Horror On The Kindle: A New Frontier

The Amazon Kindle (and Kindle apps for Android and iOS devices) has really caught the imagination of a lot of readers around the world, and has given a lot of writers (myself included) a genuine chance to have their work seen by a potentially massive audience who otherwise may have missed out on them altogether. Horror on the Kindle is well represented by a wide variety of writers both new and established, and the possibilities that the medium offers to writers and readers is helping to put genre fiction back into the reading habits of the masses.

As well as novels and short story collections, something that appears to be remarkably popular on the Kindle are shorter works from established ‘name’ authors. A good example would be urban fantasy author Kelley Armstrong, who has not only a slew of full-length works available for the Kindle and Kindle Apps, but also shorter, cheaper works such as the novellas ‘Angelic’ and ‘Counterfeit Magic’.

These novellas are a great idea for the mobile reading platform, and work of this length is a superb idea to try out when getting your material onto the Kindle. Horror fans are more likely to try out a shorter work from new writers at a lower price than they are to buy a novel-length horror tale at a higher price.

This brings up the question: “So why not just put up novels at 99 cents (or equivalent)?” I, and other writers, believe that doing this actually devalues your work and thus makes it come across as lesser product and thus possibly of dubious quality. Basically, it’s fine to price low, but don’t go so low as to make it look like you’re desperate.

Pricing isn’t the only way to get your product into the devices and minds of new readers, though. First and foremost you need a well-written, well edited and formatted story with a decent cover. After all, it’s the cover that prospective buyers will see first in their Amazon listings. Make it stand out and make it look as professional as possible. Personally I had an artist friend of mine paint a cover for my novella ‘Dead Thing’, and it looks amazing. Ask amongst your friends, check out their work and see what they could do for you and your product. make those horror stories you’re working on as good and professional as possible, and the fans will do the rest.

Horror on the Kindle is a great new frontier for both readers and writers, and while the industry is still trying to figure out what exactly to do with ebooks, it’s a great time to discover some thrilling new horror at low prices.