve, or Hugh's short, then it must not be a high priority on the marketing to-do list.

Injured Reserve, btw, is the only of two books I've ever reviewed on my blog. DC wasn't pulling your leg when he said above it's without genera or classification.
I'm still trying to figure out how to tell friends exactly what type of book it is. I loved it though.


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## Hudson Owen (May 18, 2012)

DCBourone said:


> Bookgrow--
> 
> I have a Kindle Single.
> 
> ...


I like the cover of I.R., which seems to avoid criticism for not being more visually complex--not a pro cover, pre-made, whatever. A descending or ascending arc, a tracer shell? It slips through.

The story and prose (from parsing the book's beginning) hits hard--and slips through. What is it? Poetry? Prose, for sure. A moving target, difficult to hold in your sights long enough to hit with precision. Reminds me, in spirit, of Robert Musil's 1930s novel "The Man Without Qualities" (_Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften_).

You take the one word line/sentence about as far as one can. Not really my style; too much clotted emotion? Hard to say. It slips through. It slips through like those new quiet diesel electric boats that infiltrate out mighty super carrier battle groups. Anyway, well done.

I sent a novella to Select last year. They held it for three months. Finally, I asked for a verdict, which of course, triggered a rejection. As you say, "Carry on."


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

For some reason, whenever I see the phrase "Kindle Singles," it makes me think of a singles dating club (lonely hearts trying to kindle a little something). That, and one of those packages of pre-sliced cheese, the kind with the paper dividers between each slice of cheese.


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## James Fraser (Mar 15, 2013)

Christopher Bunn said:


> For some reason, whenever I see the phrase "Kindle Singles," it makes me think of a singles dating club (lonely hearts trying to kindle a little something). That, and one of those packages of pre-sliced cheese, the kind with the paper dividers between each slice of cheese.


Ha! Kraftle Singles. I LOVE plastic cheese.


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## zandermarks (May 20, 2013)

Hugh Howey said:


> I have a Kindle Single out there. It isn't one of my best selling titles by a long shot. Even though I think it's one of my better stories.
> 
> I've seen less promotion from Amazon for it than I have for my other works. My guess is that it varies by work and author.


Yeah, but you've got that other bigger thing you wrote with the silos and cameras, so I can see why your single might not get as much play as the main attraction. They might view your single as a way to promote Singles and not the other way around.


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## Deke (May 18, 2013)

If I have to submit something for someone's approval, then it's not for me.  I'm done with all that.  Why do you think I self-publish?


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## DCBourone (Sep 10, 2012)

A thread, resurrected, and one of few to which I can contribute:

1.  Joe N., much thanks, as always.

2.  Hudson Owen, good eye on many things.  Cover "arc"...I like tracer.  Or a very fast boat, at night.
    A future scar.  Cover is not pro, just a wave of a wand/brush across paper, calligraphic.  Work should
    be read as prose, actually borrows heavily from the Norse/Icelandic traditions of skaldic verse in which
    alliteration serves as a kind of punctuation.  In keeping with this and other epic traditions, Illiad, etc.
    thematically a tale of sacrifice.

3.  Zandermarks comment .re H. Howey, pretty damn smart.  Cumulatively Howey might have sales in excess
    of Kindle Singles in any given month, his name would be a significant draw to the brand.

4.  General note: a number of articles have justified Kindle Singles as an economic bet by Amazon, with sales
    so far in the low millions.  Clearly the preponderance of these would be name authors like Nelson DeMille,
    Stephen King, etc.  Not sure if Amazon has any other venues in which it might be trying to 'brand' itself
    as an arbiter of literature/commentary/etc., so this could reasonably be their vanity marque.

5.  General note: a very close study of recent posts such as "established writers what would you do different,
    better, etc." might be a more reasonable way to enhance sales and so on.  The math on Kindle Singles
    acceptance is daunting in the extreme, the promotional period brief, and when it is over you will have
    precisely the same issues of genre recognition, marketing, social networking, creating your own identifiable
    brand, etc.


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## bhazelgrove (Jul 16, 2013)

Kindle Singles are a dart on the board. They are trying to develop readership. I threw a few darts their way to no avail. Very hard to know what they are looking for...but always worth a shot.


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## MatthewAlanThyer (Jan 13, 2014)

Christopher Bunn said:


> For some reason, whenever I see the phrase "Kindle Singles," it makes me think of a singles dating club (lonely hearts trying to kindle a little something). That, and one of those packages of pre-sliced cheese, the kind with the paper dividers between each slice of cheese.


Funny you mentioned this. I just clicked on the program wondering to myself, "Is Amazon really getting into the singles dating service?" Hadn't thought about the cheese slices, but, indeed, that is what they are called.

I have a couple of short non-fiction pieces that I think might fit. Add some polish and see what happens, worst case I publish these on my own and continue to wallow in my relative obscurity. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

I've been meaning to submit to them. I have a literary piece I wrote a few years ago and recently just found it again. The trouble is, I haven't been able to find the flash drive it's on for a few months.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Deke said:


> If I have to submit something for someone's approval, then it's not for me. I'm done with all that. Why do you think I self-publish?


So true.

Rejections sucked before I self-published, but I think if I got one now, it could trigger (increased) insanity.


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