The Book Standard reports on Penguin's new "Hot Shots" "sampling program" -- a series of six titles, each "a very manageable 92 to 128 pages," set to debut in stores Sep. 27.

Ken Kaye, VP and director of distribution sales at Penguin, gets paraphrased as saying something like, "It's less of a commitment because the shopper pays less, and then reads what is essentially a short story, versus a full-length novel." In other words: readers have never bought short stories, but maybe they'll start if they're tricked into thinking stories are just mini-novels. Either that or "limited-edition collector's editions":

"Some of these books are being pre-sold on the Amazon website," Kaye says. "They are calling them limited-edition collector's editions. I don't know how they got that, but I am liking it."

Last but not least, Penguin's also mining the portable aspects of "Hot Shots": " The inspiration for the new offering? Apple's ubiquitous iPod." (The inspiration for this post? Let's just say thermonuclear fusion technology. What, you got some problem with that?)