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Kindle Singles from Amazon Features ProPublica Content

Amazon.com is today launching Kindle Singles, ebook versions of narrative writing longer than almost all magazine articles, but shorter than traditional books. We're delighted to report that ProPublica stories will be included in the Kindle Singles collection.

Amazon.com is today launching Kindle Singles, ebook versions of narrative writing longer than almost all magazine articles, but shorter than traditional books. We’re delighted to report that ProPublica stories will be included in the Kindle Singles collection.

The first ProPublica story available through Kindle Singles is a 13,000-word report on the inside story behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, including the roles of an American businessman and Pakistani intelligence, by senior reporter Sebastian Rotella. It draws on previously published work but also includes new details and reporting. Here’s a link to the Kindle version, and here’s one to the story on our site.

Other initial Kindle Singles will include offerings from novelists Jonathan Littell and Jodi Picoult and non-fiction from journalists who write regularly for the New Yorker, Slate, Vanity Fair and Wired.

Kindle Singles will be available through any e-reader devices that can download the Kindle app (including iPads and most smartphones), as well as on Kindles themselves. Like all content included in Kindle Singles, there will be a small charge for the ProPublica material. In the case of our first piece it will be 99 cents, for the convenience of having this narrative available on an e-reader; 70% of the charge will revert to ProPublica, 30% will be retained by Amazon. ProPublica’s participation represents part of our continuing effort to bring our content to new platforms where we think readers may find value in our work.

We also think Amazon is on to an important insight here: In the old world of print publishing, narratives longer than about 10,000 words (a long magazine piece) and shorter than about 30,000 words (a relatively short book) were difficult to publish at all. This is another one of those “rules” that digital technology seems to be repealing, and, as frequent publishers of compelling long-form content, we think that’s a step forward.

Get the Kindle version of our Mumbai story. Read the story on our site.

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