# Do short-stories and Novellas sell on kindle?



## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

I’m not trying to self-promote here, but as a would-be writer of primarily short and Novella-length stories I was wondering if the Kindle-Store is a good carrier for this type of material, and if so, how well this material fairs compared to longer Novels?

Would the average Kindle reader be interested in anything that isn’t advertised as a full-length novel, and are serialised novels likely to be downloaded (stories in Novella-sized parts, as opposed to books that are part of a series, that is)


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I've moved this to the Writers' Cafe because I think you'll get a better response.  Seriously, readers can only give you their anecdotal experience, they either buyshort storiesnor they don't.  Your fellow authors can report whether they've had good luck selling these types of works.

Betsy


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## jimbronyaur (Feb 9, 2011)

Personally, as both a reader and writer, I love the idea of short stories and novellas for Kindle.  It's one of the big reasons why I bought a Kindle - and why I support indie publishing, we are able to do things traditional publishing won't.

I think there's a market for short stories and novellas - face it, there are people out there who don't read novels.  But this also could be a two way street in thinking, if people don't read novels, why would they own a Kindle?  BUT as a response to that... I know a person who bought a Kindle because (1) it was the "in" thing to do and (2) to read more because this person didn't like books.  

But I'll stop arguing with myself...

As far as the short stories, how short are you talking?  Remember you have to charge a min. of $0.99 so it has to be worth it.  

For novellas, I think $0.99 is a fair price... anything over, depending, may be harder to sell.  A lot of big sellers are selling their novels for $2.99 (and in some cases, even for $0.99).  

I think the idea of connecting novellas into a series is great.  It gives you a chance to connect with a reader and keep them coming back.  

Do you have anything already written and ready to go


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I've moved this to the Writers' Cafe because I think you'll get a better response. Seriously, readers can only give you their anecdotal experience, they either buyshort storiesnor they don't. Your fellow authors can report whether they've had good luck selling these types of works.
> 
> Betsy


Thanks, Betsy.
I'm a bit new here, so I'm still trying to find my feet


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## Randy Kadish (Feb 24, 2010)

I don't see why not, but here's a problem I had with my long story: readers didn't know it was a long story, so they were surprised and disappointed when it ended so quickly.

I therefore changed by description from ebook to estory, so readers know in advance that it's not a full-length novel.

Randy


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

My novella "Behold, the Child" is doing quite well. People seem to appreciate a short novel in this day and age.


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## jimbronyaur (Feb 9, 2011)

Randy Kadish said:


> I don't see why not, but here's a problem I had with my long story: readers didn't know it was a long story, so they were surprised and disappointed when it ended so quickly.
> 
> I therefore changed by description from ebook to estory, so readers know in advance that it's not a full-length novel.
> 
> Randy


One of the most helpful things I've seen is when an author puts the word count in the description... so you know what you're getting. There are times I'm looking for a quick read and times when I'm looking for a weekend read... so it helps to see the word count.


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## LiteraryGrrrl (Jan 24, 2011)

Garry my answer is YES!  

Short stories are all that I'm selling right now.
I'm doing a year-long monthly short thriller serial called Twelve Terrifying Tales for 2011.
Accordingly, I publish a new short thriller each month, for $.99

At the end of the year I'll bundle them all into a collection, throw in a bonus story and sell the lot for $2.99.

And I'm no Amanda Hocking or Joe Konrath but I'm happy with my sales thus far.
I published my first story in mid January and now, as of 3-12 (just a couple days shy of two months later), I've sold 94 copies.

Shana


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

It varies

My 99c short story ABOMINABLE has sold over 1000 copies in 5 months.

On the other side, my 99c novella THE SLEEPING GOD has sold 20 in the same time.


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## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

My short story collection, Dating My Vibrator (and other true fiction) is selling very well at .99 cents. Most readers find it satisfying, though some have mentioned that it's short. It's 14,344 words--nine short stories. 

Maybe I'll go back and include the word count in the description, as suggested. I work very hard to get that word count DOWN.    I spent a lot of time cutting out extraneous words and material.


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

I'm not setting any records (except personal ones) with my short story ebook sales, but they are selling. So are my collections.

That said, I have been consistently selling more novels than short stories so far. I'm releasing more short stories this month, though, so the balance might tip in the near future.

I bought a Kindle Single the other day for $1.99 (Cautionary Tales by Stephen Tobolowsky). I enjoyed that and expect I'll pick up more over time.

-David


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

One of my collections is selling a little, but not as well as my novel. And its sales would be downright pathetic if not for Amazon UK, which for whatever reason is buying it at twice the rate of the US. I'm guessing that's because it has greater visibility over there--with just a few sales, it regularly hits #15-20 in the sci-fi anthology rankings. The other day it was right between a Philip K. Dick collection and a Star Trek anthology. Booyah.

I've definitely seen other authors do pretty well for themselves with shorts and novellas. I'm going to see what happens with a novella myself as soon as I whip my artist into getting that cover done.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Of the 1,227 copies of my novella _*No Irish Need Apply * _ that have been sold, 992 have come through the Kindle. The other two, less so but both over 200 (one over 300) on the Kindle that is.

Edward C. Patterson


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## StephanieVoid (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks for starting this thread! I was wondering the same thing and I'm so glad to have found an answer!


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

LOL. I sure hope so because I'm putting one out next month.


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## susie (Mar 4, 2011)

Ummmm....how do I get the word count from Microsoft Word?


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## LiteraryGrrrl (Jan 24, 2011)

susie said:


> Ummmm....how do I get the word count from Microsoft Word?


Susie, it's in the bottom-left-corner of the screen. To the right of the page number.

Shana


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## susie (Mar 4, 2011)

LiteraryGrrrl said:


> Susie, it's in the bottom-left-corner of the screen. To the right of the page number.
> 
> Shana


Thank you


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## susie (Mar 4, 2011)

May I ask what the 'average' word count might be for a short story?


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

There's no consensus, but wikipedia's novella article has some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella
My categories (mine, I stress)
up to 10k = short story
10k to 20k = novelette
20k to 40k = novella
40k to ummmm 60k = short novel
60k+ = novel


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

jimbronyaur said:


> One of the most helpful things I've seen is when an author puts the word count in the description... so you know what you're getting. There are times I'm looking for a quick read and times when I'm looking for a weekend read... so it helps to see the word count.


What's a word count? I think most readers have no idea what word counts are for novels. Better to estimate the page count and put that in there. I think 300 words a page is a good rule of thumb.

And a page is not an 8.5x11 PDF page.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

I can't speak for other genres, but for most sci-fi/fantasy magazines, I'd say the average story falls between 1000-6000 words. A lot of markets cap their upper limit in the 4-6K range; others, especially larger print mags, will run with an upper limit in the 15-25K range, so you see the occasional novelette (which in the SF/F field starts at 7.5K) and novella in what are considered "short story" markets.

If you're asking the length of the average short story listed on Amazon.. well, I expect that skews higher. I've heard several people say they'd feel like they weren't getting their money's worth from anything less than 5K or so. On Amazon, I expect you see a lot more stories in the 5-25K range.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2011)

I've sold novels, short stories in collections and stand-alone short stories. It all sells; Smashwords puts the word count in every offering. I always label a short as such; or if there are more than one, how many and the total word count.

To leave this off risks pissing off those assuming it's a novel, and risks losing those looking for a short story. _Old Man in the Sea _ is only 40k words, and though some geeks might label it as a novella, or novelette, or whatever, nobody's ever complained it was too short. Give 'em quality and they won't bitch, but will come back for more. I think Amazon should include a word/page length.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2011)

susie said:


> May I ask what the 'average' word count might be for a short story?


What's the 'average' time for good sex? 

Sometimes long is too long; sometimes short is too short, if you catch my drift--but average? It's all over the map.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Page count varies from 200 to 500 words per page.  It's easy to fudge.  (Apple seems to go with the standard manuscript count of 250 words per page.)

IMHO, we should use word count, especially for shorter works. Short story readers are a lot more familiar with word count than novel readers, but given that everything else is highly variable, word count is the one thing they can rely on.  If they get it all the time, they'll get used to it.  I try to include both on my shorter works, though I also try to make use of descriptors like "novella" "five short mysteries" etc in the title, and in the shortest versions of the description.

