Amazon announced its launch of "Kindle Singles," Kindle books that are twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book.

Kindle Singles will get their own section in the Kindle Store and will be priced less than a typical book. This announcement from Amazon is also a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world.

Amazon Vice President (Kindle Content) Russ Grandinetti said: "Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format."

"With Kindle Singles, we're reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we're excited to see what they create."

Kindle Singles will also be "Buy Once, Read Everywhere." Amazon Kindle customers will be able to read Kindle Singles on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices.

Amazon's Whispersync technology syncs the reader's place across devices, so that they can pick up where they had left off.

In addition, with the Kindle Worry-Free Archive, Kindle Singles will be automatically backed up online in the Kindle library on Amazon where customers re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.