I write and publish a lot of stories, novels, and novellas. I actually have over 90 published titles, which is rather crazy when I think about the fact that I hated writing in school. But that’s beside the point of today’s post. You might be wondering why I take the trouble to publish so many short stories.
There are several reasons, actually.
- I sometimes write a lot of short stories and while I can share them on my Friday blog, only a few people who follow that blog would get to read them. If I publish them, more people have a chance to read and enjoy them.
- I could publish a bunch of short stories in a collection, and I have done that a few times, but I’ve discovered that those collections don’t sell well. People don’t seem very interested in a collection of short stories but they will read short stories if they are published individually. Don’t ask me why!
- If I publish short stories as individual stories, readers seem more interested in them. They might read them with their Kindle Unlimited, or they might pick them up here or there if I have them on sale (meaning free since I can’t make them lower then $.99.)
- When I publish my short stories individually, I can make them free here and there and have the fun of giving them away for this occasion or that. This makes it fun as I feel like I can give them away without giving away a lot of my time since short stories naturally take less time to write and publish than a full novel or even a novella.
- If a short story is published individually, it can count for another book read on any Goodreads reading goal. 🙂 And who doesn’t like adding one more book to their goal on Goodreads? Especially if they can get it for free from the author or can pick it up on KU.
And those are a few reasons I choose to publish some of my short stories instead of putting them in collections. I have MANY more that I haven’t published except on my blog. And even a few I haven’t published on my blog. (But shhh! Don’t tell my Friday blog readers that!)
Do you enjoyed reading short stories? Would you like to have a published short story with a cover or just a word doc with the story? Do you prefer collections of short stories or are you more inclined to pick up short stories here and there for free? I’d love to know!
All this makes a lot of sense!! Anyway, I’m glad you publish individual stories, regardless of the reasons 😁 I love picking up short stories free, and I usually save them for when I really feel like reading something in a specific style or genre and don’t feel like starting a whole new book that might take me days to read. And yes, Reason 5 is also good, especially when you’re trying for a Goodreads challenge! 😉
And I love collections, but am definitely more likely to pick up individual stories because collections hardly ever go free 😄 Plus they take more time to read!
Also, I love reason 4 and I love that you can and do do that so often for us! 😁
Yeah, I enjoy picking up free short stories too. Especially if it’s a new to me author. I like to get a feel for their writing before I try a longer book.
Well, yes. Reason 5. 😉
And I love being able to give away short stories here and there for this reason or that or for no reason at all.
Cool! I’ve started writing short stories more, but had been wondering if I should put them all together or not. I like your idea of using individual stories for special giveaways, etc.
It is rather fun when you can give away a finished story even if it’s just a short one. They look more interesting when they are formatted and have a cover. 😉