Amazon has released “Kindle Singles” for your e-reader. Now, you’re going to see a lot of press about how this is a travesty for the written word. The notion that we are becoming online junkies – the laziest generation of all time. Heck, I even joked about it in the headline.
But, it’s far from the truth. It’s simply that the standard book length we’re accustomed to evolved from market forces. In order to make book publishing and distribution costs make sense, books had to cost $20. And therefore, had to be at least a couple hundred pages long.
But the e-reader changes that game. Just like iTunes did. Now, more than ever, album singles are the most popular format of music purchases. But it wasn’t practical to sell physical CD singles for $0.99. Production costs didn’t add up. But just like CD singles gave us the best music at a discount price, here’s to hoping Kindle Singles do the same for books.