In March, Charlie Petit wrote in these pages about the debut of a new outlet for freelance writers, especially those who like to go on, and on, and on. Just kidding; I like long-form stories as much as the next guy, if they're good–and a lot of them are.
And now we have a chance to find out. The site, called Matter, has just posted its first story, a 7,800-word offering by the science writer Anil Ananthaswamy. You can pick it up for 99 cents, or you can subscribe for a year for 99 cents a month and get everything Matter publishes. (Which isn't all that much–one story a month is the plan.) I thought I'd start slowly and just pony up the buck for this one.
So I did. The story popped up in my browser. The site also asked me for my Kindle email address. My what? I paled at the thought, but I found it on Amazon fairly easily. I added it to the Matter site. Then I added Matter's address to my Kindle account. This, Matter said, would give me an instant download to my Kindle. However, once I added these addresses, I couldn't get back to the page to begin the download. Nor did the story show up on my Kindle.
I looked in vain for a help file, or a FAQ, and I couldn't find either. I couldn't find a "contact" button on the site. I'm perfectly willing to admit that the problem is me–that any child of five could figure this out. (As Groucho Marx once said, "Send someone to fetch a child of five!")
On the bright side, what I did find was a lot of annoying promotional copy about how great Matter is, about the story "extras" which I also cannot get, and about how I can be part of an "exciting community of readers."
I could read the story on my laptop, where it popped up. But I refuse. And having wasted an hour this morning on this, I'm not sure I'll go back.
-Paul Raeburn
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