Where I Used To Sell My Short Stories
you still think its hard?
Note — I started my career selling fiction ebooks. Now I am into non-fiction FULL-TIME. This article will explain the ways I used to sell my fiction stories. This is useful for non-fiction writers as well.
It’s been like 3 years now that I have completely stopped writing fiction. Since I have found my new love — Digital Products and Music store, I have hardly gone back to it.
But if I recall my past well, then selling fiction books has always been profitable to me as compared to non-fiction books. No doubt that selling fiction (especially in the romance and thriller genre) is much more profitable and in my view, you’ll see quicker results.
Why You Should Sell Your Short Stories
I never liked to idea of writing an ebook that went on and on. I used to see other fiction writers making a huge money making 9 or even 12-part series fiction. I don’t think I have that kind of intelligence or story in me that can go on for that length.
I loved short to the point and cleverly written work. Not only me but most of the readers as well.
You write long boring stories over 7 series, readers won’t go past the 1st book.
You write a good short story with clever dialogue and good mystery, watch people reading your stories back to back. I have seen people buying my whole catalog just because one of my short ebooks took off on the KDP.
Every fiction writer knows this secret. And now you know this too!
Short stories are not meant to make money. But it helped my audience to know me better before investing. Short ebooks are mostly about $0.99 — $5 (different for the romance category). Not more than that.
That small investment leads to more profit in the future.
I never wrote any short story from the beginning. But took one side character from my book and I used to write a short story with the character as a protagonist.
I am very much sure that you already have been writing them for some time. Every writer does that. So instead of just letting them cover dust, finish the last scene and hit publish.
Instead of advertising, write a short story. Simple.
I’ll highlight here some other reasons why you should focus more on short stories:
Building a portfolio
Writing causally is a different thing,
writing to get paid takes another level of discipline and hard work.
If you want to get paid for your hard work and eventually make a full-time income from writing then you need a strong portfolio. I have used Blogs for this. You can use —
- WordPress website
- Medium (highly recommended)
- YouTube
Serious writers invest in — not only their craft but also building a strong online presence. I saw a tremendous shift in my finances when I started building my social media presence. I thought Twitter would be the one I was looking for. But Medium become a lovely home for my writing.
Networking opportunities
Communities help a lot to grow.
The writing community from Reddit and Medium helped me understand online business and help me develop my marketing skills.
Before Medium, I didn’t know a thing about marketing and sales.
I see my favorite writers. Learn from them. And try it myself.
This is how I grow. And this is the only way for you as well.
Exposure to a greater audience
At the starting stage, you won’t have much choice.
Maybe now you have a very small following on Medium.
Or maybe your Twitter stats are at a steady point.
Whether its a social media or a marketplace, doesn’t matter.
Your audience can be anywhere.
When you publish consistently on a new platform, you have more chances to reach more new audience.
I have more audience on Medium now than on anywhere else. Just because I am consistent on Medium for the last 2 years!
Now this doesn’t mean you have to be everywhere.
Now you are small, you have to go with trends and marketplaces.
When you grow, be picky. Not to waste energy on those places giving you less audience.
Testing the market
I started with Romance. But never jumped straight into longer works.
Only because I didn’t know if people were willing to buy the books or not.
Plus I didn’t know which genre to write in. I loved many genres but being in multiple genres always hurt my income.
So I started with smaller work to see which gets more clicks, likes, and so on. I used to sometimes write in the contemporary genre, sometimes horror. Sometime thriller. And I always keep my eyes on the stats. That tells me everything.
If one of your short stories takes off then make a longer version of it.
I have seen many successful books and movies starting with a short story.
How Much You Can Make With Your Short Stories
It actually depends.
I won’t advice you to have any more expectations. It’s not that you will become rich overnight! Its not incredibly easy to make money writing short fiction.
But this helps a lot to write shorter work in less period of time and helps a lot to put your work out there.
I have seen writers making a few bucks and sometimes thousands of dollars as well. But the other side is a really rare one. Most of the time publishers and clients will pay you $0.08 per word. This fits only a newbie writer. Impossible to make a full-time income.
But finding this kind of opportunity is quite easy. For that, I will highly recommend going on Fiverr. You’ll find many clients there!.
How to Submit Your Short Stories
You will submit stories mostly to —
- Contests
- Anthologies
- Publications
- Magazines
Each of them may have their own submission guidelines or themes. Some anthologies will accept only romance while some will accept only thriller work.
Also, watch out whether this website you are submitting accepts stories published in other publications or not. Most of the time the answer will be NO. Most of the publications want the first right to the story. Only and only in some cases do they accept already published work.
So please read the guidelines carefully before submitting.
Where to Sell Short Stories
1. Amazon KDP
A stop destination for all my ebooks. And even future ones as well.
Amazon KDP is really popular and even powerful when it comes to selling digital products — especially ebooks. I have already gone to lengths with the ways you can make money selling digital products on Amazon.
As a writer, I earn up to 70% of royalties on the KDP platform. The best thing about KDP is that not only ebooks but I get to sell my stories in physical format as well. Ebooks sell much more in the fiction category because readers tend to read an average of 3 books per week. So budgeting for my reader’s ebooks is always the best. But small income always counts, right?
Going Wide
I also sell on many other platforms other than Amazon KDP. If you wanna learn more then do check this out — I Sell Ebooks on More Than 9 Platforms
3. Gumroad/Payhip
I started 1 year back. Selling my ebooks directly to my readers means I am building a personal relationship with them.
Not is definitely not possible with another self-publishing platform. I never get their names or their email id. I don’t know who is buying my ebooks.
So I can say that using Gumroad/Payhip —
- I make more money
- Build strong relationships with my readers
- Helpful for future promotion
- It helps me to get feedback and see what readers are looking for
4. Traditional Publishing
Now this is something I used to do a few years back. Not now since I have started making money from self-publishing platforms.
See, I never say traditional publishing is bad. But it will be a smart move to consider both pros and cons before moving forward.
The good thing about Traditional Publishing —
- I’ll get a professional editor
- I’ll get a ready-made cover for my book
- Marketing will be easy
Disadvantage —
- I won’t have many rights
- Very less royalty as if my contribution is nothing (I am a writer and a business professional)
The final word on selling short stories
If you are having trouble selling your short stories, try some of these other ways to make money as a writer.
I should end it here now! I think the post has become longer than I thought. I wanted to cover everything when it comes to short stories but still, some things are missing here.
I will surely cover this in the coming article. So don’t worry!
So let’s end here! See you soon!
