Free Short Story Promotion with Book Release?

MaryLennox

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Hello - I was wondering if anyone had experience with offering a free short story to go with a book release. The story would go with the book, have the same characters, be a prequel, something like that. I think I've read a blog post about this idea before, but now I can't find it. I also tried searching on here, but couldn't come up with anything. If there was a thread about this already, I'd be thankful to be pointed in the right direction.
 

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I can't remember having a thread about this but if I find one, I'll add a link.

Using a short to promote a novel's publication can be helpful, but it works best, I think, when the writer is already well-known or at least has a following of sorts. If the short piece appears on a popular site (probably not the author's) then it can be very effective. Putting it on your own site is probably not going to work so well, as you first have to get readers to your site: and for most aspiring writers, that's not going to be easy.