For those new to this board - we discuss this a lot, and you might find a lot more interesting info if you browse through several pages of threads here in the cafe.

Camille


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

I had the urge to crunch some numbers today. The result:

Short Story Ebook Economics

To quote Shawn Mullins: "It's hard to get rich off a tour of coffee houses..."

I think that applies to short story ebooks too. Unless you accumulate enough of them. =)

-David


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## LiteraryGrrrl (Jan 24, 2011)

DavidRM said:


> I had the urge to crunch some numbers today. The result:
> 
> Short Story Ebook Economics
> 
> ...


Good post!
And just to put it out there, I was selling more than 5 copies of my shorts per month from the very beginning, when I only had one short story out there.
And I'm adding another every month this whole year...
Shana


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## astonwest (Dec 29, 2010)

I've had good luck with my first book, a novella, which was put out by one of my publishers...so much so that I decided to put up another novella on my own. Still waiting for another of my publishers to put out the Kindle version of my short story collection, and see if it sells well.

Myself, I think they sell well because (in general) readers have limited time to read with all the other distractions of life. Short stories, especially, give the reader tidbits they can finish in those times and then come back for more when they get the chance. The trick (as mentioned up-thread) is to make sure the reader feels they're getting a good deal for their money...


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

First of all I'd like to thank everybody for their replies.



jimbronyaur said:


> Do you have anything already written and ready to go


Well, I have storyboarded six stories that I want to release as my OtherWhere series.

One is around 11k and is in the final edit - this is the one I intend to publish first (not sure if I should make this one free?)
Another is half written in draft, and is currently around 14K, and a third is fully storyboarded but only just started character definition and intro to problem mostly (around 4K)
The remaining three are still very much in the design stage, but I do have the entire series plotted out.
As I said I want to use this idea to hopefully get a few people to know my name, money at this stage would be a bonus.

From what's been said here I think the first part may be on the lower end of the Novella Range, so maybe I should pitch this as an introductory short story.
I estimate the second instalment to sit at around 20 to 25K, although this may end up higher.

So these types of works are being sold. 
And as long as I clearly mark the length it should be ok.
Thanks again for the help.


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

LiteraryGrrrl said:


> Good post!
> And just to put it out there, I was selling more than 5 copies of my shorts per month from the very beginning, when I only had one short story out there.
> And I'm adding another every month this whole year...
> Shana


Thanks!

My short stories have been only recently started to move, but I only had two out there until last week when I released my 3rd. I have 5 more slated for release in the next few weeks, as I get the covers and as I get them edited and formatted.

My first ebook release was a short story ("Nostalgia"), back in September 2010. I figured a short story was a good way to get my feet wet. A training exercise for my first novel ebook release (_The Summoning Fire_). After that, until last week, I had only released one more short story ("Baptism"). Now, though, I'm getting more short stories out there to keep the first two company, and maybe spur them on to greater efforts. 

-David


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

Hello David,

Are you charging the 99c (75p ?) for these short-stories? And what do you call short?

Have you ever released any free stories ether through kindlestore or through third-party sites like Smashwords or feedbooks?
If so how did your downloads do on those?

I've got two free stories up on feedbooks, one downloaded 1,090 times and the other 250.
So that has given me a good indication of what theme people are more likely to pick up.


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

Well for my first publishing challenge I've decided to go with a series of novelettes (around 15k). Probably not the easiest thing to start with but the reason I did it was that there isn't many places who will publish a story that length. So I figured I would publish it myself and any sales are a bonus. 

Only thing is that now it's out there I want it to sell so I've got to market market market!


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## bcwoods (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm brand new to this (like yesterday brand new), but what I'm doing is:

Collecting enough stories to make between a 20k and 30k collection so I can price it at $2.99 (for at least the first part of the release)

Having interior art done for all of the stories, and then splitting the profits with the illustrators. 

I figure $2.99 with 30k words and all original illustrations makes people feel like they're getting a lot of bang for their buck. 

I have the advantage though of having a pretty big back log of work, so I'm going to be able to put out two of these every month for the next year and a half to two years. I don't think I'll ever make a lot of money off any particular one (I only sold 18 altogether yesterday off my first two) but when taken in aggregate I think they have the potential to earn a decent profit.


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

garryg said:


> Hello David,
> 
> Are you charging the 99c (75p ?) for these short-stories? And what do you call short?
> 
> ...


Yes, I charge $.99 for the short stories. So far, the range of word counts has been 2200 through 6500. All of my ebooks are released through Amazon KDP, B&N PubIt, and Smashwords. I haven't looked past those 3 venues yet.

As I mentioned, I haven't had a lot of sales so far, but they're beginning to grow. I've offered short stories for free on my blog ("Nostalgia" is still free there as a PDF), never through a site like Smashwords. I haven't noticed a lot of takers on the free ebook version, though. Probably because I don't have a huge amount of readers for my blog. That's growing too, though.

-David


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## Michael Robertson Jr (Feb 24, 2011)

This is all good info. I plan on releasing a book of short stories and one novelette/novella in the next month or so. It goes hand in hand with my novel thats out now, so I'll see how well it sells. I plan on pricing it at $.99. Later in the year I'll release a bundle of the novel and stories together.


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## Ash Stirling (Mar 2, 2011)

My novellas are selling - albeit at a slow rate at the moment - but they do seem to be picking up.  Admittedly if I knew anything about marketing they may be doing a bit better.


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## Staceywb (Jun 27, 2010)

I have two novelettes (around 15K) out now and they're doing well.  I sell about 500 a month and I have them priced at $1.  They are serialized and inexpensive-I think people like that.  It's like watching soaps.   I put one out every 4 months to keep readers interested in my writing due to the fact it takes me about 8 months to put out a full length novel.  The next novelette will be out in April and I'm also publishing the first 3 stories together and will be charging $2.99.  The collection will only be about 10K shorter than one of my novels, so I think it's fair to charge the same price.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

MikeAngel said:


> What's the 'average' time for good sex?
> 
> Sometimes long is too long; sometimes short is too short, if you catch my drift--but average? It's all over the map.


LOL! Well said.

I'm a short story writer, the genre suits me. My longest work is a 25k novella.

I sell about one a day right now. I was bordering on 2 a day in February but then March for some reason decided to be a dismal month. But I'm not complaining. One random person buying my work every day is fantastic.

I run a blog that kind of specializes in short stories: http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/ . Many of the people who posted on this thread have been featured on it. Drop me a line if you would be interested in an author interview.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

If I'd known short stories could sell I'd have done things a little different.  Over the last couple of years I've written over twenty of them, ranging in length from 2000 words to 15000 (though that is more novelette territory) and all I've done is give them away for free.  By my count at least 20,000 copies have been downloaded between the various stories.

Only just now have I decided to see if I can sell them, but my idea was to do regular compilations - sort of like an ezine - and see how that goes.  Now I'm wondering if I should have done the longer ones individually, given a number of them are ongoing series of stories.


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## BrentKnowles (Mar 8, 2011)

I'm pretty much a newcomer to all this but my reprints (short stories, everything under 12k) aren't selling a lot, really just a few sales here and there. At this point I'm mostly just considering them as advertising...  building interest in the things that I'll be publishing down the road.

It is gratifying though to hear that others *are* selling short stories. I enjoy reading short stories and hope this aspect of digital publishing takes off... reading a novel is a serious commitment in time but short stories are 'easy' to consume.


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

garryg said:


> I'm not trying to self-promote here, but as a would-be writer of primarily short and Novella-length stories I was wondering if the Kindle-Store is a good carrier for this type of material, and if so, how well this material fairs compared to longer Novels?
> 
> Would the average Kindle reader be interested in anything that isn't advertised as a full-length novel, and are serialised novels likely to be downloaded (stories in Novella-sized parts, as opposed to books that are part of a series, that is)


My 99 cents novella 'The Cries Of Vampira' has sold nearly 40 Kindle downloads since releasing 11-18-2010. One of the biggest keys is pricing. I wouldn't go higher than 99 cents for novellas/short stories. It's actually the only type of books I'll be writing for the next five years or so. Hope that helps. Much success to you!


