Small collection of MG stories: self-pub?

I'm considering self-publishing a collection of six tall tales I wrote for a middle grade audience. But I have some doubts about doing it.

As far as I know, MG is not a big e-reading audience (yet). Also, it's a smallish collection. My previously published books are all picture books, and they're not out in digital format yet, but some are in the works. I see this collection as more of an add-on value to my other work, and a way of being currently published so that people don't go to my site and see that everything is "out of print."

While all this is happening, I'm writing mysteries now and hope that one way or another my first mystery will be published in the not too distant future.

My goals then are to have something current to put out there, grow an audience -- though not for mysteries, unfortunately! -- and experiment with this fun new world of self-publishing. I feel like I'm ready for the adventure!

Thoughts?

Thanks, Balthane, for your response. I was hoping more people with short works would chime in.

I don't know if I'll do it, then. I don't want to publish it just because it won't hurt anything else, only if it enhances the overall line of my works. Maybe I should wait until some other things come out (such as an interactive digital picture book) and then add this.

Timing is everything!

True, JT. Traffic is a trickle. I had a blog for a year, but I let it go because it took too much of my time. So maybe this collection isn't going to make much of a dent.

Maybe the way to think about it is, do I want this sitting in my file cabinet/computer for the next 15 years, or do I want it out there in some form. So far publishers haven't been too enthusiastic about doing a collection, even though they like the stories.

Maybe I should just think of it in terms of, will it make me feel good to publish it? I don't want to be 70 or 80 years old and still deciding. Sheesh.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Hi Merri. These are not books but actually six short stories, 1- to 2,000 words each. I originally imagined them in a 48-page children's book with pen-and-inks or other small illustrations interspersed.

I have a feeling people will feel gypped if I charge anything over a dollar or two for the lot. One option might be to write six more stories, so it feels more like a "book."

I read about that Kindle KDP program, by the way--very intriguing!

Hi, all. I brought out my little collection of stories (link below), and it feels good to see it as a finished product. It's called "The Remembering Scarf and Other Curious Tales," and there are five in there, not six as I originally planned. I set the price at $.99 and will probably offer a story or an excerpt free on my website. I'm also going to build a new website soon with more functionality than I can get with my current host. Lots of things changing.

Formatting the book for Kindle sounded a lot more complicated than it turned out to be. The Word doc I kept trying to upload had formatting glitches that I couldn't get rid of, such as whole paragraphs block-indenting instead of just the first line, but as an HTML doc it uploaded fine.

Thanks again for your input!

Toby

Thank you, Merri and Stone. I have a feeling the Kindle movement will spread downward, from adult to college to high school to - eventually - middle grade readers.