Barnes & Noble will start commissioning original works for Nook Snaps, its e-singles section. For the first 60 days, authors keep 100 percent of the royalties; after that, the royalty rate drops to 40 percent. Read more »
Book publishers discussed digital-first and digital-only initiatives at the Making Information Pay conference this week. Read more »
The Atlantic is launching an ebooks division that will publish e-singles and curated collections of content from the magazine’s archives. The first e-single is only available through Amazon’s Kindle Singles store for now, though it will soon be available at other retailers. Read more »
Read Petite, an e-singles subscription site, will launch in the U.K. this fall. Waterstones founder Tim Waterstone is chairman. The site was founded by literary agent Peter Cox and consultant Martyn Daniels. Read more »
Longform journalism site Byliner has hired Jeff Gomez, who worked at Penguin, as its new head of writer marketing. Read more »
E-singles — stories somewhere between 5,000 and 30,000 words, usually nonfiction, and sold as inexpensive ebooks — are the format for our time. Here’s why. Read more »
The New York Times is launching an ebook publishing program with the e-singles startup Byliner, and will also publish curated article selections called “TimesFiles” with publishing platform Vook. The new partnerships mark the paper’s first real foray into ebook publishing. Read more »
Simon & Schuster will publish the print editions of self-published author Hugh Howey’s bestselling science fiction title Wool, and Ingram will sell e-singles publisher Byliner’s titles in print. Read more »
Read-it-later-service Pocket announced a partnership with Matter, the Kickstarter-backed science journalism startup. This is Pocket’s first publisher partnership. Subscribers to Matter can also access the stories from Pocket. Read more »
Two startups that publish original longform journalism are experimenting with subscriptions that give readers access to all of their titles for a set monthly fee. Byliner is offering its stories through an HTML5 website, while Atavist is offering in-app subscriptions. Read more »
Kickstarter-funded science and technology journalism startup Matter is releasing its first story Wednesday for $0.99. It’s available as a Kindle Single and can also be downloaded from Matter’s website. Matter was cofounded by former GigaOM European correspondent Bobbie Johnson. Read more »
Serial fiction has existed online for awhile, but with Kindle Serials, Amazon hopes to reinvent the format, in part by offering all episodes for a flat price. Serials may require a different business model than Kindle Singles, and could require Amazon to invest more money upfront. Read more »
Buzz Bissinger should have been excited when Starbucks selected his Byliner e-single, “After Friday Night Lights,” as its free “pick of the week.” But then Amazon responded. Turns out being a Starbucks Pick of the Week is a mixed blessing for authors and publishers. Read more »
As more publishers experiment with e-singles, Hearst is unique in articulating a specific business strategy for the format: E-singles are “a… Read more »
The top-ten list of bestselling Kindle Singles includes a number of big-name writers. But how is the format working for writers who don’t ha… Read more »
When Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) launched the Kindle Singles program a little over a year ago, nobody knew whether there was a market for e-books th… Read more »
Penguin UK and the Economist are partnering on a series of e-singles, “Penguin Economist Specials.” The partnership makes sense since Pengui… Read more »
Digital publisher and multimedia company Open Road is partnering with investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica on multiple e-books. Read more »
Byliner recently announced that it has sold 100,000 original e-singles, and other publishers are finding similar success with the format: Th… Read more »
Three years after she oversaw the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s transition to an online-only newspaper, Michelle Nicolosi is leaving the Hear… Read more »
Longform journalism site Byliner has sold over 100,000 of its “Byliner Originals” since launching the program in April, says CEO John Tayman… Read more »
Big-six publisher Hachette Book Group is partnering with Bloomberg Businessweek on e-singles that will “illuminate key moments in the world… Read more »
Digital publisher Open Road Integrated Media is getting into e-singles with a new program, “Short Shots,” which will publish short-form fict… Read more »
Book and magazine publisher Rodale is looking to some of its most popular magazines for content as it introduces e-originals this week. Firs… Read more »
Princeton University Press appears to be the first university press to join the e-singles game. On November 9, the press will launch Princet… Read more »
As election season approaches, Random House’s Crown Publishing is teaming up with political website RealClearPolitics to publish a four-book… Read more »
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has its Kindle Singles store and now Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is highlighting shorter reads in its own “Quick Reads” section,… Read more »
The Guardian is the latest news outlet to get into e-singles publishing with “Guardian Shorts,” a series of “detailed guides to topical news… Read more »
