David Blum

If you want to understand the burgeoning world of e-book singles, it helps to know who the players are. With that in mind, Thin Reads has created the first list of the most influential executives in the e-book single industry. These are people who decide or influence what we read when it comes to this exciting new form of digital content. And more importantly, they are starting to put their stamp on popular culture and mainstream journalism.

President Barack Obama's decision to give a high-profile speech on jobs and corporate tax rates during a visit to one of Amazon's distribution centres this week was a coup for the company. Now it's capitalising elsewhere in its business.

Amazon will launch an ebook under its Kindle Singles imprint on Wednesday based on an interview given by Obama to the imprint's editor, David Blum, during his visit. GigaOm reports that the ebook will be a free download rather than a paid title.

The New York Times ran a fascinating profile of David Blum, the editor of Amazon’s “Kindle Singles” store. But along the way, they also took a look at the whole phenomenon of Singles—and what it means for the future of books. Amazon has sold nearly 5 million Kindle singles over the last 27 months, according to the article about Blum, who tells the newspaper that “Every day I become more obsessed with how brilliant the concept is…” But it’s got me wondering just how popular the Kindle Singles really are…

Amazon.com today announced that the best-selling and iconic author Stephen King has published a personal essay—“Guns”—available exclusively in the Kindle Store as a Kindle Single. This essay highlights one of the compelling features of Kindle Singles—they allow top authors to publish their works quickly. “Guns” is available now, and exclusively to Kindle customers in the Kindle Singles Store (www.amazon.com/kindlesingles) for $0.99.