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

I've said this before, but as Ellen Fisher, my novellas (20-35,000 words) are my best sellers.  Not sure why-- it could be that my style translates best to the light and fluffy.  I've also had really good luck with short stories (which I define as less than 10,000 words) and short novellas under my other name, but that's probably because they're erotic romance.  I'm not sure how well other genres would sell as short stories.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

So I'm wanting some opinions if I'm planning to do the right thing with my collection of stories.

I have a few rather short stand alone ones - too short to really sell.  I'll just leave them as being for free on smashwords.

The rest form a number of on going series.  One of them is actually a serial - I'm going to finish it off and offer it as a novella rather than try and sell the short chapters.

There are two series made up of very short (2000 word) stories.  Even collected they aren't really big enough a collection yet to sell, so they'll probably be left as free for the time being.

The last two series are the main big ones - 5K to 12K words in length.  What I am thinking is that I'll sell them as collections of 2 short stories - 1 at a time seems a bit short, but at 2 at a time you get a decent couple of reads.


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## Rick Chesler (Jul 17, 2010)

I would think anthologies would do pretty well on Kindle....


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## LiteraryGrrrl (Jan 24, 2011)

A.S. Warwick said:


> There are two series made up of very short (2000 word) stories. Even collected they aren't really big enough a collection yet to sell, so they'll probably be left as free for the time being.
> 
> The last two series are the main big ones - 5K to 12K words in length. What I am thinking is that I'll sell them as collections of 2 short stories - 1 at a time seems a bit short, but at 2 at a time you get a decent couple of reads.


I'm wondering why you think there's no market for stand-alone shorts?
My current project is a year-long short thriller series. I publish a new short thriller each month for the year.
I have 3 shorts out now, but I started on january 16, so today is my two month anniversary, and as it turns out it's also another anniversary:
today I sold my 100th short story! 

I think there's a market for short stories on the Kindle.
Shana


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

There is a market for stand alone shorts - but when they are only 2000 words or so long its a bit much to ask for people to pay for something that short.


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## LiteraryGrrrl (Jan 24, 2011)

I hear ya. But I think your idea of selling bundles of two should be fine.

Shana


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## Jason G. Anderson (Sep 29, 2010)

My personal cutoff point for an individual short story is 5k words - if it's longer than than, I don't have a problem selling it by itself, or buying it. If you have stories shorter than that, bundling them together would seem to be the way to go.

I'd say give it a go. What's the worst that could happen? You spend a few hours formatting them and creating a cover, and they don't sell.


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

Glad to see this thread.  I've been toying with the idea.  I released a short story collection through a small press via traditional methods in 2009.  Without much griping I will just say the experience is a perfectly painted portrait of why self publishing looks all the more attractive to me.

The collection I have planned will likely be only 10-12 stories, varying in length between 1,000 and 9,000 words.  It will be priced at 0.99 and will probably only be stories that have been published in magazines or anthologies (I have about 20 to choose from).  I've always found that collections comprised of stories published elsewhere are often stronger than ones that the author put together simply because THEY liked the stories.  I don't know...just my twin coppers.

Thoughts?


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## Craig (Oct 30, 2010)

garryg said:


> I'm not trying to self-promote here, but as a would-be writer of primarily short and Novella-length stories I was wondering if the Kindle-Store is a good carrier for this type of material, and if so, how well this material fairs compared to longer Novels?
> 
> Would the average Kindle reader be interested in anything that isn't advertised as a full-length novel, and are serialised novels likely to be downloaded (stories in Novella-sized parts, as opposed to books that are part of a series, that is)


This book that I'm mainly promoting is a novella, and it's done better at the Kindle store than any other outlet. I'm probably over-priced, but my approach was that a decent price would indicate value. Regardless, Kindle sales have far outstripped B&N, Smashwords, etc.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,40980.0.html


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## Ian Fraser (Mar 8, 2011)

The two novellas I've got are moving quite fast on a daily basis, despite no reviews. I think their content
has something to do with it. ('Flies for the Mayans' would get me killed in some places) I switch around prices 
between the two novellas and the novel every so often, trying to work out what the pattern is. But I also
have a play that's a steady plodding seller for those into that niche market.


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## EGranfors (Mar 18, 2011)

Great question as I am currently editing a collection of short stories and don't know whether to try them one by one or put the whole book out there.  It's going to take me at least a month to get this edited--plenty of time for advice.  All the stories are mine.  e


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## DanDillard (Mar 10, 2011)

So far, all I've written are short stories... I'm selling a handful from each of my collections as individual stories for .99 each, and then each collection is $2.99... I'm not sure how one can tell if the sales are a success, but I feel like my sales have picked up since I started offering the shorts as individual purchases.

I'm not sure word count and price are directly proportional either... granted I wouldn't pay 9.99 for a 12 page story... but what if it was fascinating?
I don't like paying 9.99 for an e-book anyway... that seems like robbery to me.
Tell the story that needs to be told in the best way possible. If it's 1200 words, great! If it's 120,000 great. We don't charge by the hour, do we?


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

EGranfors said:


> Great question as I am currently editing a collection of short stories and don't know whether to try them one by one or put the whole book out there. It's going to take me at least a month to get this edited--plenty of time for advice. All the stories are mine. e


How many stories? You could bundle 2-3 together and sell them for $0.99 and come up with several bundles if you have enough stories, and also sell the complete short stories for $2.99 or more. That would give you several products up for sale, which seems to help. I would just be clear in the description of the complete set that they are also published in smaller sets at $0.99.

It's impossible to say how readers will react. There are a plenitude of good $0.99 novels out there now. There are single stories selling for $0.99. There are readers who turn up their noses at $0.99 books. There are readers who check $0.99 books first before buying something more expensive.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

My individual short stories sell better than my collection.  But my collection cover art is in the works.  Maybe that could help things?


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## Mehryinett (Feb 19, 2011)

MikeAngel said:


> What's the 'average' time for good sex?


Twenty minutes (for a woman).


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## FastPop (Dec 22, 2010)

Short or long, great content sells.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I haven't sold any of my shorts yet on kindle - but then they have only been there a few days.


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

2nd post in this thread (because of a new development in sales this afternoon regarding my new novelette/novella)

# Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #22,639 Paid in Kindle Store 
    * #82 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies
    * #92 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Fantasy > Historical

Seems like things are working just great for mine today!!   

Hope that helps!


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Judging by Smashwords, it seems if you're writing erotica, shorts sell better than longer works.  Almost all the erotica stories there are under 8000 words.


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## KimberElliott (Feb 9, 2011)

I think short stories and novellas are perfect for the Kindle - great for casual or travel reading.


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## Ash Stirling (Mar 2, 2011)

My two books are paranormal/cyberpunk novellas and so far do reasonable sales; about one every couple of days.  They have even drifted into top 100 lists over on UK Amazon on occasions.

A few people have liked them and are waiting on the third one (hopefully soon).  They haven't taken off, but they do sell.


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## Daniel Pyle (Aug 13, 2010)

_Down the Drain_, my novelette, sells almost as well as _Dismember_ (and is actually outselling it this month, although just barely). I do think there's a market for short stories and novella-length works. Particularly in the horror genre.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

My strategy is going to be to take my 300 pages of publishable short stories and split them into 3 $0.99 collections-- Pulling Teeth 1, 2, and 3-- and then to release a $2.99 omnibus with several bonus stories to get that sweet 70%.


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## aaronpolson (Apr 4, 2010)

I agree with Barry--personally I don't want to ask a dollar from a reader for something under than 10K.  As for short stories, I have The Bottom Feeders out right now (a collection of 14 stories), with two more "collections" on the way.  

As everyone else has stated, just my perspective--but I won't ask anyone to pay for a single short.  

Unless I could charge a dime.  If only...


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

aaronpolson said:


> I agree with Barry--personally I don't want to ask a dollar from a reader for something under than 10K. As for short stories, I have The Bottom Feeders out right now (a collection of 14 stories), with two more "collections" on the way.
> 
> As everyone else has stated, just my perspective--but I won't ask anyone to pay for a single short.
> 
> Unless I could charge a dime. If only...


While you, personally, may not want to pay for an individual short story, there are those who would. I say, price your collection at a rate you feel is fair, but also offer the individuals. It requires minimal effort on your part as an author since the story is already written, why limit your sales potential?


