Maybe. But if I were you I would submit the stories to hard-copy magazines instead.

No.

If you’re an aspiring novelist, sell your short stories to a short story-specific market in the genre you’d like to publish a novel in one day. For example, if you want to write lit-fic, sell some literary short stories to a magazine that specializes in literary short stories. If you want to write fantasy, sell some fantasy or sci-fi short stories to a F/SF magazine, such as Asimov’s or Heliotrope. If you want to write children’s or YA novels, sell some short stories to children’s magazines, such as American Girl or Highlights.

Once you have sales to pro and semi-pro short story markets under your belt, you will have the power of previous publications in serious markets on your side. Then when you query agents and editors about buying/representing your novels, you will be able to show that you are serious enough about your writing to go with the traditional publication routes. You will also be proving with those short story sales that you are a good enough writer that other editors see value in your work and are willing to spend money on it.

Short stories generally don’t sell for a lot of money, but the power they give you later on, when you start selling novels, is invaluable.

The problem with using a brand-new service like Kindle is that YOU have to do a LOT of promotion of your own work. That is very hard, and sometimes very expensive. And self-publishing really doesn’t impress the editors who may consider your novels later on - unless you have the time and money to turn your self-published stuff into a MAJOR success. The vast majority of self-publishers are not able to pull this off, though some do. When you self-publish, you have to be even more business-savvy and motivated to market yourself than when you publish conventionally (and as a newly published writer, even from a major publishing house, you have to do a LOT of “footwork” on your own to promote your books).

The easiest and most successful route is the longest route, in the case of getting your work published. There is no shortcut - it takes lots of writing, lots and lots of submitting to the right markets, and tons and tons of patience…and never giving up. You will collect many rejections before you finally get a sale - that’s all part of the game.
Good luck! If you want to talk more about how to go about the short-story thing, email me through my profile. I’m always happy to help out fellow writers!