# Mystery/crime fiction short story collections



## Brian Lindenmuth (Mar 3, 2011)

Increasingly there is less of a print market for individual author collections and, to a lesser extent, mixed author anthologies. Within the mystery and crime fiction community there has been a sharp rise in self e-published individual author collections.

So I wanted to highlight some great short story collections and ask *read any good shorts latel*y?

8 Pounds by Chris Holm and Dirty Old Town by Nigel Bird are two great collections and you can't beat the price of .99¢

The Beat to a Pulp: Round One anthology is also available on the Kindle.


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## nigel p bird (Feb 4, 2011)

First off, many thanks for highlighting Dirty Old Town there. That's a real honour.

I'd also like to second the recommendations for Chris Holm and for Beat To A Pulp. Anyone looking to sample the quality of Beat To A Pulp could pop over to http://www.beattoapulp.com/ where a story of very high quality is posted weekly. It's also an enormous beast, so there's plenty of value in there for those who like to consider price.

This week I've been dipping into Terminal Damage http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terminal-Damage/dp/B004C44QRS which has a the assorted talents of the Do Some Damage Team - http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/. It's a real treat and it's one of the things I like about Kindle - it's easy to dip in and out of things when you fancy as you have them all on tap.

This next one I have only just started, but the recommendation came from a friend whose opinion I always rate. It's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower http://tinyurl.com/69bgewk. I'll post a review when I'm done, but so far so great.

Last from me and again it's only on the shelf, but I enjoyed Katja From The Punk Band http://tinyurl.com/6zb52dl so much that I had to look for more of Simon Logan's work. Katja, by the way, is my favourite read of the year so far and, though it's high priced, is value in terms of the amazing work. He's got a short collection called i-o at http://tinyurl.com/67b2pur. It's not a crime book, but Simon said that Katja wasn't. I'm excited, anyway.

Thanks again for the shout,

nigel


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## sighdone (Feb 4, 2011)

Nothing to add to the list, but thanks for the thread.

Did I see the complete Sherlock Holmes for free a few weeks back? It sort of counts as crime shorts ...


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I bet those are noir... 

I read a lot of short fiction about 5 years ago.  A LOT.  Okay, maybe not as much as Brian, but a lot.  My problem with collections is generally the hit/miss of the stories.  There will be one or two good ones mixed in with a bunch of "huh?"  

Not strictly mystery, I LOVED Frank Tuttle's Wistril Compleat.  It's fantasy, but of course each short has a mystery or dilemma to be solved.  One of the best anthologies I've ever read.  Oh--but it's not noir.


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## Steve Hockensmith (Nov 8, 2010)

Short story collections have always been a tough sell, I think, and with the current publishing climate that's only gotten worse. On the other hand, it's easier than ever to make stories available. (Getting folks to buy them often remains a challenge, though!) I think we're going to see many, many more of the self-pubbed e-collections you mention, Brian. Pro writers are already re-packaging their old novels as fast as they can, so why not their old short stories, too? I haven't sampled any of the crime stuff that's out there (yet), but I did just buy a new, self-published story by the science fiction writer Dean Wesley Smith. I hadn't read any of his fiction and I wanted to give him a try. I found that 99 cents was the perfect price for that kind of sampling: I enjoyed the story and will no doubt buy more of Dean's stuff down the line. So maybe crime writers should think about making individual stories available on-the-cheap, as well.


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## nigel p bird (Feb 4, 2011)

It's a good thought, Steve, that of putting out individual stories as work in their own right as well as being samplers of an author's work.
It gets tricky when thinking of pricing, though. I have my collection out at the 99 cents mark and I feel that is excellent value given that it has 9 stories and a number of them have already been published by great editors. I've also got an individual story out there at $1:49 and, as it's from a publisher I can't influence the price. You can probably imagine that it makes me feel uncomfortable about spreading the word for the individual piece. In terms of value it compares well to things like chocolate bars and coffee, but not compared to story collections, novels and novellas that are still at the $1 mark. 
I also noted a really good list of novellas today by Jed Ayres at http://bit.ly/dU5ILQ where I notice Brian added to the list of what looks like excellent suggestions to me - well worth a visit, I reckon.