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## maryannaevans (Apr 10, 2010)

I hear what you're saying about $0.99 being a little steep for a short story in ebook form, but I don't think it's absolutely ridiculous, either.  It's probably comparable to what purchasers pay per story when they buy a print anthology that has, say, fifteen stories in a trade paperback edition that goes for $14.95.  They'd cost even more per story in a hardcover edition.  But we're talking about ebooks, and the going rate has yet to be established.  I just offer that benchmark as a comparison.

If Amazon allowed it, I'd set my single stories at $0.49, which seems about right to me.  I have three single shorts stories up at $0.99 and they do sell occasionally.  I think of them as gateway drugs.    

I collected those three stories into a mini-collection, OFFERINGS, and set the price at $1.49, thus reaching my preferred price of $0.49 per story, and giving purchasers a substantial discount for buying all three.  It sells better than the individual stories and less well than my full-length novels.  It's gotten some nice reviews and Red Adept named it the best collection of last year, so it's getting attention for all my work and I'm glad I did it.  Still, it bugs me that I only earn 35% on it, so I'm planning a full-length collection of all my published short stories and essays, plus a couple of stories never published elsewhere.  That will totally be worth $2.99, in my opinion, so I'll reach that magic 70% royalty.  It'll be summertime before I can get out from under the deadlines that are making me miserable, but this collection is my first planned project after that.


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## LiteraryGrrrl (Jan 24, 2011)

maryannaevans said:


> I have three single shorts stories up at $0.99 and they do sell occasionally. I think of them as gateway drugs.


I like that. 

Shana

And I also like what Alain said, why limit sales potential? People buy single shorts. Let them buy!

Shana


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

My aim is to build up to a collection that I'll market at $2.99 as well, but in the meantime I'll continue to offer them in pairs at $0.99 for the two.

I'm not certain as to how many would be in that collection, but given my shorts/novelettes I am selling average out at around 8000 words, a 10 story collection would seem appropriate, making it around novel length, and by that stage hopefully enough will have sold for a decent cover.

And gateway drugs is what they are - I have two free stand alone novelettes that tie into my novels that hopefully act as that for my novels.


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## Bryan Dunn (Mar 20, 2011)

Just published a novella a few days ago, already have sales, and have done little to no promotion. There's a market out there.


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## CaedemMarquez (Mar 23, 2011)

I like what I am hearing about the sales of some of the short stories on here but I would be interested to hear what kind of marketing there is for short stories. Are there any short story review sites out there that anybody has hard about?

Also, if you have a good short story marketing tip, I'm sure we'd all love to hear it!


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

CaedemMarquez said:


> I like what I am hearing about the sales of some of the short stories on here but I would be interested to hear what kind of marketing there is for short stories. Are there any short story review sites out there that anybody has hard about?
> 
> Also, if you have a good short story marketing tip, I'm sure we'd all love to hear it!


Many "book" blog reviewers will also review short stories. I just send them two or three of my stories at a time. I'm very clear that they are short stories in my intro email. Some of them tell me they aren't interested. Many of them get around to reviewing my work quickly because they do it between reading longer works. So there are some perks!

I have a blog that specializes in short stories/writing short stories: http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/

In a few days, I'm going to start running a series of short story author interviews. Drop me a line if you're interested in participating.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I'd be up for that


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

A.S. Warwick said:


> I'd be up for that


Sent you a PM.


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## CaedemMarquez (Mar 23, 2011)

Alain Gomez said:


> I have a blog that specializes in short stories/writing short stories: http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/
> 
> In a few days, I'm going to start running a series of short story author interviews. Drop me a line if you're interested in participating.


Thanks Alain!


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

What is your opinion on releasing a free short-story 3to 5K ish, to promote a series of longer (novelette / novella) work that will be priced at .99c?

Is this worth doing?
What are your experiences with readers’ perceptions of free stories?
How do free download fair in comparison to priced work?

I apologise if these are all ‘newbie’ questions, but I am new to all this.


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

I hope the overall answer to this question is YES...seeing as how my short story collection "13 Broken Nightlights" went live this morning!

13 Broken Nightlights


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

garryg said:


> What is your opinion on releasing a free short-story 3to 5K ish, to promote a series of longer (novelette / novella) work that will be priced at .99c?
> 
> Is this worth doing?
> What are your experiences with readers' perceptions of free stories?
> ...


If you want to use the short story as a promotion tool, free would be better. The likelihood of people downloading and reading would be far greater. Short stories do sell, but novellas are generally more popular.

So it just depends on what you want to do. I am a short story writer, so I charge for all my stories since it's "my work." I do make consistent sales and I have seen the sales slowly increasing with time. But you definitely encounter resistance from readers who are not willing to pay for a short story. And you run the risk of people trashing your work simply because it was "too short."


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I offer a mix of free (over at Smashwords) short stories as well as pairs of novelettes for 0.99.  The free ones have been free for a long time while the paid ones are newish.  While I've had a lot of downloads of the free ones, I haven't noticed much of a movement in the paid ones yet.

A free sampler is a worthwhile idea in my mind though.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

garryg said:


> I'm not trying to self-promote here, but as a would-be writer of primarily short and Novella-length stories I was wondering if the Kindle-Store is a good carrier for this type of material, and if so, how well this material fairs compared to longer Novels?
> 
> Would the average Kindle reader be interested in anything that isn't advertised as a full-length novel, and are serialised novels likely to be downloaded (stories in Novella-sized parts, as opposed to books that are part of a series, that is)


Because of the newness of the format, some readers over-focus on length and word-count. Their loss.

I think, priced smartly, there is a great market for short novels on Kindle. I just wouldn't charge $2.99 for them. I'd go $0.99.

As for short stories, put a few of them together in a themed collection and charge $2.99 and you'll be fine.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

I'm glad I found this thread! My first-ever printed book/ebook will be novella-sized. I didn't know there were so many other people here writing novellas. That's awesome! I hope there will be more to come for the Kindle. There doesn't seem to be a strong market for novellas and I don't know why. Maybe we should start a new trend?


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

I priced mine at $0.99 because all of the stories had already been previously published elsewhere.  As far as the book went, there was no real writing work involved...just choosing the stories and formatting it for Kindle.  I'd really like to push this collection as an introduction to my writing as it is a well rounded glimpse of most of what I write.

Plus, the collection only comes in at 125 pages (46,000 words).  I think, for an introductory sort of deal, $0.99 is a fitting price for a short story collection.


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## JodyWallace (Mar 29, 2011)

I released a backlist short story this month that used to be in a small press anthology that went OOP. I lengthened and tweaked it but it's not 10k. It's not selling great, but I've been told I'm not a great marketeer, either


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## Jackie Barbosa (Mar 23, 2011)

My short story is not selling huge numbers of copies, but between B&N and Kindle, I believe I'm now pushing 400 total copies sold. More well-known authors who were in the same print anthology with me who've released their short stories on Kindle (Terri Brisbin, Julianne MacLean, and Kim Killion among them) have all probably sold closer to THOUSANDS of copies. Last time I looked, Terri Brisbin's short was hovering below the 300 mark in overall rank in the Kindle store.

In other words, I don't think the fact that it's a short story will prevent people from buying it. The fact that they may not know enough about you and your work to decide whether you're worth 99 cents or however much you choose to charge is more likely to be the issue.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

I've done a short story collection - but it was more as something to do with a backlist of stories that have already seen print. Plus I used it as a way of playing with kindle formatting and getting to grips with Amazon KDP, before I published the novel. I've only sold a handful of the short stories but it's not a problem as most have already earned their keep in exposure if not money.

deb


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2011)

DP is the first place I have found that is ideal for shorter lengths.

My novella has done well... and I used to sell a lot of articles and shorts for magazines in the day.  They don't pay  much.


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## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

My novella is selling pretty well. SS...? Meh.


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## Katharina Maimer (Mar 13, 2011)

I have released two short Spin-Off stories with my book on both Smashwords and Amazon, and I have the feeling it works.  There is definitely a market out there for shorts and novellas.


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## S.E. Gordon (Mar 15, 2011)

Thanks for all the input. What a fascinating discussion. Judging by the success Barry Eisler is seeing from his short stories (using well established characters from his successful novels), I don't think an author can completely discount this format, especially if use it as a gateway into their series.


