“Life is very short.”—Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
This week, Laura Crisp, Director of Digital Publishing & Business Development, Vintage Books & Anchor Books, announced the launch of “Vintage Shorts” – a new series that will provide short, timely reads in an exclusive eBook-only format. Vintage Shorts will publish both frontlist eBook originals from Vintage Books and Anchor Books’ wide roster of authors, and cull topical essays, short stories, and important stand-alone sections from the wide-ranging, acclaimed Vintage Books & Anchor Books backlist.
As reading habits have evolved, readers are embracing short-form digital content, both fiction and nonfiction. Through Vintage Shorts, readers can now dip into 5,000 – 30,000 word eBooks. The series allows the reader to find an entertaining story or narrative on a topical subject, and if interested, they can later explore the author’s more extensive work. “We are offering readers an entry point to discover exciting writers. Vintage Shorts will provide a high-quality and timely interaction with the reader in the best format for their needs,” said Crisp.
Vintage Shorts will also provide a home for Vintage Books & Anchor Books authors interested in writing originals in the eBook format. The first originals in the series include “We Should All Be Feminists,” an essay by award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; “Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party,” a short story by bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith; and “American Hunger” by Eli Saslow, who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.
Vintage Shorts will be priced at $.99 for backlist and up to $3.99 for some originals. Each new Vintage Shorts title will be supported by an aggressive social media and marketing campaign. Designed for 10- to 30-minute reads, Vintage Shorts will be the perfect read for a quick commute on the bus, train, or subway; a relaxing coffee or lunch break; or an enjoyable bedtime story.
These eBook originals are now available (or coming soon)…
• “We Should All Be Feminists,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party,” by Alexander McCall Smith
• “American Hunger,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eli Saslow (A Vintage Shorts Original, 9/2/14)
And these essays, short stories and sections from existing titles are now available…
• “Dallas, November 22, 1963” by Robert A. Caro, from The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV
• “Provence in Ten Easy Lessons” by Peter Mayle, from Provence A-Z: A Francophile’s Essential Handbook
• “Moral Disorder,” by Margaret Atwood, from Moral Disorder and Other Stories
• “Vissi d’Arte,” by Lorrie Moore, from Like Life
• “How War Begins,” by John Keegan, from The First World War
• “Jack Firebrace’s War,” by Sebastian Faulks, from Birdsong
• “The Battle of Ap Bac,” by Neil Sheehan, from A Bright Shining Lie
• “The Outing,” by James Baldwin, from Going to Meet the Man: Stories
• “The Comeback,” by Geoffrey C. Ward, from A First Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt
ABOUT VINTAGE BOOKS & ANCHOR BOOKS: Vintage Books and Anchor Books are imprints of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Penguin Random House LLC. Known as industry-leading paperback publishers, their roster of authors includes Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Alice Munro, Richard Russo, Jon Krakauer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Paulo Coelho, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Haruki Murakami, Raymond Chandler, and Dave Eggers, among others.
