What has been your experience with short stories?

[Jason Varrone]

Greetings, All! I have been lurking for a little while and am new to the indie world, and in only a short time have learned a lot from you all. Thank you for being so forthcoming with your knowledge and experience. I hope that over time I can reciprocate. My first non-fiction e-book will be out soon and I will update my signature at that point.

I am curious if anyone here specializes in short stories and/or short story collections. I stumbled upon Dean Wesley Smith's short story challenge last night, and the idea intrigued me. I feel short stories are a perfect way to build a writing foundation, hone your craft, and experiment with a variety of genres.

If you specialize in this area or have published short stories or collections, what has your experience been like? Do you sell all of your short stories individually or compile collections? Do you have a minimum number of words you shoot for?

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Andrew Warwick]

I mostly write short stories - there are a few of us who do so.

Firstly, short stories tend to be harder to sell than full on novels.  Not to say that there isn't a market, just that it is smaller.

There isn't really a set formula on how to sell them - various people try various strategies.  Myself, I mostly sell them bundled in collections of two to three stories.

As for length, I make them as long as they need to be, though most seem to end up in the 8-10K range.

[Millard]

I am curious if anyone here specializes in short stories and/or short story collections. I stumbled upon Dean Wesley Smith's short story challenge last night, and the idea intrigued me. I feel short stories are a perfect way to build a writing foundation, hone your craft, and experiment with a variety of genres.

If you specialize in this area or have published short stories or collections, what has your experience been like? Do you sell all of your short stories individually or compile collections? Do you have a minimum number of words you shoot for?

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

The first three books in my sig are all short story collections. My experience is that they're probably born of my philosophy that stories are just as long as they are, and often you don't know how long that is until you get into it. Sometimes something takes you in a different direction, and what you thought might be a 5,000-worder evolves into a novella. What's great about KDP is that we're not beholden to the old rules about length any more, so there's the chance to experiment with different lengths, or the way you choose to tie multiple stories together. With the Kindle App, for example, I think there's potential for miniature flash-fiction stories aimed at people reading on their phones as they commute to work in the mornings.

That said, as time's gone on, they tend to be longer, with way more depth. Frantic Planet: Volume I is in three parts, with the middle section a novella, while Volume II inverses that, with novellas in parts one and three, and shorts/flash fiction in the middle, and has a 50% higher wordcount. Other than Dirt Baby, which is a collection of 1,000 or so worders that came to mind, and had to come out of me while I was working on other stuff, post-Volume II, my fiction's been novel-length. I'm sure that part of that is just me getting more honed at the craft of writing, and being able to carry off a 110,000 word story, whereas in the Frantic Planet: Volume I days, I may have struggled. So for that reason, shorts are a fantastic way to develop your writing, especially as the blank page can be so intimidating at first, but less so if you know the end isn't 100,000 words away, but 5,000.

As far as how they sell, for me, honestly pretty terrible. But I have no idea if that's because people prefer novels, or just the many various other reasons that things don't take off. It's always said that shorts are the hardest sell, particularly anthologies, so I'm going to blame that.

[Feenix]

Hey there!

Just last month I started to publish my short stories via Amazon. So I'm still a novice at the process.

It does feel good to see something I wrote on the WWW for all to see!

Dave King

[Todd R. Tystad]

Jason: Everything A.S. Warwick said is true.

Generally speaking, short works are hard to market... unless you can position them as a calling card for your other, longer work.

I don't understand it, because I really enjoy reading short fiction. "Nine Stories" (1953) by J.D. Salinger got me interested in shorter pieces and I still think about that book from time to time - it's my favorite short story collection.

I agree with Stuart Millard when he says that, "...often you don't know how long that is until you get into it." I'd say do what you're comfortable with as a writer, keep in mind that some of your readers will really prefer longer works, and see what happens. Good luck.

[Lisa Scott]

Hi! Right now, I'm only indie pubbing short stories and collections.  (I have a romance novel coming out with a small, fabulous publisher in the fall and an agent shopping around my middle grade novel.  I like to be diversified.

I write sweet, funny romances and put them out in collections I call Flirts! (see signature line.)  I have 5 stories per collection and sell the individual shorts as well. Each story ranges in length from 8,000-12,000. Typically, I've been making one of the shorts from each collection free, which has helped boost sales of the other collections.  Right now, I have 4 collections out, 20 individual stories and one novella.  These sell just as well on itunes for me as they do on Amazon, and they sell really well on itunes in England.  I think they have more magazines over there featuring shorts, so people are more used to the format.

