Publishing Short Stories?

Congratulations on self-publishing your novels!

I self-published three short stories (unrelated to each other) as e-books. I sell a handful each month, sometimes a couple handfuls. I priced them at $.99 cents. I think it's an easy way for folks to get to know your writing style. I also think they draw people to my novels.

Another strategy for your short story is to make it free so that others can discover your work and lead readers to your novels. Tricerotops did this with a short story prequel and can give you more information on whether or not this has been beneficial.

I've been wondering this, too... I have a short that I'd like to put out for St. Patrick's Day, but it's so short (1500 words), I'm not sure anyone would be interested in something of that length, even if I made it a free download for the day.

I'm thinking of doing the same thing, but as a compilation of sorts. Just nothing but poems and short fiction. At a 1 to 2 dollar price I think it could do well. Maybe price it more if the compilation is long enough, but right now aiming at about 30 - 40 pages.

If you can do a reasonable job of editing, proofing, formatting, and cover creation yourself it's worth it to me.

Just don't expect big returns because the market for shorts is pretty small comparatively. Most people seem to average 0-5 sales a month per short. My best seller this year has sold just shy of 50 copies, while my worst has moved just a couple. So lunch money, but they're getting read.

They seem to do better if they're linked to your novels or part of a series (but neither of those is true of mine.)

The lowest price point I can set for an Amazon book is about £1; I think for that amount of money your minimum word count is 10K. (That's my rule of thumb, anyway.) So I think you have to bear that in mind.

I published two short stories separately, both at Kindle and Smashwords. Both are shorter than yours. I've sold 12 (including 2 in the UK) of the first and three of the second. I have two more I'm working on, then I think I'll pull off them for a while. I don't really know how to promote them.

NDG

At this point, if you're under 10K words, I would suggest giving the stories away for free and considering them a marketing expense.

Since this time last year, I've self-published a novel, a collection, and a dozen or so short stories on Smashwords and Amazon (and have 5 currently up on PubIt!). My plans for this year are 2-3 novels plus another collection plus 12-15 more short stories. I'm already 3 short stories into this target. I sell a handful or two each month right now.

However, sales aside, I think short stories are an excellent way of showcasing your work and building a product line. One or two novels, unless they're "discovered" and sell a zillion copies right away, probably aren't going to attract much attention. But, as your product line increases, as the number of items you have for sale increases, you'll start to draw more attention. One or two works at $0.99 selling 10 copies a month is going to net you about $7.00, but 10 works selling 10 copies apiece a month? That's an extra $70 in your pocket every month. It gets better too because those 10 works are more likely to draw attention from readers than 1 or 2 works are.

I'm not a big fan of the "for free" option. Personally, I think a writer's work is worth money of some sort even if it's only $0.35 on the dollar.

I've been thinking of doing the same. Maybe do a few shorts that are connected to longer stories or even a self contained short. It's nice to work on something a bit smaller in between big projects

FOTSGreg said:

I'm not a big fan of the "for free" option. Personally, I think a writer's work is worth money of some sort even if it's only $0.35 on the dollar.

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One thing I'd say would be that even if you're giving a story away, it has value as marketing. Your readers are paying you in attention and hopefully you can convert some of that into sales.

I, personally, try and sell shorts to markets where new readers might find them (anthologies, magazines, website) then self-published them after they have reverted.

veinglory said:

I, personally, try and sell shorts to markets where new readers might find them (anthologies, magazines, website) then self-published them after they have reverted.

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Probably the best plan. Those markets are often non-exclusive, as well, so that's nice.

I haven't been around long enough to offer practical, tangible results based on my strategies, but my approach to short stories is that if it's under 3500 words, I won't ask money for it. It's free to whoever wants to read it, and it's helping to spread my name around a little bit.
Over and above that, though, and I'll let it try and earn it's keep in the interim. At least until I've built up enough stories of similar enough genre that I can compile them and attach a higher (but still, cheaper per story) price to the collection.

I published a short story on Kindle recently to promote my novels and I was becoming a bit despondent because I hadn't made many sales (3 in a week). It's so nice to find a thread that gives actual realistic figures.

Sometimes it seems that everyone out there is managing to hit the Kindle bestseller list with their first self-published book, while I can't even reach double digits! Thanks for the reality check. BTW my short story is free on Friday & Saturday (16th & 17th March). Might finally manage to reach double figures!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007IHRA9C/?tag=absowrit-20

I only have one thing on Kindle and it's a horror short. I've been going a little overboard with promoting it, I'll admit, but for a short story, it's been selling pretty well. 17 copies in 19 days. I think the market for horror shorts is much bigger than any other of genre of short stories.

Both my published pieces are short stories and I've managed a handful of sales. I don't think you risk missing out on anything by publishing for .99 unless it isn't clear the piece is short fiction. People don't always look at the word count listed and noting that it's a short story at the beginning of the description might save you a bad review from a non-diligent purchaser.

I don't think there's a problem at all of giving away a tie-in short for marketing, but I don't think it's very likely you'll attract many novel readers by giving away an unrelated short. They are two different markets. The tie-in is usually successful because it either gives readers a chance to read more before they buy the novel or because they want to read the short because they read the novel. Whereas I believe you might get more of the short story purchases because people are fans of your longer work and are craving more between releases. It stands to reason that anyone who seeks out additional writing from the same author through digital marketplaces will be willing to purchase it rather than expecting it for free.

These are just my thoughts and opinions. I am far from an expert on the matter.

Well, I went back and looked at the short story I had in mind, and it was quite a bit longer than I'd thought (3k rather than 1500 words). I put it up yesterday and made it free with Kindle Select for today and tomorrow. It's now up to #9 in the free section for children's short stories, which makes me smile even though the overall number of downloads is still fairly small.

