For a long time I struggled to see the value of writing short stories.
While they’re fun to write, help provide ‘instant’ gratification, and have a chance of providing ‘street cred’ among the writing community, they’re probably not going to do much for your finances or writing career unless you’re winning competitions and in a situation to take advantage of the kudos (ie, you’ve got a couple of really good novels up your sleeve).
So my question has always been, are they worth the time and effort?
For example, you could, write 20 short stories at 5000 words each, spend a significant amount of time to edit and polish them, and perhaps you’d end up with a couple that were good enough to sell for coffee money or a copy of an anthology.
The reward? A better writing skill set and a pat on the back, and perhaps an opportunity to show off something else you’ve done.
Alternatively, you could write a novel of 100,000 words, spend the same amount of time editing and polishing it as you would 20 short stories, and have a novel you could shop around to agents and publishers, or publish yourself.
The reward: a novel you could perhaps have some significant success with, a better writing skill set, and a pat on the back.
Either way, the investment in time and effort is the same, and you’d learn a lot about the craft of writing.
Because of that, I’d suggest you do both.
That assumes you have longer term goals for your writing career. I.e., you’d like to make enough money to become a full-time writer. Maximise your opportunities.
Personally, I think the opportunities that short stories represent to help you promote your novels is their most valuable aspect. Even if you never win a competition or struggle to get them published, you can put always the better ones up on Amazon as ‘writing samples’, teasers designed to draw people to your other works.
If you do that, put whatever price you like on them as they’re unlikely to make you any money either way, but use the opportunities Amazon provides for promotion – take advantage of all your free days, and mention those days when your stories are free on your blog, you social media outlets, and wherever else you believe is appropriate.
You might even make a little coffee money from them from Kindle Unlimited.
But don’t stop there:
- Somewhere in the text (beginning or end of the short story), make sure you mention your other short stories.
- Put a few chapters of the novel you want to promote at the back of each short story.
You never know what might happen. Maybe nothing. Maybe great things.
Either way, they’re an opportunity you can take advantage of.
And in the spirit of taking advantage of such opportunities, two of my short stories are coming up for free days:
- Any Job in a Haze: 16-20 April
- Promises Promises: 30 April – 4 May
Get them while they’re free, see what I did, and let me know if you think this is a good strategy or not (and if the answer’s yes, make sure you do it yourself!).
Let me know your thoughts, or otherwise how it goes for you in the comments section.
Very interesting to read your thinking on this, Chris. I’ve sent zero to publishers for a while now; this is partly laziness and partly having other things to do. I guess it’s also about what your objectives are. One thing I did notice is that the editors vary greatly: some support the writers strongly in what they allow to appear in their magazine or anthology along with the story, while others do the reverse.I I think your logical approach is a good one, and I’d like to hear how it works out.
Thanks Steve. I know a lot of really good writers who have had a lot of success with short stories, including winning high profile international awards, but have little to show for it. They haven’t been able to convert it into anything more valuable than kudos. We’ll see how this goes.