Thin Reads, a website devoted to e-singles, launched Monday. The site offers reviews and author interviews, bestseller lists drawn from Amazon and a database of titles.
The site was launched by Howard Polskin, who was previously the EVP of communications and events for the Association of Magazine Media (formerly the Magazine Publishers’ Association). Polskin told me he loves the e-singles format — which he defines as a work of fiction nonfiction between 5,000 and 25,000 words, generally priced between $ 0.99 and $ 2.99 — and wants to help readers discover new titles.
Polskin shared a few findings from his database of about 700 e-singles:
- 54% of all e-singles available in the database are listed as Original, which means they were created especially as short works of nonfiction or fiction intended to be read on an electronic platform for its original release.
- 12% of all e-singles available in the database are listed as Encore, which means they were originally published or presented previously in another format. 2% of all e-singles in the database are listed as Encore+, which means that new or updated content was added to a story that was previously published.
- 31% of e-singles in the database are fiction. 69% are nonfiction. Narrative nonfiction accounted for 20% of all e-singles in the database.
- More than 150 publishers are releasing content to the e-singles market, according to the findings of the Thin Reads database. Publishers include: The New York Times Company, Penguin, ProPublica, Random House, St. Martin’s Press, Byliner, the Atavist, HarperCollins, American Express Publishing, GQ Magazine, and TED Conferences.
- Byliner, Penguin and New Word City have published the most e-singles, with more than 40 titles each.
Polskin doesn’t plan to monetize the site for now, and said he’s providing it as a service to readers. He also said he’s gotten feedback and input from Amazon, which runs Kindle Singles, and Apple, which has a “Quick Reads” section of the iBookstore.
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