Thursday, 6 September 2012

Amazon Kindle Serials...Rumours Abound

There is some talk on the Net at the moment about Amazon starting a program called 'Kindle Serials'. This is a program that will allow readers to subscribe to a series. It has been said in some places that the reader will pay $1.99 once and get all parts. Others say the reader will pay $1.99 per episode (which seems more likely)

Edit: After doing some research on Amazon's site, it seems the reader pays $1.99 for the entire series.
Edit: It looks like $1.99 may be an introductory price because the program is new. The actual price may be $4.99 as the program goes on. I'll keep everyone informed on the blog when Amazon make an official announcement.

I suggest not getting too excited until we know exactly what Amazon has to say.

Anything else is simply speculation.

However, what we do know straight from the horse's mouth is that they are acquiring rights to the serials under a submission process, and the submission guidelines are here if anyone is interested:


Submissions Guidelines

We welcome submissions to Amazon Publishing’s Kindle Serials program. We're looking for well-written stories by authors interested in engaging with readers through the unique nature of serialized publishing.

How to submit
To submit to Kindle Serials, send an email to kindleserials@amazon.com with the following:
• A brief pitch of your story including why you think it works as a serialized book, the estimated total number of episodes, and the estimated total final word count.
• A minimum of two episodes in a Word or text document. Each episode should be a minimum of approximately 10,000 words. We’re open to considering projects with more or fewer words per episode, where it makes sense. The complete book doesn’t need to be already written.
• A one-page synopsis of the complete book.
• A one-page biography.

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12 comments:

  1. Just found this blog and am glad I did.

    I've been lapping up everything you've shared on WC. And I've started doing it.

    I still have some specifice questions about you're strategies, though. Would it be okay if I emailed you with these questions?

    Keep up the good work and thanks for helping.

    WyattM

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  2. I would have no interest in this. $1.99 for the entire series? Curious to see the payout structure. I've got people paying $2.99 each for novella length episodes. Also, it seems as though it will have the same kind of exclusivity as Singles.

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  3. Hey, Wyatt...welcome to the blog.

    Yes, of course you can email me. My address is on the sidebar to the right.

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  4. Hi, Lee

    Yes, I know what you mean. I'm guessing it's the Amazon exposure that is the deal sweetener. Anyway, it will be simple to watch the ranks of the books already in this program and see how they do.

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  5. Yeah, I thought about that last night. I've been following the advice you have posted here and am planning out a 6 season, 36 episode series. I've got my series, season and some character arcs and some of the episodes planned. Getting the first installment into the series program could greatly benefit future seasons and anything else released under the author name.

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  6. Okay, thanks. I'll do this when I get a little time.

    And, oops, "you're" should read "your."

    WyattM

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  7. I posted this over at KB but I saw this and thought I'd ask here too.

    When I saw this mentioned online yesterday, I was initially interested. However, as it currently stands, I'm leery of the program's potential (and I've been very successful with serials). There's no info for the author - royalties, how they'll keep track of sales, etc - and while for a reader it sounds like a wonderful idea, it's the authors themselves who may have to make a living. I realize the readers pay once, but do we get any kind of dividend per additional sale after-the-fact? Amazon, I've no doubt, purposely set this at $1.99 initially because they'd get more per sale than at $2.99, whereas the writers themselves lose out on the royalty structure. If this was $1.99 per installment, I'd be on board (even if they had a 10-20k minimum length, which is fine because that's what I'd want to write for future parts, if I do more serials), but that much/little for the entire book? I know many people sell their stories for that, or $.99, but I personally can't see how this approach is any better than waiting until you're done with the story to sell it that low.

    Really wish they'd show ACTUAL, for-the-writer information instead of copy/pasting the press release...

    Sara Fawkes

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  8. I'm a little leery of this. I'm not a fan of the price, though it is touted as introductory, the exclusivity or having to submit my book for review. It will be interesting to see how much promotion Amazon gives these books and how difficult it is to be accepted.

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  9. Lee, yes it could benefit your series and your author name. If you decide to go down this path, let us know.

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  10. Hi, Sara. I've been watching your success closely for some time. Congrats with "Anything He Wants". :)

    Yes, the scarcity of information is annoying but given that the press release is for readers and not writers, I suppose it's understandable. However, it would be nice if they gave us writers more info on royalties, etc through a link on our KDP dashboard.

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  11. Hey, 'Flyfish'. Yes, it will interesting to see how this plays out.

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  12. http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=5044445011

    ^^If you look at the serials they have on right now, it's obvious that Amazon is giving them tons of exposure. I mean some of the books have 1 or 2 reviews and yet they're all Top 1000. Some are Top 500 of all paid.

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