I'm happy.  I've been making $2000-$3000 a month total across all platforms.  I charge .99 per individual short and 2.99 for the collection, although I priced my new collection at 3.59 hoping it would stand out from the 2.99 crowd.  I'm able to write one collection and put it through the beta/editing process in 3 months. For me, shorts are much easier to write than a novel.

I also enrolled my latest collection in KDP select to see if I can boost visibility.  (that's another reason I priced it at 3.59, hoping to make it appear more of a value when it goes free or is in the lending library. However for this one, I did not make one of the shorts free yet.)  I've only been doing this since last May, but I've noticed it's getting much, much hard to get noticed and stay noticed. I used to always have a collection in the Top 100 romance anthology list. That all changed for me once KDP select was introduced. I think if you can stick to a genre and build a fan base you can do well.  Good luck!

[edwardgtalbot]

My short stories sold very poorly in 2011.  I have gone free with 2 collections of three and one standalone in the past five weeks, and I sold over 100 of those combined in January after going free. Most sales were actually of the standalone, and I even got a review from it. All were 99 cents

I think that when indie novels are primarily 99 cents, $2.99 or $3.99, it's hard to sell a short or collection, even for 99 cents. The exceptions seem to be romance and erotica.  On the other hand, established authors often do quite well with selling shorts on Amazon.

[KayBratt]

I published my novella of 17,000 words called The Bridge in November.

In December it sold just over 200 copies.

I put it for free for two days at the beginning of January and it was downloaded around 28,000 times. (approx.)

After that it stayed in the Top 100 Paid titles for five days and sold approximately 5,000 copies at $1.99 before month end.

For February, I am already at 152 copies sold in just 4 days.

So---it has gone well for me and I have another novella planned. But to get an idea of how readers feel about the length of it, check out my reviews. Some like the length, and some were outraged.

This review was my favorite: To borrow from the three bears (or should I say Goldilocks), The Bridge was just right. Not too long. Not too contrived. Not too harsh. It is a pleasant, comfortable read. I am so glad I stumbled upon Kay. Good things really do come in small packages!

[Krista D. Ball]

I have (accidentally) made a hobby out of short fiction. Writing novels was always my goal. However, somewhere along the way, I ended up with a few well-received short stories and keep on putting them out.

I disagree 100% with Millard: I know exactly how long my stuff will be. The only time I don't is when I don't go into a story with a plan. Then, I just let ideas go crazy. But generally, I sit down and know the length I am aiming for and can tailor my plot to be consistent for that length.

Jason - I recommend trying to sell your short stories to anthologies, magazines, ezines, etc BEFORE self-publishing them. Sure, you can put out some. But mostly try to sell those elsewhere first. The reason is because you'll make some quick money that you can then invest into self-publishing those stories. Plus, you get some readership out of it. Sure, it isn't millions or anything, but we short story readers are often known to go look up the author of a short we like and read their other stuff. We're a small, but excited group who loves finding new authors

Are you going to make a lot of money? Nah. But you will make a little money this way. If you like short fiction - enjoy reading it, enjoy challenging yourself, enjoy writing it - why not try it?

[Krista D. Ball]

I published my novella of 17,000 words called The Bridge in November.

Novellas are not short stories and sell differently. Genre also makes a huge different in novella sales (especially in romance)


--

Lisa's post reminded me that I forgot to mention my usual caveat. Genre matters. Erotica, for example, is used to short stories. Science fiction is used to short stories. Mystery less so (though there is still some out there). YA is mostly anthologies. etc etc etc

[Millard]

I disagree 100% with Millard: I know exactly how long my stuff will be. The only time I don't is when I don't go into a story with a plan. Then, I just let ideas go crazy. But generally, I sit down and know the length I am aiming for and can tailor my plot to be consistent for that length.

Oh, I'm an extensive planner. The whole 'so this is how long it'll be' thing comes out during the plotting stage. The Stephen King way of working, sitting down at page one with no idea where it's headed and going linearly to The End, is absolute insanity to me.

[KayBratt]

Novellas are not short stories and sell differently. Genre also makes a huge different in novella sales (especially in romance)

I agree, Krista, but when doing an internet search I found so many contradictions on what word counts constitute short story vs. novella in fiction that it was very confusing. I consider it a novella but I believe my word count is right on the line. But to be safe, in my book details I state that it is "A Short Story of 17,000 Words". I don't want someone to complain about paying $1.99 while not understanding the word novella.

(But I still got complaints that it was too short so we can't win!)

[Andrew Warwick]

The most generally accepted rule of length is that novellas start at 17,500 words, while novelettes go from 7,500 to 17,500 words.

