Author Topic: How to sell: Individual shorts, collection, or journal?  (Read 2170 times)

Offline FishStampede

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How to sell: Individual shorts, collection, or journal?
« on: October 07, 2012, 04:43:58 PM »
I'm currently finishing up my first publishable short story, and I'm exploring options on how to get it out there. An obvious option is Amazon self-publishing, but each individual story is 99 cents. That's basically 47 words per cent with my current story. Looking at it as myself, I'd have to really like the author, otherwise I'd probably pass it by.

There's also the collection option. I could self-publish a novella-length collection of short stories. I certainly have enough of them, if not written yet then coming down the pipe. That might be an easier sell, but then I'd need to get 9-10 more stories out there. That's doable, but lacks instant gratification.

And then there's the old style, of submitting your story to genre fiction journals (including the slightly more modern online format), waiting for a response, then submitting it to another journal when you get rejected. It has its benefits in that they tend to pay very well for short fiction when you get accepted and they have a large reader base. Downside is the difficulty in actually breaking into the business, and the fact they'd probably frown on having it available in another form.

Any advice on which path I should take with selling my story?

Offline KevinEvans

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Re: How to sell: Individual shorts, collection, or journal?
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2012, 04:09:06 AM »
Market info;

http://www.ralan.com/

And

https://duotrope.com/search.aspx

Good market tips here.

Regards,
Kevin
Are Tech articles written for a nonexistent town in an alternate universe, Fiction?

Offline drewavera

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Re: How to sell: Individual shorts, collection, or journal?
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2012, 03:38:57 PM »
i would suggest trying to break in via science fiction magazines, gain a reader base, then sell online. it may be a good idea to have several stories ready before going that route though. places like sci fi today and asimov's pay between 5-8 cents per word and look for 1500-7500 words. they prefer around 5000 words. ive been looking into doing this too, just did some preliminary research. good luck
Self published sci fi author. Read my indie author interviews at www.drewavera.wordpress.com