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

Asher MacDonald said:


> What's a word count? I think most readers have no idea what word counts are for novels. Better to estimate the page count and put that in there. I think 300 words a page is a good rule of thumb.
> 
> And a page is not an 8.5x11 PDF page.


Agreed. File size and word count are both just numbers to the average reader. We're used to seeing pages, though, so that's something quantifiable for us.

PS: I buy novellas and anthologies


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

I think it's a miscalculation to sell based on word count or page count.

Price according to that, surely...

...but sell based on the story therein.


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## Keith B. Darrell (Apr 27, 2011)

Let me throw in my two cents...

Good writing is priceless. It's one area where size doesn't matter. I'll take a brief quality poem over a poorly written padded novel anyday. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is only 144 words, yet it has changed people's lives. Is it not worth 99 cents? Is "War and Peace" a better work because of its length?

A trunk is filled with paintings. All are the same dimensions, using the same amount of paint, the same stretch of canvas. Yet, all things being equal, some sell for millions of dollars to museums and others sell at garage sales for a few dollars. Why? Because it is the quality of the work that determines its value, not the size of the frame or the number of words.

Funny thing, no one complains about paying 99 cents for a 3-minute song download or a swiftly consumed candy bar. Why is an author's work any less valued?


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

Keith B. Darrell said:


> A trunk is filled with paintings. All are the same dimensions, using the same amount of paint, the same stretch of canvas. Yet, all things being equal, some sell for millions of dollars to museums and others sell at garage sales for a few dollars. Why? *Because it is the quality of the work that determines its value, not the size of the frame or the number of words.*


Unfortunately, like writing, this isn't always true. But I do get your point


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

Keith B. Darrell said:


> A trunk is filled with paintings. All are the same dimensions, using the same amount of paint, the same stretch of canvas. Yet, all things being equal, some sell for millions of dollars to museums and others sell at garage sales for a few dollars. Why? Because it is the quality of the work that determines its value, not the size of the frame or the number of words.


I don't think this analogy holds once you get to reproductions. An original Picasso will sell for millions, but a poster of Picasso sells for the exact same price as a poster with the latest boy-band on it--and it's the cost of the reproduction that drives sales. Reproductions of works still under copyright may cost more, but that's a function of the cost of the reproduction.

My personal feeling is that we don't set prices based on how much something is "worth." I don't know how to figure out how much something is "worth" to someone else.

Prices should be set at the point that maximizes profit--which could include both short-term and long-term profit.


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

I sure hope so.  I've just published a collection of short stories called "Kindling" see image link below.
I believe that the Kindle will reinvigorate the short story market as it makes it easier to buy and publish shorter works of fiction where production costs may have been prohibitive in a traditional printed format.


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## Plotspider (Mar 15, 2011)

I am still trying to figure out how to do ebook singles or estories.  I am selling my novella for 2.99, but I could not figure out how to sell it for .99, even if I wanted to.  I may decide to do this, but am wondering how to reduce the price if I wanted to do so.  But yes, I think individual stories could sell on Amazon, and I think they should.  This is a golden opportunity for the readers out there to declare it's time to get stories and literature (in general) for cheap and easy, rather than having to buy a magazine and all the ads that go with it.  I am very glad Kindle has come along, and look forward to seeing a new age of publishing that is both more democratic and more lucrative for the artists themselves who deserve the lucrativity (made up word but it will serve).


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Courtney Milan said:


> I don't think this analogy holds once you get to reproductions. An original Picasso will sell for millions, but a poster of Picasso sells for the exact same price as a poster with the latest boy-band on it--and it's the cost of the reproduction that drives sales. Reproductions of works still under copyright may cost more, but that's a function of the cost of the reproduction.
> 
> My personal feeling is that we don't set prices based on how much something is "worth." I don't know how to figure out how much something is "worth" to someone else.
> 
> Prices should be set at the point that maximizes profit--which could include both short-term and long-term profit.


But a skillfully done replica is worth far more than a poster. Generally speaking, things are valued based on amount of time it took to produce it. Time is money.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Alain Gomez said:


> But a skillfully done replica is worth far more than a poster. Generally speaking, things are valued based on amount of time it took to produce it. Time is money.


But it takes no time or effort at all to replicate an ebook -- which is the point.

A book, in and of itself, is priceless. You can't set a price on it's overall value. The issue here is setting the fair price that sufficient readers can afford which pays the author for time and effort. How much the author make total for that work (the only real measure for dollar value) depends on both price and volume of sales. If a low price sells to a huge number of readers, it may very well be a higher value.

Now, that said, I agree with those who say we should not undervalue our work. One thing we should never think is "I'm nobody, I have to price cheap." Get that thought out of your head. Have respect for yourself and your work. Because if you don't, nobody else ever will.

People don't say "Hey, I've got this dollar, I think I'll buy some garbage!" Present yourself as non-garbage, forget competition (it's a deal between you and the customer and nobody else) and consider fairness on both sides as well as how much "incentive" you're willing to pay for and for how long you're willing to make sacrifices.

Camille


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## Keith B. Darrell (Apr 27, 2011)

Respectfully, I have to disagree with you, Camille. 

"But it takes no time or effort at all to replicate an ebook -- which is the point." That statement alone completely devalues everything I do and I find it highly offensive at best and ignorant at worst. Now, it may be true if you are taking a remaindered backlist title of yours and running it through Smashword's meatgrinder to produce a passable version of an eBook, but that's certainly not true of my own experience or most professional writers.

First, there is a great deal of time and effort that goes into the writing of a book, whether it ends up as an ebook, print book, or both. Then, there is an even greater deal of time and effort that goes into the editing process (not to mention proofing for typos, spell checking, grammar revision, rewrites, and beta reading). Then, there is the cover design and production, which can involve photography (often hiring a photographer - an expense), illustration (paying a graphic designer), or using stock artwork (another expense, and extremely time consuming having to sort through hundreds of photos and illustrations). Then there is the time and expense of the actual cover layout (designing and placing the logo, title fonts, author name font, and other elements). 

Next there is the e-book production itself. I produce three versions of most of my books: a print version through Lightning Source, a Kindle version, and an EPUB version. All are created by hand, the print version using InDesign and the eBooks using XHTML and CSS. Each of my eBooks, including my short stories, have a proper copyright page, a table of contents, an OPF file with all relevant metadata (including key words and descriptions) optimized for SEO uniquely suited to that title, and back material. Every eBook is produced in both mobi (Kindle) and EPUB formats, structured differently for each. They are then reproofed for errors that occur in the conversion process and, when necessary, recreated to eliminate any errors. They are then tested in multiple e-readers, as not all e-readers will display the same EPUB file properly. The file is then reworked to appear as similar as possible in all of the test e-readers. 

When launching a new book, whether an eBook or print book, there is additional time and effort necessary to market it. Setting up a blog, social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, GoodReads, Shelfari, LinkedIn... the list goes on), contacting reviewers and sending copies, etc. I cold write a book on just this topic.

To say "But it takes no time or effort at all to replicate an ebook -- which is the point." is a slap in the face. I have one e-novel priced at $2.99 (the print version is 332 pages) and the rest of my eBooks are short stories and novelettes, all priced at 99 cents. You wrote: " The issue here is setting the fair price that sufficient readers can afford which pays the author for time and effort." Frankly, if they can't afford 99 cents, then they shouldn't be reading. Let me clue you in to pricing: a comic book is $3; a single song download is $1; a candy bar is $1; magazines at the supermarket counter cost $3.99 (and they aren't 332 pages like my novel and they consist of 40% ad content). 

You wrote "which pays the author for time and effort." At 99 cents, the author receives 35 cents for his time and effort; actually less than that, when factoring in Amazon's Delivery Costs and its stated intent to lower your book price to match any other venue (which means some authors have seen their books priced at "free" on Amazon when they were offering free copies on Smashwords). So, are you begrudging me, or other authors, a net of 30 cents per copy?

