In a world where we crave the quick read, Amazon is going another way. With their new weekly reader Day One, Amazon intends to showcase short stories and poems. The “publication” is Kindle only, and has an introductory price of $9.99 for 52 issues. Otherwise, it’ll run you $19.99/year.
The content will feature “short fiction” from a new writer weekly, as well as a poem. Day One will also showcase English translations of stories from around the globe, and content like playlists or illustrations from time-to-time. While the scope of the content for Day One may not be set in stone, Amazon’s direction with it is.
This is another step in Amazon’s quest to be a content creator, not just a provider. This, along with their original TV and video content, seem to point in a new direction for Amazon. Day One is only available via Kindle, and their original programming is only offered to Prime members. Not only does Amazon want to create content, they want your strict attention as they do it.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also recently purchased The Washington Post for a cool $250 million. Though he vowed to keep running the Post as it had been — and disavowed himself of being someone who understands the print news business — we wonder if we’ll see a collaborative effort with Day One and The Washington Post.
Sounds similar to a new publication, called Pulp Literature… how is it different?