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## nigel p bird (Feb 4, 2011)

I realise I'm posting too much here - apologies - but I had one glaring omission to add and that's Dave White's collection More Sinned Against. It's for those who like a good detective read.

www.amazon.com/More-Sinned-Against-ebook/dp/B004NIF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300012163&sr=8-1


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

nigel p bird said:


> I realise I'm posting too much here - apologies - but I had one glaring omission to add and that's Dave White's collection More Sinned Against. It's for those who like a good detective read.
> 
> www.amazon.com/More-Sinned-Against-ebook/dp/B004NIF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300012163&sr=8-1


Don't be silly; you're on topic and you're linking to books. That's what the thread is *for.*


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Try Dave Zeltserman's "Julius Katz" mysteries (one just got an Ellery Queen reader's choice award) new on Kindle. .99 cents

http://www.amazon.com/Julius-Katz-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B004KAA9LQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1300027992&sr=1-1


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## Keith Brooke (Feb 16, 2011)

Steve Hockensmith said:


> Short story collections have always been a tough sell, I think, and with the current publishing climate that's only gotten worse.


Very true, but maybe the rise of ebooks is changing that, making previously "uncommercial" niches more viable.

_--- edited... no self-promotion (book covers, web links, mentioning your book/blog/etc.) in posts outside the Book Bazaar forum. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## Steve Hockensmith (Nov 8, 2010)

> Very true, but maybe the rise of ebooks is changing that, making previously "uncommercial" niches more viable.


I sure hope you're right about that, Keith. I'd love it if ebooks helped short stories (and shorter novels) become more popular while making it easier for writers of niche material to find a steady, supportive audience. It sometimes feels like the ebook market is dominated by novels in a handful of categories -- thriller, romance, paranormal -- while that niche-y stuff still languishes in the shadows. But maybe that's going to change...or I guess it doesn't have to change, so long as people start making more purchases outside of those categories, too.



> It's a good thought, Steve, that of putting out individual stories as work in their own right as well as being samplers of an author's work. It gets tricky when thinking of pricing, though. I have my collection out at the 99 cents mark and I feel that is excellent value given that it has 9 stories and a number of them have already been published by great editors.


Yeah, that's a bind alright, Nigel. 99 cents for a collection is indeed a great deal, but where do you go from there? I suppose you could look at it as a loss leader -- a cheap introduction to your work that will hopefully draw readers to other (higher priced) material. The danger: that people will start expecting *everything* for 99 cents. (I'm sure that's a discussion that's been had ad nauseam elsewhere on this forum.) Personally, I like $2.99 as the price-point for a collection, 99 cents for an individual story. In the big scheme of things, both are still bargains!


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

Maybe it's hard to sell short stories at 99c when an eBook is competing at $2.99, although I would expect anthologies to sell better. I enjoy short stories, especially when I only have a limited amount of free time to read.


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## Brian Lindenmuth (Mar 3, 2011)

Geez, I went away for the weekend and the thread blew up.  I'm going to have to work on some responses


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## Brian Lindenmuth (Mar 3, 2011)

I have a lot more recommendations to make but I don't want to tip my hand just yet with the Spinetingler Awards being announced at the end of the month. So I beg patience for the moment. I'll discuss all of the 2010 collections and anthologies that I read in short time.



> I bet those are noir... Grin


I would say of a darker crime variety but not necessarily noir. But I know from experience that you and I have differing thresholds for what constitutes a dark crime story. I will say that Nigel and Chris both write stories that are strongly character based so any violence in their stories isn't unearned or cheap or even excessive.

As an unrelated sidebar Maria, I read a great unpublished story over the weekend that literally made me squirm in my seat and made me uncomfortable.



> I think we're going to see many, many more of the self-pubbed e-collections you mention, Brian.


I agree and think we've seen an uptick in them over the last few months. It's a natural extension of the vibrant online crime short fiction scene. A way to keep those stories floating around. Plus I really want to see collections from some of the great writers working in that short fiction scene -- especially if said collections help those writers find more readers.



> So maybe crime writers should think about making individual stories available on-the-cheap, as well.


I will say that I don't think that I'm in favor of an individual short story being sold in an e format. Collections yes, individual stories no. Something longer (novelette, novella) maybe but otherwise just pull together a collection.



