Short story - how short is too short?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mark Moore

Banned
Joined
Dec 22, 2011
Messages
1,041
Reaction score
39
Age
45
Location
Florida
From what I understand (I've been reading "Think Like a Publisher" by Dean Wesley Smith and am finding it incredibly helpful), $0.99 is the traditional price for an electronic short story. Is there any minimum length that readers would expect it to be in order to not feel ripped off?

I'm asking, because I'm writing the first in a series of short stories (each will be self-contained but form a longer overall story). In this first story, I'm introducing the two lead characters, getting the audience somewhat familiar with them, and putting them through their first conflict. I'm at a little over 1,000 words so far (I've written a few scenes; I tend to be matter-of-fact and to-the-point regarding actions; I have little description). Is there any particular minimum length that I should strive for, or should it be "as long as it needs to be", and it's all good as long as I make the word count clear online?
 

J. Tanner

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 10, 2011
Messages
1,245
Reaction score
99
Location
San Francisco bay area
Website
authorjtanner.wordpress.com
It hasn't really settled into any common wisdom.

Lot's of people appear to feel that short stories generally aren't worth the .99 floor we're stuck with and one can assume that's the reason why they don't sell so great for most.

Where authors draw the line for the subset of readers who are okay with it really runs the gamut. You may have already read this, but DWS puts his floor at 2000 words or so. He says if he produces something shorter he'd just give it away instead. Others place it more around the typical short story length of 5000 words. Others feel a single 5K story isn't enough and do 2 packs. I've thrown in bonus flash fiction stories on my stuff shorter than 3K.

There's no compelling data or even anecdotal info I've come across that any of that matters. That length means anything. If they're short story buyers what they seem to care about is that it's good.

The stories I have up range from around 3K to 8K words and they all sell about the same. A story here, a story there just like DWS estimates 0-5 per month across all channels.
 

NicoleMD

Onomatopotamus
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
1,661
Reaction score
365
I'd say 4000 to 8000 words is a good amount for a small short story collection, which is what I usually do. One longer story, a couple of flash pieces and maybe a poem or micro piece. I think some people get a little grumpy if it's much less than that.

Nicole
 

Katie

Lor en Meleth-Dream of Love
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 22, 2011
Messages
61
Reaction score
1
Location
Minnesota
Well I have a short story that only takes up a page. I say that you should write as much or as little as you want for a short story. Of course if it gets too long then it might just be a story, but there is nothing wrong with that.
 

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!
Absolute Sage
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2008
Messages
4,001
Reaction score
477
Location
Pacific Northwest, Washington
Website
merrihiatt.com
It is important to note in the book description the length (either in number of words or book pages, although e-books don't have "pages" per se), so the person purchasing the book isn't surprised by the length. I think that's when people feel ripped off. If they knew the book was about five book pages, they would know the short story was on the really short end, whereas if the book pages equaled fifty, they can sort of "see" that in their mind's eye. I have a Christmas short story that I also self-published in paperback through CreateSpace. It is around fifty pages, somewhere around 11,000 words, IIRC.
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
My shortest accepted (but not published, and won't be until I do a Collected Works) was four words.

I have several commercially published short stories in the 800 word range.

Now that I'm e-publishing the backlist, I'm bundling those shorter works with several other stories. IMHO, you have to price e-books at $2.99 or higher to make it worthwhile for you to publish them at all.
 

boboratory

Silly Bob
Registered
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Mesa, AZ
Website
www.brickcavebooks.com
We (Brick Cave Media) have 12-15 stories at less than 5,000 words, across many sites. All are .99. Some are part of a series, some are stand alones. The important thing, because people will see how long or short it is, is to give someone a compelling reason to want to read it, regardless of how long (or short) it is.
 

Silver-Midnight

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
4,910
Reaction score
279
Location
rising from the depths of a cup of coffee
Plus not mention, now, some publishers want a much longer story than just 2,000 words or less. Some can have 5,000 word to 10,000 word minimum. This is just my experience with the publishers that I have looked at. I can't speak for every single publisher.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.