While the e-book market has meant more self-publishing, Kiwi Adam Rakich proves there truly are no boundaries, with his new book – which is just one word long.
A screen shot of the the Amazon page.
Is it possible to sell a Kindle Book containing just one word? A practical study is a legitimate Amazon title, for sale at £0.77, a similar price to that of some of the shorter £0.99 dissertations and classics available for download on Kindle.
A Kindle owner himself, Mr Rakich, 31, says the idea sprung from nothing more than a curiosity to see if Amazon would actually publish a book with almost no content.
“I thought of the idea, thought it was funny, so I thought I’d see if Amazon would actually let me do it. They did.”
So far the book has scored seven five-star reviews, as readers embrace the book’s unique philosophy. “The author held me spellbound for the duration of the book. The amazing twist at the end was a real shocker,” writes one reviewer, Jamie.
Mr Rakich, a London-based senior accounts manager, insists the comments are not rigged. “There is one review on Amazon.co.uk which I know a friend of mine did, but otherwise as far as I’m aware they’re genuine,” he says.
New Zealand Society of Authors chief executive Maggie Tarver says the idea is “hilarious”.
“It just goes to show that anything goes in the digital world . . . People love those quirky, out-of-the box things.”
The book has done well, with approximately 250 downloads in its first week on Amazon.com during the five-day, free-download period the website grants to the authors every 90 days, under its Kindle Direct Publishing scheme.
Kindle Direct Publishing is accessible to anyone with an Amazon account. Books can be typed as a Word document, saved in an HTML format and then are simply uploaded to the Amazon website for approval before going live.
However some readers have not been quite so generous. Writing as fortheloveofbooks, one reviewer knocked the five-star rating down to a precious three, angry at being “dumb enough to fall for it”.
“Is it funny? Maybe… but I did not pay for it, you may not think it is funny if you paid for it. It is that simple. Normally I would have given it a five star, for humour, but then some people don’t look at five star reviews.”
So you want to know the word? Read the book.