There are lots and lots of people who buy and read mainly stand alone short stories. Probably because of the speed of life these days. This came as a big surprise to me when I published my first one. There are short story connoisseurs who follow authors who only publish short, and are considered masters of the art. I thought it was a cop out to be honest – a way of publishing something a lot easier than a novel length book, because I thought that anyone can bang out a short story. There’s an art to creating a good short though, so that’s not entirely true. I’ve always enjoyed reading them and have piles of anthologies and singles on my Kindle, written by authors from debuts to Stephen King. A short story must still be a complete tale, with good flow, plot, structure and ending. In some ways getting a great short written can be more of a challenge than when you have much more space and time when writing fifty thousand words or so.
I have quite a few lurking on my computer waiting for polishing and publishing, and for me personally, because there’s so much less time invested in them than my longer books, I allow myself to play with the way I write them. The story I wrote for the Save the Rhino anthology, Nkoninkoni, inspired me to write a whole lot of short tales of Africa and its legends. Other stories I’ve started with the purpose of trying to write in different styles and genres, and then just follow where they choose to go. Writing a bad short story is going to be less heartbreaking than writing a bad book, although you might just surprise yourself when you’re just going with the flow. Writing shorts is good practice, but it has other advantages too.
I’ve always thought that as an Indie, the best way to get a feel for the process is to publish a short story before that novel you’ve been slaving over for a year or two. If you publish your novel green, there will be all sorts of learning curves that you’ll wish you knew before, and without any ideas about marketing it you could end up really disappointed when it just sits there and nobody buys it. There is no shame in publishing a single short story, as long as you put the same effort into its creation that you would a full length book. You’ll be in excellent company, because most bestselling authors publish them too. And if you enrol it in Amazon’s Kindle Select programme you can use it as a free marketing tool when you publish your big boy.
Doing this will take some of the terror away when you do publish your novel – not all of it – I don’t think that ever goes away no matter how many books you put out there. Make a great cover for it, edit it and make sure it’s nicely formatted. Make it the best little book that you can, and then let it loose. Have a marketing campaign on all of your online sites. Have a couple of free days in the hopes of some nice reviews. Set up your Amazon Author page. Join Twitter if you haven’t already, and see how it works. Even if you don’t have many sales to begin with, you’ll have learned a great deal, and your systems and sites will all be in place and ready for you when the time comes to publish your labour of love.
Reblogged this on Jo Robinson.
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Practice with a short story first, even if you’re not really into writing shorts. Great idea and excellent advice. Too bad I already let the book lose out there 🙂
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It’s no bad thing to have a book out there. 🙂 I was amazed at some of the feedback I got from short story readers though, because I honestly was publishing for practice. There’s a large tribe of them out there, and they truly love their shorts, so regularly publishing these little guys in between novels is a great thing to do.
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I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I fall in love with an idea that just won’t run to novel length 🙂
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My longest short story (if that is not a contradiction in terms) runs to 29 pages. Samantha took me several months to write and entailed burning the midnight oil.
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I see it’s on free promotion right now – cool! It’s amazing how long a short can sometimes take to write – it’s all that condensation of so much to say maybe, and knowing when to stop. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
There is an art to writing a really great short story – some advice and thoughts on the subject from Jo Robinson on LitWorldInterviews.
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Thank you Sally! X
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Great post as always Jo. X
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Thank you Sally! I don’t think that shorts get the recognition for the truly creative things that they are these days, but a lot of my very favourite reads have been very short. 🙂 X
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What a perfect post for me to read, Jo. Having just published another short story on my blog (in two parts) I now have a collection I’ve been sat on the fence for ages about thinking whether I should publish or not? I guess it’s fear of the unknown that is stopping me from going ahead and doing something about it.
Your post helps and, reading it today, may have just pushed me off that fence. I have a short city break coming up next week and I may just take some time thinking about it all some more.
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Hop off the fence Hugh! There are hundreds of thousands of shorts out there, and it feels just as good getting good feedback for a short book as a novel. Also it’s a brilliant way to start the journey. 🙂
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Reblogged this on The Joy of Writing.
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Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Archer's Aim and commented:
Nice thoughts on self-publishing short stories. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim
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Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Wonderful advice, Jo. Thank you. I believe the short story has been passed over but I notice more people interested in reading them. Time and busy lives must be the reason for this new surge of readers. 🙂
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You’re right. There’s a big audience for them these days. I always love it when I find one that’s a brilliant read, and the author keeps more coming. Everyone’s so busy these days, but still like to read. 🙂 X
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And perfect for iPhones to fill in the time waiting for…whatever. 🙂
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Where’s the huge audience? I’ve got a small short collection and two other singles on the market. I’ve hardly seen any result despite marketing, cover design, and meticulous editing.
