@2, they can already print to Kindle as much as they want. It's getting anybody to read the things that's hard. That's where a traditional publisher's imprint is valuable. The real problem with short stories is that no one reads them, outside of a small handful of traditional outlets. Whether that's unfair or not is beside the point.

I could see this working, if it was either associated with an existing brand name (the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper's) or somehow creating a new brand name ("Kindle Singles", I dunno). The secret is creating them in a container that people trust and will accept content from, something that distinguishes them from the avalanche of terrible self-published junk. If anything, the Kindle is lowering the reputation of self-publish. Kindle Single will not be an advance if it results in ten thousand items with a hundred readers each, only if it has some with ten thousand readers.

What I fear is that magazines like the New Yorker will start to publish tiered items, where you can read the short version in the magazine and go to Kindle for the long one. Only one of those is going to receive the proper editorial attention. I hope it's the magazine.

Kindle publishing of any kind is turning out to be a disposable enterprise; the thing is simply not adequate for repeated or serious reading, though it's perfect for magazine-style content, or pulp fiction-style, read once and throw away.

@4: "In the above-linked Constant Reader from early this year, I was focused on novellas, but the idea that Amazon wants to get into the non-fiction side of that, the pamphlet-publishing business, should really be no surprise."

Skim much?