Definitions tend to be a little fluid though, and the term novelette isn't used as much as it should be, alas.

[Birdie]

I have a collection of short stories about tiny Las Vegas, New Mexico - no, not the big city of fun and sin in Nevada! I have sold quite a few print copies of the book and my kindle sales are just starting to pick up, probably readers of my Avon Lady memoir who are looking to read other things I've written.

I also have a small book (print and kindle) of real-life Star Trek stories, and it is doing well both in print and kindle.

I plan on publishing a book of funny real-life Avon Lady stories, as well as another collection of New Mexico stories.

I love writing essays and short stories, and feel that there definitely is a market for shorts.

[KayBratt]

The most generally accepted rule of length is that novellas start at 17,500 words, while novelettes go from 7,500 to 17,500 words.

Definitions tend to be a little fluid though, and the term novelette isn't used as much as it should be, alas.

That is why I stick to calling it a short story on Amazon. I'd much rather err on the side that the reader knows what they are getting. And most readers do not know the terms of novelette or novella. A few weeks ago a friend asked me about The Bridge. I told him it was a novella. He looked very shocked and then laughed when he realized what I meant. He said in Spanish a novella is a television soap opera. So I threw him off when just for a moment he thought I had made it into television.

 

[CoraBuhlert]

At the moment, all of my available books are short stories and novelettes, mostly republished out of print backlist. Sales aren't grand, but they do sell. So write short fiction, if you enjoy writing it, but don't expect to get rich of it.

I'd second what Krista says about selling the stories to magazines and e-zines first. If you write in a genre with an existent short fiction market, try submitting them to magazines first. Once you get your rights back, you can still self-publish them.
 

[mac4665]

I have been writing short stories for several years and almost all have been published in various online and print magazines. I've also managed to sell a few as an independent, but not as many as I would have done if I'd submitted them to magazines. I even have  some stories--please note that I do not mention their titles--that have been published more than once, (one of them won a small award, and will eventually be re-printed in an anthology) yet most of these same stories have not attracted any attention at all in online retailers. As far as I can see it's hardly worth the effort, so it will be back to the mags for me before very long.

[Jason Varrone]

Thanks to all of you for such valuable feedback. I saw that my local library had a copy of the 2012 Writer's Market. It should have a list of genre magazines to target. To be honest, I won't wait until I am published in a magazine to self-publish my work. I can certainly send submissions for publication, but I could be waiting forever, which to me defeats the purpose of the indie model. But the idea is excellent and one I did not think of since I was so focused on going indie.

I am surprised by the various e-book pricing models for short stories, collections, novelettes, and novellas. You can take an 8,000-word indie publication and it could vary from $0.99 to $2.99 and occasionally more. The indie world is so fluid I think we are all racing to catch up and understand how best to react!

[Decon]

I have no problem selling my collection at $4.99. It doesn't sell in massive numbers, maybe 50 /60/per month betweem .com and .co.uk, but that is equal to 500/600 sales per month at 99c. I also publish them as singles to give the customer choice. One of them I have free, which seems to garner sales for the collection. 2 of them are translated to German and sell in fits and starts. I am currently working on translating some of my shorts to Brasil Portuguese.

I don't think anyone will make a fortune with short fiction.

Today is the last day of my Novelette, Amnesia of the Heart, going free. I havent promoted it and downloads have been slow.

I think as Krista said, it is worth looking to sell your stories before self publishing, however I would shy off anthologies as that could cause problems if you wish to join KDP select.

[TexasGirl]

My short story collection is new, but I'm trying a Kindle Fire Department and a Kindle Nation Daily sponsorship with it, just to see how it goes.

I have one short story set in the world of my middle grade novel that I enrolled in Select to make free to help sell the novel. Doing this strangely propelled the novel into the top 50 books for 9-12 year olds on the NOOK, but didn't drive sales on the Kindle. Strange, but I'll take it. It's been in the top 50 for over a month now. I'm very happy! The short story itself has only sold maybe 20 copies in the month it's been up.

[Edward M. Grant]

I think as Krista said, it is worth looking to sell your stories before self publishing, however I would shy off anthologies as that could cause problems if you wish to join KDP select.

Ditto. I sent 'Final Contact' to the pro SF markets and collected rejections before self-publishing; at the rate it's selling it would take about three years to make as much as a single sale to a pro magazine and many more people would have read it there.

[GlennGamble]

I've seen short stories such as The Bridge hit the Kindle Top 100, so while they may not sell as well as novels, I would still write and sell them.  I also don't believe that they have to be 99 cents for an individual short either.  Experiment and find what works for you.