You’ll need an iPad to take advantage of this, although apparently after June 21 an iPhone will also work.
This is the front page of the Apple “iBooks” store. Not, mind you, the front page of the SF-and-fantasy section, but the front page of the whole freakin’ store.
The carousel rotates between THE UPSIDE OF IRRATIONALITY, Andrew Gross, Christopher Hitchens, and the four finalists from Tor.com.
- “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky, Hugo and Locus Award finalist
- “A Memory of Wind” by Rachel Swirsky, Nebula Award finalist
- “First Flight” by Mary Robinette Kowal, Locus Award finalist
- “Overtime” by Charles Stross, Hugo Award finalist
The stories also available in the Amazon Kindle store and the Sony Reader store and will be available at Barnes & Noble and Kobo, later. They’re free until after the Hugo awards, which is pretty spiffy. Someone tell me what it looks like on the iPad?
Very cool. I think that the whole eBook/iPad/Kindle revolution is going to mean big things for short fiction. Before fiction of this length didn’t really have a market outside of magazines and anthologies. Now you will be able to sell anthologies like iTunes albums and pay per story or for the whole book.
It will also introduce an organizational paradigm that will help as well. If you enjoyed First Flight, click on More Stories by Mary Robinette Kowal and you have more options to choose from. No more going to the internet, finding a website (if there is one), finding a bibliography (if there is one), finding a story that looks enjoyable (if you can find a description), obtaining it (if you can), and finally reading it.
With an organized short story database with a strong useability factor, the short form could see an unprecedented renaissance.
I want an iPad.
cool! and yeah, it will be fascinating to see where this leads…