My analogy to the paintings was a polite way of pointing out that self-publishing, without the gatekeepers pruning the slush pile, has resulted in a vast amount of "not ready for prime time" writing cluttering the e-landscape. The wonderful thing about the democratization of e-publishing is that anyone can be an author; and conversely, the horrible thing about the democratization of e-publishing is that anyone can be an author. Not all eBooks are of equal quality. Many, if not most, are poorly written, poorly edited, and poorly formatted (proving Sturgeon's law that "90% of everything is crap"). Hopefully, the authors taking the time and effort to read this and other threads are the exception to that rule, and are reading these threads in their continuing efforts to improve their product.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Keith, she said "replicate," not create. We all know what it takes to make and market a book. She's talking about  maximizing the return for that effort.

You need to detach your emotion from your pricing.


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## Keith B. Darrell (Apr 27, 2011)

My emotion is not attached to my pricing Alan.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

I think almost all of this sells on kindle. But nonfiction still have to catch up. I am waiting for the day when it crosses fiction...LOL


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Keith B. Darrell said:


> My emotion is not attached to my pricing Alan.


Well, you kind of flipped when someone explained that pricing for ebooks should be more like pricing for posters than for original artwork. She stated the fact that it costs nothing to replicate an ebook--the fact--and you got highly offended, ranted and took us all to school about what we already know.

So there was some sort of overactive emotion at work, whatever it was attached to.


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## Alex Sinclair (May 5, 2011)

Hello everyone, 
I find this a rather important subject and has caused a great deal of butting heads with my publisher. You may notice at the bottom of my thread two books. These are my self-published books that are out for $0.99. I also have three published novels, but I don't promote or mention them. The reason being is that I feel that are over priced to the point that it is robbery. My publisher refuses to lower the price of the books and I feel very bad for people who buy my books that they have to pay, what i would consider, over the odds. Now I have great respect for my books. If possible I would love for this to be a full time job. I mean the two below climbed into the top 7000 in the U.K again tonight, which is fantastic and they have both held top 100 positions in the U.S, but I just want my stories out there. I love writing romance suspense novels filled with betrayal, passion, murder and corruption. A great deal of work goes into these books. I plan books for over four months, I write them in about three to four months. The editting stage then comes around, which takes a while and it goes on and on and on, lol. There is a lot to do, but pricing is down to the author and I think each to their own. I price mine at $0.99 because I want them to sell, I want people to read them and I feel like I owe the fans that have brought my published novels for crazy prices. Have a great day!


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Alan Ryker said:


> Well, you kind of flipped when someone explained that pricing for ebooks should be more like pricing for posters than for original artwork. She stated the fact that it costs nothing to replicate an ebook--the fact--and you got highly offended, ranted and took us all to school about what we already know.
> 
> So there was some sort of overactive emotion at work, whatever it was attached to.


I wouldn't take it as flipping out. To continue the metaphor, replicating an ebook would essentially be pirating. Which, in that case, would take almost no effort. But every ebook copy sold legitimately is an "original" work. And it's all part of the creation process that factors in how the author can be paid. Otherwise, the author would have to charge $$$$$ for the single (and only) copy of his or her work.


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

All I can say is, I published my collection of 12 short crime/mystery thrillers, Lunch Break Thrillers, for 99c. At an average of just over 5,000 words per story it enables me to develop both character and theme, twists and plot. The total word count is 62,500 words. I guess that would be around 275 pages in a book. I spent a year on an author site to have them critiqued to death and finally had the collection professionally edited. One of the stories reached the finals of a Harper Collins competition judged by their editors and some of their authors (pre editing).

I believe that the collection represents value for money.

Customers on both sides of the Atlantic seem to recognise this. Since uploading it has reached the top ten for its category in the UK and is selling well in America. I personally think that short stories are a niche market and that they will never sell in big numbers. None the less, they do sell.


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

daringnovelist said:


> People don't say "Hey, I've got this dollar, I think I'll buy some garbage!" Present yourself as non-garbage...


Hello daringnovelist,
I'm not sure what you are saying here. Do you think that people equate low-cost to low-quality?

I am quite happy to pitch my 10 to 40K Novelettes/Novella length writing at .99c

The main reason I write my stories is for people to read them. I have no illusions of ever making a living from my writing, and primarily see the price as a sort of validation. 
I have had really good feedback from readers who liked my work, and have had short-stories and flash-fiction length fiction bought for, sometimes a fair bit more than .99c for les than 1k words. But surely that is different; they are purchasing wrights to publish ether on-line or in an anthology. An e-pub is a contract allowing the purchaser to read the story.

For this I'd be happy if I wasn't deemed to be polluting the pool with sub-standard writing. So once again, do you think readers equate low-price with low quality? Are they more likely to spend $2.99 than .99 on a book?


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## Guest (May 17, 2011)

My answer is: Quality over quantity should be a good guide to follow.  Just because you pumped out 80,000 words, it does not mean that it is a high quality work.  Do your best.  If you write great short stories publish them.  If you are just pumping out words just to raise your word count you are going to harm yourself.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Keith B. Darrell said:


> Respectfully, I have to disagree with you, Camille.
> 
> "But it takes no time or effort at all to replicate an ebook -- which is the point." That statement alone completely devalues everything I do and I find it highly offensive at best and ignorant at worst. Now, it may be true if you are taking a remaindered backlist title of yours and running it through Smashword's meatgrinder to produce a passable version of an eBook, but that's certainly not true of my own experience or most professional writers.


**Headdesk**

You said there was a difference between a painting and a poster reproduction of a painting. I pointed out that ebooks ARE the equivalent of a poster. As a matter of fact, all books, except for find hand made editions, are like a poster. They are only a reproduction of the original. The original is not possessable.

We're all writers. We all know what it takes. The fact that it costs virtually nothing to reproduce that work a million times once it has been uploaded is not an insult to the writer (nor is it arguable). What it is is a miracle.



garryg said:


> (quote from me: "People don't say "Hey, I've got this dollar, I think I'll buy some garbage!" Present yourself as non-garbage...")
> 
> Hello daringnovelist,
> I'm not sure what you are saying here. Do you think that people equate low-cost to low-quality?


No, what I'm saying is that "gee I'm newbie and nobody wants my work, so I'll price at 99 cents" is a bad way to choose your price. I have nothing against the 99 cent price point. I do have something against the psychology that causes writers to devalue their own work. Readers don't want to waste one dollar any more than they want to waste ten. Whatever your price, stop treating your work as inferior -- unless you really believe it IS inferior, in which case don't drop the price, make it better.

Camille


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## Guest (May 17, 2011)

One of the freedoms of self publishing is the ability to change the price of your book.  Don't be afraid to change the price.  If a .99 price works for you, keep it at that price.  Low prices do sell books and it has been proven.  Just look at the best sellers list.  If a higher price works...stick with a higher price.  

I don't think .99 devalues a book and I think this norm for books is going to change in the near future.  Either Amazon will change their royalty system or somebody like Konrath is going to say $3.50 is a bestseller price.  The .99 is just a trend for the moment.  Don't be afraid of it and don't be afraid to change your price either.

Power to the indie!


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## tensen (May 17, 2011)

SuzanneTyrpak said:


> My short story collection, Dating My Vibrator (and other true fiction) is selling very well at .99 cents. Most readers find it satisfying, though some have mentioned that it's short. It's 14,344 words--nine short stories.


How well does flash fiction do in ebooks?
Your wordcount on your collection sounds like the size of my normal short stories. (Sadly I have a problem writing shorter stories.)


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

tensen said:


> How well does flash fiction do in ebooks?
> Your wordcount on your collection sounds like the size of my normal short stories. (Sadly I have a problem writing shorter stories.)


Flash fiction does sell. I have a collection out and have sold copies.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Alain Gomez said:


> But a skillfully done replica is worth far more than a poster. Generally speaking, things are valued based on amount of time it took to produce it. Time is money.


There are non-fiction works that are literally someone's life worth -- and somewhere someone is complaining that 14.99 is too much.

Two authors produce 800 page books -- one did tons of research and outlined, and one didn't, but both books are great reads. I don't see Author A charging more because she spent double or triple the hours, because all the reader cares about is the end result. Also, what counts? The time spent thinking about the story while walking the dog or taking a bubble bath? The writing class? The decade reading other books in the genre? The dinner you had with your brother-in-law who happens to be an expert in a needed field? Or is it only the time spent typing? What if the author is a slow typist?  

A good price is the one, well, Courtney said it.



Courtney Milan said:


> Prices should be set at the point that maximizes profit--which could include both short-term and long-term profit.


