Sign up! for our OCM newsletter. Absolutely FREE.

Thin Reads E-Book Singles – Tablet Books for Those Short on Time

Thin Reads E-Book Singles – For those moms who love to read but can’t seem to find the time, this is a great fix! No time? No problem. Thin Reads are “short” books designed for reading on electronic devices.
I interviewed reading/literary expert Howard Polskin to find out more. Here’s the interview:

Oakland County Moms: Thin Reads is a great concept! How many Thin Reads are currently in your e-library?

Howard Polskin of Thin Reads E-Book Singles: Right now, I’ve got almost 1,000 in there. There’s probably a lot more because a lot gets released and I just never hear about it. The first thing I do every morning at 6:30 is scour a whole bunch of websites just to see what’s new out there.

Oakland County Moms: What kinds of books are they?

Howard Polskin of Thin Reads E-Book Singles: I would say first of all 2/3 of all new e-book singles are non-fiction. And… fiction captures 1/5 percent of all sales. Mainly because people want to be entertained and I think you’ve got some pretty big name authors in this market… like Stephen King, Lee Childs, people like that.

Oakland County Moms: What demographic do the Thin Reads most appeal to? Moms? Kids? Science Fiction fans? Who do you have the most success targeting?

Howard Polskin of Thin Reads E-Book Singles: There’s no information on this right now. This market is only two years old. If there’s any information in perhaps, Amazon or Apple bookstore, or Barnes and Noble…has that information, if they have it, they haven’t shared it. My own guess would be that people who are consuming e-book singles are young, highly educated, and highly mobile.

Oakland County Moms: Are Thin Reads popular with children?

Howard Polskin of Thin Reads E-Book Singles: I would probably say, no at this point, because I think that there’s not a lot of children’s books being put out there in this format. I would love it if the children’s market developed, but now the publishers seem to be developing it more towards the adult market. I think it’s very appealing to moms. That’s where I really think the strength in this market lies. Because moms, as you know, don’t have a lot of time, and sometimes they’ll feel disconnected – they’ll want to be entertained, they’ll want to be informed – if they don’t have a lot of time, how do they dive into something? So, an e-book single/thin read is the perfect type of content because they can read something and sound smart about a particular subject or they can be entertained. They can read it in line at the grocery store, waiting to pick up their kids after school…it’s something that’s always in there pocket.

Oakland County Moms: I agree. There are many moms who were avid readers, yet felt it was something they could not find time to do once they had kids. This is a nice option.

Howard Polskin of Thin Reads E-Book Singles: You know, I know myself whether we take a tablet like some of us do, or an Amazon kindle, or some kind of e-reader… that’s discretionary. But we always leave our home with a smart phone in our pocket. And, that’s a perfect way to read an e-book single.

Oakland County Moms: Do you have interested authors for Thin Reads that may want to write a short story but not necessarily a novel?

Howard Polskin of Thin Reads E-Book Singles: I think it’s smart for writers to pursue. You know, don’t build a mansion first, build a cabin. Same thing goes to writing. Try and write something a little shorter and it’s not so daunting. Listen, it takes skill to write a 50-page story. But, it’s better to write a 50-page story and try it that way, which might take you a month and then you figure out whether you did it right or wrong. Imagine writing a 500-page novel and spend three years on it. And, then someone tells you “Wow, you really don’t know anything about structure, or character development… and you’ve just wasted three years of your life. So, I think for wanna be authors, I think it’s much smarter to go into this private shorter route first. And, it’s easy to get it published. There are companies out there, like Vook or Book Baby, that for $100, you send it to them and they upload it and they do all the back end work, and you’re a published author! It’s very easy. 1-2-3. Those are good things to know.

ABOUT THIN READS
Thin Reads LLC is the world’s first and only website devoted to e-book singles, a rapidly growing sector of the digital content market. E-book singles are written works of short fiction or non-fiction longer than a magazine article but shorter than a book. Thin Reads features original reviews of e-book singles, interviews and profiles of authors writing e-book singles, and news and commentary about the e-book single market including an exclusive weekly analysis of the best-selling fiction and non-fiction e-book singles sold at Amazon. Thin Reads also features its own database of more than 800 e-book singles available dating back to 2010. The database includes title, publication date, publisher, author, description, length, and retail platform.

ABOUT HOWARD POLSKIN
Howard Polskin has covered and analyzed media trends his entire career. Before founding Thin Reads in early 2013, he worked as a journalist, on-camera media commentator, corporate communication strategist and event producer. Among the companies he’s worked for are CNN, Sony, the American Society of Magazine Editors and MPA, the Association of Magazine Media. He was a digital leader for the magazine industry and produced several digitally themed conferences including four on tablets and e-reading. Polskin is also a member of the Advisory Board for Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.