Amazon Shorts
There was an interesting post on John Scalzi's blog yesterday about Amazon Shorts. Scalzi's an author, so it was interesting seeing the commentary from that point of view, rather than as a developer or consumer:
My feeling about Amazon Shorts is it's best suited for writers who already have a significant and self-sustaining fan base. i.e., writers who are rather popular already. In the SF/F genre, I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if Neil Gaiman or Orson Scott Card or Connie Willis dropped something into Amazon Shorts, they would be likely to make a fair chunk of cash in short order. Some other writer whose name recognition is slightly less luminous -- a comfortably mid-list writer, in other words -- might not see a difference one way or another. But strictly in terms of the money, most writers (and I would include myself here) would probably be better off going to the venue where the money is offered up front, unless said author is ready, willing and able to flog the Amazon Short to all and sundry on a regular basis. If you're not an inveterate self-promoter, this probably won't be your bag.
The comments in the blog post lead into a conversation about how the Amazon Shorts program, with some good editors on board to weed out the dreck, could lead into the direction of self-publishing. Maybe I should start working on a short story in case they open the program to any hack with a keyboard. Then I could make my 40% of $0.49 when my mom buys a copy.