Micro Payments for Micro Reads

 
Jul 30, 2005
by Ryan Hartwich

A few years ago I heard about a new trend in Japan for subway riders to download poetry, short stories and entire novels onto their cell phones. Using micro payments (think pennies per item) the user was able to buy small pieces of entertainment, conveniently and at a reasonable price.

Amazon last week introduced Shorts, a new type of online product for their growing system. Users login to their accounts and go to the 'shorts' section of Amazon. Over 50 essays and short stories (fiction and non-fiction) are available from a large number of authors including Howie Mandel (comedian), Terry Brooks (sci-fi author) and Danielle Steel (romance). Each short is 1500-3000 words in length. Once you are logged into your account, purchasing a short is easy. You only have to reenter your credit card information the first time; subsequent purchases of digital content are as easy as the 'one-click' purchasing you are used to. Select a short, pay your 49 cents (US) and immediately download/view the short in HTML or PDF. You can email it to yourself, potentially via SMS to a phone, though I haven't tried it. Your purchase is also available in your Digital Locker forever.

While the service is a bit more expensive than what you probably imagine a true micro payment would be, 49 cents is a pretty good deal. It gives you a chance to check out a new author and grab a short read for the subway ride home or lunch break. I bought two articles and they were 6-8 pages long, double spaced when printed. Was it worth the 98 cents? One article was so-so, but the Howie Mandel essay had me laughing and made up for the other.

True micro payment? No. An inexpensive way to get an introduction to a new author? Yes.

Amazon.com Shorts

Next Hot Trend for Cell Phones: Reading? (Textually.org, March 19, 2005)
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