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## GBard (Mar 21, 2011)

Not meaning to be sarcastic but does anyone here actually know what they are talking about? As I write this there are appx. 1500 people on the boards. Most, I am assuming, are writers. Is this, and other, argument/discussions just in-family bickering or has there ever been an actual study of buyers opinions? 

I don't know how many Kindles there are and how many of what sells. Does anyone here know? Is there a breakdown of numbers someplace?

There was a similar thread about covers, colors, title, what sells etc. but does anyone actually know?

If there are any actual studies, I would appreciate knowing where I can find them, otherwise these are just interesting exchanges of opinions.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I have a similar strategy to some on this thread.

I am releasing short stories as "singles" throughout the summer, for $0.99 a pop. I will bundle them into collections of five as a go, sell those for $2.99, and an omnibus collection of 10 for $4.99. No extras in either collection.

I'll probably update all the files as I go to put in teasers for another story, then in the the collections but in the same for my novel (when that's ready).

My first release went live two weeks ago. It's actually two 2000 words stories packaged together for $0.99 because I felt it was too short otherwise.

In 2 weeks, I've sold 81. Not bad at all for a completely unknown writer.

So yes, there is definitely a market for short stories.

Dave


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

GBard said:


> Not meaning to be sarcastic but does anyone here actually know what they are talking about? As I write this there are appx. 1500 people on the boards. Most, I am assuming, are writers. Is this, and other, argument/discussions just in-family bickering or has there ever been an actual study of buyers opinions?
> 
> I don't know how many Kindles there are and how many of what sells. Does anyone here know? Is there a breakdown of numbers someplace?
> 
> ...


Most of the opinions you see here are based on personal experiments by the authors. So yes, they are, in a sense, factual.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> In 2 weeks, I've sold 81. Not bad at all for a completely unknown writer.
> 
> So yes, there is definitely a market for short stories.
> 
> Dave


That's a long, long ways away from bad in my opinion! How did you get the word out?


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Alan Ryker said:


> That's a long, long ways away from bad in my opinion! How did you get the word out?


Yeah I'm very, very pleasantly surprised.

1. I have travelled all over the world in the last six years and collected a lot of email addresses from people who said they would be interested in hearing about my writing if I ever got published - so I hit all those on the release day with a nice professional email using MailChimp. A lot of these bought on the first couple of days which was enough to propel me into the Kindle Top 40 Short Stories (just outside 5000 overall) and when you get in the lists you get a little momentum just from that.

2. I set up a blog about a month before release, talking about self-publishing and following my own steps into it in a detailed way so people could learn with me as I went. That grew pretty fast and now I am getting 1500 views a week and it's growing all the time.

3. Facebook, Twitter (Sunday Sample is great), a little bit of Goodreads and I am active on a few different writing forums.

4. I ran a really fun competition a couple of days after release which involved people tweeting and retweeting and facebooking a link to my Amazon page. This could have been HUGE - except I screwed up and put in the link to my UK book page. That was nearly 70 people sent to the wrong page. A real killer - still beating myself up over that one. But overall, the competition got the word out and I made sales out of it (and got nice reviews from the comp winners).

I've done other stuff but I haven't seen the effect of it yet - i.e. I have some guest blog spots lined up (I embarked on The Never-Ending Blog Tour so if anyone here has a blog and wants a day off you can click the link in my siggy and see my writing style). I have some reviews on some book blogs lined up which should appear over the next month.

And I have another story ready to go - once that is live, I'll put excerpts and links into both stories so they can feed off each other.

All of that cost me nothing except time.

Dave


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

GBard said:


> Not meaning to be sarcastic but does anyone here actually know what they are talking about? As I write this there are appx. 1500 people on the boards. Most, I am assuming, are writers. Is this, and other, argument/discussions just in-family bickering or has there ever been an actual study of buyers opinions?
> 
> I don't know how many Kindles there are and how many of what sells. Does anyone here know? Is there a breakdown of numbers someplace?
> 
> ...


I look at this discussion and see readers and writers, both traditionally pubbed and indie. Most writers are also buyers. If you want to call that just an interesting exchange of opinion, aight. I think that's good enough for a discussion board.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Alain Gomez said:


> Most of the opinions you see here are based on personal experiments by the authors. So yes, they are, in a sense, factual.


Agreed. Readers may only really know what they themselves or their close friends buy or prefer. Writers here are comparing notes on what is actually selling or not.

If you're talking about the pricing thing (not the subject of the thread)... um, yeah, that is at least partly the eternal bickering. Though there is a lot of data on that too, but nobody accepts anybody else's data.

Camille


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Thanks a lot for your detailed answer, Dave. I think I'm gonna steal an idea or two


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Alan Ryker said:


> Thanks a lot for your detailed answer, Dave. I think I'm gonna steal an idea or two


Steal away... although if my sales grind to a halt, I know who to come looking for...


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## DelilahFawkes (May 11, 2011)

This thread is very encouraging  . I'm grateful to people sharing how well their shorts have been doing.  

My one short story went live on Monday, and as of right now I've sold two copies to total strangers.  I feel like it's a good start.  Delilah is my pen name, and I've been writing and promoting under another, so I was wondering how long it would take to sell that first copy with almost no promo or platform.

I remain optimistic.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

DelilahFawkes said:


> This thread is very encouraging . I'm grateful to people sharing how well their shorts have been doing.
> 
> My one short story went live on Monday, and as of right now I've sold two copies to total strangers. I feel like it's a good start. Delilah is my pen name, and I've been writing and promoting under another, so I was wondering how long it would take to sell that first copy with almost no promo or platform.
> 
> I remain optimistic.


I remember I sold my first copy before it was even finished publishing.

The description was riddled with typos because I didn't realise you can't use special characters!

It didn't even have a cover!


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## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

I am the anti-David Gaughran.  I put up my first short story around the same time. I am a total unknown, with no one to email, and my Twitter following is all about politics and doesn't care about my fiction. I have had 10 freebie downloads at Smashwords, and not one single sale on Amazon or B&N.

I am not saying that for sympathy since I'm not sad about it. I'm just starting from a zero recognition level, and one short story isn't enough product to get traction. I view it as my first experiment, and am already planning my next steps. We all follow our own path.


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## DelilahFawkes (May 11, 2011)

On the bright side, though, you have a stunning book cover!


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## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

Thank you so much! Now I'm blushing  (but maybe that's from looking at your cover  )


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## RebeccaKnight (May 1, 2011)

I decided to pub two of my short stories while I was getting my novel ready to go, and have sold 27 copies total in a little less than a month  .  I know that's a really small amount, but for something that was just chillin on my harddrive, it makes me really happy.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED started out as a 1200 word piece of flash fiction.  Monday, I re-released it bundled with another story starring the same main character clocking in at 2500.  So, my 27 copies was mostly the shorter story combined with WRITE OR DIE, which is again about 2800 words.

Shorter stuff does have *some* market, even for total newbs!


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

I have noticed within the past 5 weeks or so that my short story collection has been selling much better than my novel.  I have seen a few other authors make similar statements on these boards as well.  While the collection, 13 Broken Nightlights, isn't selling QUITE as well as hotcakes, it is easily beating out my novel.  The collection has cracked the top 100 in its genre twice in three weeks while the novel has sort of just floated around.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

@bnapier

That's very interesting. Is there a difference in reviews between the two? Any other factor you can think of? Price?


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> @bnapier
> 
> That's very interesting. Is there a difference in reviews between the two? Any other factor you can think of? Price?


None that I know of. The novel, Masks of Our Fathers, currently has a 3.5 rating, based on 3 reviews. The collection has only 1 review (a 4 star). They've both got around the same amount of exposure on review sites and blogs. (You can see the reviews by clicking their covers in my signature). Doesn't seem to be any real stand-out feature that would cause this shift.

I think it's just one of those fluctuating things.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

I had to do a search to find this thread and I'm glad I did.  I'm trying to find new readers and it's been tough.  I have a novel I'm working on but it won't be done until maybe early 2012.  I have some short stories I'm proud of so maybe I'll put a collection together.  I'm very excited now!


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

I aims to find out.  Coming in Oct/Nov, the Blue World and Other Amazing Stories.  A novelette and about ten short stories, sci-fi and fantasy.  We will see.