I'm hoping it might get a bit of attention for the novel I have coming out next month, but even if it doesn't, it was good practice for formatting and uploading things to the kindle! And I'm quite fond of the story and happy it's no longer stuck on my hard drive.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007KTUTKA/?tag=absowrit-20

I feel ya, oaktree, That's been my experience so far with my short stories. I'm really working on a YA novel, but all of this is priceless experience for when the stakes get a bit higher.

I downloaded a copy, I'll be sure to give it a read. May you have the best of luck with these endeavors!

EngineerTiger said:

Another strategy for your short story is to make it free so that others can discover your work and lead readers to your novels. Tricerotops did this with a short story prequel and can give you more information on whether or not this has been beneficial.

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Yeah, my publisher suggested I write a prequel short that ties into the novel. I don't know where he got the idea, but he must have been studying Amazon or reading Konrath or something. Since the novel was a space faring adventure, where the crew performs "missions", it was an easy concept to grapple with and produce. He called it our "sacrificial lamb", because he intended to list it free as many times as we were allowed--something like five times or so in a 90-day period? I forget the maximum free download times. Then he would switch it over to a .99 price point and let it hang by its neck.

Our first free trial pulled about 350 takers, not a real big number. But after it went to cost (.99) the book sales spiked in the top 100. Sales started rolling in. When book sales started leveling off--he list the short free again. Boom. Spike.

He tried changing the book price from $1.99 to $2.99 then back again over a period of couple of weeks. Another small spike. Then he offered the book for free (over a weekend, I think), and when it came back on cost, it hit another rank spike. So he staggered the free trials between the short and the book back and forth, until ultimately our free trials were used up. But the short started selling all by itself, something like 1 to every 4 books, which was kind of a pleasant surprise. Imagine your short having a slap-fight with your novel for position!

Just in the last 13 days we've had something like 85 sales between the two, the majority of them books. Nothing to write home about, until you consider that the book came out in hardback first and flat-lined after three sales over a period of 11 months. Absolutely terrible. Since the book went e-book three months ago, and the short was put up only a month ago, it's sold hundreds of copies. We're still waiting on Kobo and some other online vendor numbers.

So, yeah, a tie-in short to your book makes things really happen. Seriously, I don't/won't pull the money that a self-published author does because I split the proceeds with my publisher. But still...

I went right to work on the second short and just turned it in. My publisher will edit it, format it and publish it on Amazon. Then we'll do the "stagger" thing again. Honestly, I think we can produce and list about five to six more prequel shorts to milk the Amazon system for everything it can give us. Then comes time for the real work--the full length sequel. Wash, rinse repeat.

I couldn't tell you what a standalone short would do. Just experiment and stagger the free trial periods. My first short was 6,500 words, and this second one is 8,500 words. I don't think I would go any lower than 5,000, just for personal reasons.

Did this help my my other genre trade and e-book sales? Nope. My paranormal romance picked up one sale through all this. So from my perspective, not many readers will check out your other genres unless you're pulling some huge sales numbers. I've pigeon-holed myself in SF for the time being.

I'm mini-me compared to Nick, Merrihiatt and others who really have the formula down pat. Check them out in the other threads, particularly "Share Your Successes." I'm very late to this game--even my blog is brand new, trying to catch up with all these others. But I do market-slut myself every day--places like here in the Blogs thread, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Book Blogs, all those damn YADS sites, and as many interview and review blogs as I can participate in. My next stop is smashwords and Goodreads--I know absolutely nothing about them, other than they are hot promo and marketing sites.

How long does it take to build up inertia and see good results? In my case, it took three months. YMMV.

Tri

I'm mini-me compared to Nick, too, but I don't really do the comparison thing. We're all in this together. Each success, large or small, benefits us all.

Exciting to hear about your success, Tri!

triceretops said:

Yeah, my publisher suggested I write a prequel short that ties into the novel. I don't know where he got the idea, but he must have been studying Amazon or reading Konrath or something. Since the novel was a space faring adventure, where the crew performs "missions", it was an easy concept to grapple with and produce. He called it our "sacrificial lamb", because he intended to list it free as many times as we were allowed--something like five times or so in a 90-day period? I forget the maximum free download times. Then he would switch it over to a .99 price point and let it hang by its neck.

Our first free trial pulled about 350 takers, not a real big number. But after it went to cost (.99) the book sales spiked in the top 100. Sales started rolling in. When book sales started leveling off--he list the short free again. Boom. Spike.

He tried changing the book price from $1.99 to $2.99 then back again over a period of couple of weeks. Another small spike. Then he offered the book for free (over a weekend, I think), and when it came back on cost, it hit another rank spike. So he staggered the free trials between the short and the book back and forth, until ultimately our free trials were used up. But the short started selling all by itself, something like 1 to every 4 books, which was kind of a pleasant surprise. Imagine your short having a slap-fight with your novel for position!

Just in the last 13 days we've had something like 85 sales between the two, the majority of them books. Nothing to write home about, until you consider that the book came out in hardback first and flat-lined after three sales over a period of 11 months. Absolutely terrible. Since the book went e-book three months ago, and the short was put up only a month ago, it's sold hundreds of copies. We're still waiting on Kobo and some other online vendor numbers.

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Wait, you said your publisher used the 5 days free in a 90 period thingy at Amazon. That is the Kindle Select program, and doesn't that prohibit you from listing the work ANYWHERE else?

As I understand, while the book in in the Prime catalog, it must be exclusive.

I'm not sure what program he's on, but I know we have Kobo and Adobe Digital Editions, as witnessed by these buy buttons on the book website:

http://planetjanitor.com/Home.html

So what does that mean?