A series of short stories, publish them seperately, or in an anthology?

[DressageDoll]

If I were to have a series of short stories regarding the same character... Would it be better to have them published seperately, or within an anthology of their own? I know some are wondering, "why not just make them into a novel?" and the reason for that is that I want each one to be a defining moment in the characters life, but spread out over her lifetime, so I don't think this would work as a novel format. I intend for each to be read as an individual piece all it's own. Maybe this has been adressed elsewhere within the forum, if so I appologize just send me to that thread.

[Silver King]

You'd be better off having them published separately first, then use those credits to interest publishers in a short story collection. It would be a long shot, though, as most collections don't sell that well, even from established authors.

[thothguard51]

What the Silver King said...

[izanobu]

I would try to get them published separately first, then see about a collection. If you couldn't sell a collection to a publisher you always have the option of e-publishing a collection later yourself. But best to collect the money and get readers by selling the stories first before you worry about a collection.

Also, a series of short stories can in fact form a novel. It would just be an episodic one. They do exist! :)

[DressageDoll]

Thank you for the feed back!

[Truth and Fiction]

I'm just echoing everyone else at this point, but yes, you might want to try publishing them separately first.

Linked short stories (which sounds like what you have, since it's the same character throughout) have a better chance of being published together as a book than unrelated short stories. Think of Olive Kitteridge -- those were all largely unrelated short stories, but Olive appeared somewhere in all of them (among some other similarities). Even though each story read as its own piece, separate from the others, together they did create a cohesive picture.

If you get interest in these stories, who knows, maybe you'll have a shot to pitch them as a collection. In that case, you'd get the best of both worlds -- publishers who consider the work close enough to a novel to consider accepting it, but stories that stand on their own despite their connections.

Good luck.