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

Update.... I have had varying experiences, but in a nutshell, yes they do sell, but it is important to tell the reader exactly what they are getting. I don't have my shorts separate in the UK, but the compilation Lunch Break Thrillers has been in or around the top ten for its category in the UK since February. In the US I have sold a few shorts, but they seem to be convincing buyers to go for the compilation to save money. In Germany I can't sell the compilation however hard I try, but the single shorts and novellas are selling. I have just taken screen shots of the German rankings and currently I have 10 top ten spots in different short story categories and a number 1 spot out if 16 short stories. I don't think the market for them is as big as for full length books, nor do I think there is big money to be made, but it is still a healthy and rewarding market.


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## jkswift (Jul 13, 2011)

hehehe. Mine don't!  

But I'm just getting started and have done very little marketing. I will be putting out a novel in September so I'm hoping that will increase sales of my shorts. They are all in the 5000-7000 word range by the way.
JK


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

Yes they do sell but novels are still more popular, however I believe that the short story market is going to increase as  more people find the form suitable for their eReaders and modern busy lifestyles.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Libby13 said:


> I had to do a search to find this thread and I'm glad I did. I'm trying to find new readers and it's been tough. I have a novel I'm working on but it won't be done until maybe early 2012. I have some short stories I'm proud of so maybe I'll put a collection together. I'm very excited now!


Glad you dug this old thread up, Libby. I think you should definitely put out some short stories or a collection while you're working on your novel. It gives readers yet another opportunity to discover your work. Besides, now that I've got a Kindle I find myself as interested in buying short works as long ones. They're easier to read on the go.

I've had the novelette in my siggy out for a few months now and have been surprised by the sales. I'll be putting out another of the same length next month and then getting to work on a third. I want to have plenty out there when Christmas rolls around and shorts and novelettes are so wonderfully quick to write.


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## garryg (Jan 14, 2011)

I’ve made my OtherWhere short story and novelette 11Kish stories free on Smashwords and hope Amazon will price-match.

It’s made a difference to the number of downloads and I’ve got a few good reviews on various sites… but nothing much at all from the kindle store. I’ve made these free because the main point is to get people reading them in order to possibly interest them in the larger works that I’m planning on releasing for the series.

I don’t know if this approach will work or not, but I’m not loosing much sales by giving it a try!


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## susanmerle (May 10, 2011)

I just put a collection of short stories (all published previously) together as an ebook on Kindle. It was an experiment, since I'm waiting to hear from some small publishers on my novel, and I thought this might prepare me if I end up doing it myself. It's been fun and inexpensive, but so far I think my only sales are from people I know. I'm not sure how people are going to know about it, but maybe word filters through? I priced it at 1.99. I wonder if there is a big difference between that and .99?


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## Marata Eros (Jul 23, 2011)

Now that my shorts are bundled, the bundles seem to be selling better. The novella I released Sep. 12 is selling 1-3 copies per day. I don't know what a decent pace is for sales but that seems okay.


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## Marata Eros (Jul 23, 2011)

Now that my shorts are bundled, the bundles seem to be selling better. The novella I released Sep. 12 is selling 1-3 copies per day. I don't know what a decent pace is for sales but that seems okay.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm copying my post from the thousand books a month thread because it contains helpful/relevant information for this thread.  Thus far, I only have out short stories and a novella (although my first novel is uploading as I type!)  I write sweet, funny romances.  Here are my stats for October.

I have 13 books out (2 collections of short stories, those ten short stories also sold individually, and one novella.)

2528 total sold for the month on BN and Amazon US and UK

The two 2.99 collections sold 985 combined on US and UK
The .99 novella sold 871 on US and UK combined
The .99 short stories combined sold 546 on US and UK
A record 6 stories sold in Germany!  Pass me some schnitzel!
126 total on BN (haven't gained much traction over there.)
And who knows on itunes, but several stories have been on romance best sellers lists over there in the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada and Australia this month.  It'll be a surprise, I guess.  But I sold 1104 stories on itunes in July, so I'm crossing my fingers.

I should also mention I had 2 short stories go free on Amazon this month, so that really helped.  It was my best month ever (although I've only been doing this since May, so I don't have a lot to compare to.)  Now that my freebies have fallen out of the top 100 list, sales of other books are down as well, so who knows if October will be as good.  (And just as a point of interest, I sold around 1400 last month on Amazon US, UK and BN.)


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## Arthur Mackeown (Jun 12, 2011)

Some short story writers do very well, but quality is very important.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Arthur Mackeown said:


> Some short story writers do very well, but quality is very important.


You said it.

Quantity helps quite a bit as well, I find.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

I've been documenting my 10k word and under short story sales stats on my blog. A few guest authors are included in the series as well. You guys are more than welcome to check them out if you want:

http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/search/label/short%20story%20sales%20stats


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## Artemis Hunt (Aug 23, 2011)

I had a well-reviewed traditionally published short story collection that sold 5000 copies in 2005. I'm now releasing them slowly to Kindle. My shorts tend to be in the horror/thriller genre.

This is my Kindle experience:

Sept: added 1 short story, Psychotic.
Sales: 8

mid-Sept: added a trio of short stories as a compendium to my full length novel. This one is called The Ether World Chronicles: Beginnings. It's now free on Smashwords. Trying to make it free on Amazon.
Sales: 3

I've also put up another of my short stories to Saffina Desforges for an anthology. It would be exciting to see how that goes.


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## rayhensley (Apr 16, 2011)

I would say sure. People pay for value over length.

_"It's not the size that matters...." _

Heck, if Hunter S. Thompson suddenly came back from the grave and released a short story, I'd buy it.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

All of mine are short stories and novellas and they sell. Not as well as some others, but respectably.

I think the key is to be upfront about the length in the description, so readers won't feel cheated. And of course, it really helps if you have several short stories up.


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## brianrowe (Mar 10, 2011)

I've been finding that readers prefer shorter books... each of my YA novels so far have been about 75,000 words in length but my new YA series I start writing in November I'm thinking of making each book more like 60,000 words.


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## Ian Fraser (Mar 8, 2011)

Its good to know readers _are_ trying out short stories and novellas. I've got a novella collection currently in the running at some literary competitions (with publication as the primary prize) - if it doesn't win any places, then I'll be putting it up online, probably around December.


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## petiepies (Apr 6, 2012)

In fact they do. This is a magazine that posts short stories that primarily sells on kindle

http://www.efictionmag.com/literary-revolutionaries/


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> What's a word count? I think most readers have no idea what word counts are for novels. Better to estimate the page count and put that in there. I think 300 words a page is a good rule of thumb.


Generally word count is a better estimate. The page size, font size, even spacing do effect the number of pages. I understand that most of us are used to number of pages.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Hate to reiterate an old point, but the "standard printed page" word count is 350, not 300.

That's also what Amazon uses for their page estimates on eBooks... a 350-word page.

250 and 300 are often cited, but refer to manuscript pages, not printed pages. And what customers care about is "book pages." Which means the 350-word standard, not less.

Of course, some presses these days do format their books with a bit more breathing room; but that doesn't change how the estimate is made, by default.


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## Cher Carson (Mar 27, 2012)

My novellas are selling about 45 per day over 3 titles, but they're erotic romance and I understand that's a different beast, so to speak. I'm also planning some short stories in the near future, so we'll see how that goes. Good luck!


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## philvan (May 26, 2010)

My stories & novelettes sell steadily, and Amazon has put up an estimated page count for each, in addition to the wordcount I include in each description.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

Has anyone ever sold Flash Fiction or stuff fewer than ~3k words? How much did you price these stories?


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## jeanhopkins (Apr 11, 2012)

I've got two "super short" stories up and my first free day they sold about 100 in all. I made sure to write "short story" all over the description so nobody would say I didn't tell them. I accidentally got in the 90 day kdp select when I was trying to figure out how to set them as "free," and later found out I would have to sell on another site and report a lower price to amazon. Sigh! 

They have those kindle singles too that I believe are intended for flash fiction. Is there a list somewhere of the wordcount-based naming scheme?


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

I just had a two day free promotion on one of my short stories "The Wheel of Justice" it was downloaded three and a half thousand times.  I sure hope some of those readers go on to buy my short story collection "Kindling".  
Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.


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