I’ll always use shorts to keep my skills honed. I was never out to earn anything from them, it was just to start putting my work out there before my novel.
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The good old “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” is the way to see it. I have your short story collection on my Kindle TBR pile by the way, so a big Hi from your audience. 😉
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Thanks for your support Jo. I’ll wait impatiently on pins and needles for your opinion. 🙂
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Excellent advice, Jo.
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Thanks Wendy! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog….. An Author Promotions Enterprise! and commented:
Wise words from a wise Lady 😀
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Thank you Chris! Lady too now. 😀 XX
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ABSOLUTELY Jo – a little teensy, weeny bit …unconventional…sometimes…but a LADY nevertheless 😀 😀 😀
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I’ve always like d to read short stories and considered those authors quite skilled to do so much with so few words.
And I like writing short stories much better than longer pieces/novels.
Wondered if there was a market or readers who would be interested.
Thanks for the info.
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Pleasure! There definitely is a large market for them these days, and lots of readers, including me, actually look for them. 🙂
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I have just begun a short story writing course so reading this was very timely. I wouldn’t know where to go to publish, so that is obviously my next learning curve.
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If you want to self publish, which is Jo’s route, then you would go about it just as you would a traditional length novel and use Amazon. Of course Jo might have more specific information
http://en.gravatar.com/jorobinson176
If you to link you will find an email address to ask her more specific questions.
Much Respect
Ronovan
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Thanks so much for that. How kind of you to take the time. This is what I love about the blogging community. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
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Ron’s right – Amazon is great for self-publishing shorts, and if you need any help feel free to give me a yell. 🙂
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Reblogged this on newauthoronline and commented:
A great post from Jo Robinson on the art of short story writing. Kevin
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Thank you Kevin! 🙂
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That was interesting, Jo. I’ve known that some indies are selling individual short stories, but i had not taken time to investigate. It’s good to know. Hugs. 🐻
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Thanks Teagan! I personally think that we should all make efforts to publish short stories as well as novels. I love them! Hugs! 🙂
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Great post!
Oddly enough, I feel like I kind of did things the wrong way round with writing short stories – as I published two full-length novels first, and THEN began writing short stories!
I do like novellas and short stories – both reading and writing them. I think they’re a great way to explore certain themes which wouldn’t necessarily suit a full length book.
Plus, one of the best things about writing them is that I can just start writing and see what happens, whereas with novels, I have to plan and outline, etc to make sure I’m on track.
I remember reading an interview with a famous author (it may have been Jeffrey Deaver but I can’t quite remember) where he talks about being able to indiscriminately kill characters in short stories because the reader won’t have invested as much time in them and so probably won’t mind. I thought that was great advice, and very true!
I also completely agree with using short stories as a way of marketing longer material too. I’ve actually got some really good feedback for one short story in particular – which is good for obvious reasons, but also makes me wonder slightly if I’m doing something wrong with the others…!
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A short would be great for indiscriminate killing. I pretty much killed off everyone on the planet in one of mine. Good stuff. 🙂 I understand that you wrote novels first. Even though I published a short first, I’d already finished writing my novel, because I thought shorts were of less value. I was also amazed with the feedback, and my favourite one of my own stories will always be one of my shorts. I’m sure you’re doing it all perfectly right.
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Gosh I’ve been thinking so much about doing this lately, especially as life has now got in the way of the final book of my trilogy (put away now till new year) but maybe this break, busy as it is, would be a good time to publish a few shorts. Thanks, very timely advice and just the encouragement I needed!
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Cool Ali – go for it!
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Writing shorts can be a wonderful exercise. It’s vastly different from a novel. You have to be economical; every word is worth it’s weight in gold
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You are right! Its a skill I am trying to learn.
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Check the South American masters. Their stuff has been translated into English. My personal fav is Julio Cortazar
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I honestly love to write and read short stories. I do write novels as well, but to really nail down a story in 30 pages or less. That to me says a lot. You can’t skimp or fall flat a bit and then recover like in a novel. That’s why I love short stories. You have to be on the whole time. Nice post. I would love to share one of my short stories with you. Just let me know.
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True and thank you! You have to rock every bit of a short. I would love to read one of your short stories. 🙂
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Send me an email to atothewr@gmail.com and I will send you a PDF of A Zombie Christmas.
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Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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As a novelist I didn’t think much of short stories and their writers. I liked to read good long stories. But then I decided to try my hand at shorts and became amazed at how hard it is to fit everything just right. Short story writing is great training for writers and it’s an art form on its own. You’re so right that many great novelist write short stories that are well known to many readers. I never thought about the people who enjoy them so much. Thanks, Jo. Great post.
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