> Yeah, that's a bind alright, Nigel. 99 cents for a collection is indeed a great deal, but where do you go from there? I suppose you could look at it as a loss leader -- a cheap introduction to your work that will hopefully draw readers to other (higher priced) material. The danger: that people will start expecting *everything* for 99 cents. (I'm sure that's a discussion that's been had ad nauseam elsewhere on this forum.) Personally, I like $2.99 as the price-point for a collection, 99 cents for an individual story. In the big scheme of things, both are still bargains!


I don't know what the right answer is but I think it's different for different authors. Nigel and Chris don't have novels out yet so their collections are designed (I assume) to raise their profile but Steve has novels out so he can price a collection higher based off of a higher profile.


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## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)




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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Brian Lindenmuth said:


> I would say of a darker crime variety but not necessarily noir. But I know from experience that you and I have differing thresholds for what constitutes a dark crime story. I will say that Nigel and Chris both write stories that are strongly character based so any violence in their stories isn't unearned or cheap or even excessive.
> 
> As an unrelated sidebar Maria, I read a great unpublished story over the weekend that literally made me squirm in my seat and made me uncomfortable.
> 
> ...


Tell'm to get it on Kindle. And yes, we do have different thresholds.  For certain.

I agree with Brian. I much prefer a collection of shorts and pretty much avoid singles. I have bought one or two novelettes/novellas, but no single shorts.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

JFHilborne said:


> Maybe it's hard to sell short stories at 99c when an eBook is competing at $2.99, although I would expect anthologies to sell better. I enjoy short stories, especially when I only have a limited amount of free time to read.


For me, I don't buy singles, but it has nothing to do with novels at $2.99. I have very little (okay, NONE) interest in buying that small a package--one that contains only a single short story. It's possible that for some authors I might buy an occasional story at 49 cents or 25 cents, but the bottom line is that I generally don't enjoy shorts enough to be bothered -- even by favorite authors. A collect is different because it's like sampling. Getting a flavor for the depth and range of a particular author. My favorite anthologies will always be collections of shorts that deal with the same characters and world throughout ALL or most of the stories.


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## Steve Hockensmith (Nov 8, 2010)

I hear you, Maria, but for me buying one story was worth it. I'd rather pay 99 cents to sample a single story from a (to me) new author than $2.99 for a whole book of stuff I might not read (if, let's say, I hate the first two stories). I don't plan on putting out any 99-cent stories myself -- it'd just be too much of a pain in the butt to be worth it, I think. But I can see why other writers try it.


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

My favorite short story collection is _Hardly Knew Her_ by Laura Lippman. A great buy at $.99.
L.J.


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## scottnicholson (Jan 31, 2010)

I think the niche stuff will find its audience--it just takes a while for communities to assemble, and the ebook era is still in its infancy. I've sampled a few collections around. JA Konrath has some with tons of stories, and Willie Meikle is putting out some diverse work.

Scott


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## sighdone (Feb 4, 2011)

A new anthology coming out in April by many top writers.

http://www.topsuspensegroup.com/


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## simonlogan (Mar 16, 2011)

It does seem like not only is the publishing industry changing in terms of people being able to put their own work out directly via Kindle DP, Smashwords and similar but also the way in which we are consuming books is changing too.

I do wonder if reading on a portable device, or reading in a different way which portable devices encourages, affects what it is we want to read.  For example do people prefer shorter, snappier fiction for reading on their Kindles?  Perhaps shorter fiction is more readily consumable in electronic format?


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## sighdone (Feb 4, 2011)

I think people are more willing to read things on the Kindle because it's a bit more anonymous. It's why erotica sells so well.


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## nigel p bird (Feb 4, 2011)

I've just had a short out as a single and, though it's nice to have another cover to look at, it's not something I feel I can support with any passion.  I like the point about single stories and think that the one just out will be my last - a collection seems so much more satisfying as a writer as well as a reader.  There is an arguement put forward that people are going to want to finish something 'bite-sized' on a commute and maybe taste and style of engaging with the world is changing.
In terms of building a profile, I think there's some truth in that.  I also love writing in the short form and am delighted to be able to put something out that shows that, something that would have been very unlikey to happen up until recently given the small volume of individual collections being put out there.
I like the look of that Topsuspense group antho.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

You could subscribe to this:


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