Stupid question: why not make all our short stories free?

[Joe Vasicek]

For years now, I've struggled to figure out how standalone short stories fit into my wider career. I've had some success selling them traditionally, but as far as indie goes, it's either been:

undercharge for singles and get almost no sales.
overcharge for singles and get almost no sales.
bundle the stories into collections and get almost no sales.
give the singles away for free and get lots of downloads but little else.
give the singles away as reader magnets to get mailing list subscribers.

I've found the most success with the last one, but I suspect that standalone short stories are less effective as newsletter magnets than full-length novels and first-in-series books.

Which makes me wonder: if short story singles aren't all that great at generating royalties or gaining new readers, what's the harm in just pricing them all at free? Especially if the ultimate goal is to bundle them all in collections and take the singles down. If all of the singles point to your collections in the backmatter, giving them away for free could generate some sales of those collections, which you can reasonably price as high as your novels (assuming 10-12 stories per collection). It may also drive sales indirectly of all your other books, since new readers would have a much wider selection of your work to sample for free.

Is there something I'm missing? Most traditional short story markets put all their stories out for free online anyway. What's the harm in doing the same, especially if it's part of a wider marketing strategy?

[Simon Haynes]

I agree. Most of my shorts have been free for the past decade. Almost all of them were published in science fiction mags or elsewhere, so they've already earned their keep.

Across the 12 shorts I see 1000 downloads per month on average. Each story contains a reader magnet and cover shots of all my other works.

My collection of the 12 shorts has sold 1 or 2 copies a month over the past 2 years, confirming my opinion that shorts have more value as freebies.

[okey dokey]

Struggling actors, who would accept any role without pay just to get exposure, caused the actor's guild to set up a pay scale. If someone just walked across the stage, he got paid something.
You shouldn't give your talent away.
Endure the struggle.

(this comes from the least popular guy on this forum)

[notthatamanda]

I don't write short stories but if I did I would use them for freebies. Run a promo once a month with one of them and circulate through them, seeing if you could gain some fans that way. You could post them in your blog and email your subscribers. Put them (individually) on Prolific Works and take place in their promos.

Unlike acting (sorry okey dokey) you can use them over and over again in anyway you want. If you do a short story box set that's long enough the first one might make it into the look inside entirely anyway. And if you decide you don't want to give them away for free anymore you can always change that.

Like acting, in that there were always people willing to work for free, there are readers that will only read free stuff. You don't have to give them everything, it's just casting a net to hopefully catch readers who will pay for a new author they discover they like via free. We know they are out there.

[Joe Vasicek]

As a writer, I completely agree that working for "exposure" is a path that leads to madness. As a publisher, though, I wonder what is the best way to create the maximum value from these stories throughout their lifecycle. Here is my current thinking:

Write the story.
Submit to professional and semi-pro markets until it has sold.
After the contact expires, self-publish as a single and price it at free.
When enough short stories are no longer under contract, bundle them as a collection (40k words minimum.)
Unpublish the free singles and put them on submission to the reprint markets.

[notthatamanda]

Step two - you are talking about being included in anthologies? I think DVD had a post where he turned such an offer down but I can't remember the details. I would guess if you offer them for free, once they have been offered for free sometime they would be less appealing to people/publishers to put in an anthology.

It could be fun to go through the process of step two and see where it led.

Edit - Here's David's post. They wanted to maintain the copyright until the end of it, so he didn't take the deal. Your plan assumes that wouldn't be the case.

https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=1877.msg34482#msg34482

[Joe Vasicek]

Step two - you are talking about being included in anthologies? I think DVD had a post where he turned such an offer down but I can't remember the details. I would guess if you offer them for free, once they have been offered for free sometime they would be less appealing to people/publishers to put in an anthology.

It could be fun to go through the process of step two and see where it led.

If you're selling first publication rights, most contracts for magazines or anthologies have an exclusivity period that expires after 3 months or a year. After that, they don't care what you do with it--and if your blurb says "this story originally appeared in ____," that actually helps them.

While the story is available as a self-published free single, it doesn't make sense to submit it as a reprint, but if the goal is eventually to bundle it into a collection, then the single is only going to be up for a limited time anyway.

[Joe Vasicek]

Edit - Here's David's post. They wanted to maintain the copyright until the end of it, so he didn't take the deal. Your plan assumes that wouldn't be the case.

https://writersanctum.com/index.php?topic=1877.msg34482#msg34482

Yeah, I would never sign a contract like that unless it was work for hire.

[notthatamanda]

Well, like I said, I think it would be a fun exercise. It hinges on being accepted in Step 2, but if you like writing short stories, or already have a bunch of them done, why not?

[Simon Haynes]

I agree about not giving it away - in theory.

I charge $600 for a four hour school or library appearance - that was the Australian Society of Authors rate last time I looked. I think it's excessive, but if I charge, say, fifty bucks I'm taking $600 off someone who supports their families with these appearances.

However, the problem with shorts on Amazon is that the minimum price is 99c. Nobody is going to buy a 2000 word short story for 99c when there are dozens or hundreds of authors selling box sets of five to ten novels for 99c. I realise price does not equate to quality, but that's what look inside is for.

If Amazon had a system where you could load up a basket of shorts and pay $x for them all, with a small amount of royalty split between the various authors, great.

So, the horse has already bolted on the 'free fiction' side of things. I'm pretty sure someone could find enough free stuff on Amazon to last their entire life, especially when you throw in free days on full price books, and bookbub featured deals.

Therefore it comes down to cost. Do I want to try and sell 20-30 shorts per year for 30c royalty each, and then spend big on ads to attract readers, or do I forgo a potential ten bucks in royalties while saving big $$ on ads and promos?

[idontknowyet]

I think this has a lot to do with why are you writing shorts?
Are they for pleasure or profit?

If you're writing for the purpose of making money I think you need to be thoughtful with your actions. How do they tie into the rest of my books and how can I use it to draw in new readers. Throughout my series I've planned 4 to 6 shorts. Each of those I will use as reader magnets and plan to give away in book funnels or to my newsletter readers. They lead directly into my series and hopefully will create future sales. For me the expectation isn't to make money directly from these novellas. It's like a candy shop that gives away free samples. We want to give away enough to tempt people.

For pleasure... well you get your payment just writing the stories.

I have heard of short story serials making money, but its challenging. Usually they have to be published weekly. They need strong hooks and big cliffs at the end of each short.

[TimothyEllis]

I think this has a lot to do with why are you writing shorts?

That is my thought as well.

My stand alone shorts were absorbed into my universe anyway, so they sell as prequels. While none of them are making serious money, they have all more than paid for what they would have cost if I'd had to buy covers, including the one where I did pay for the cover when it was a stand alone.

I think it comes down to a fan base.

If you have the fan base who read everything you write, even shorts work. They are never going to make serious money, but they are money on the table over time. Plus keeping your reader base happy as you release them between novels.

I'm not interested in using them to build mailing lists, as I want a list which will buy full priced books on day 1, not one expecting freebies and discounts.

So for me, shorts are something extra.

Australian Society of Authors

I didn't even know there was one. 

Are they as trad based as other author societies are?

[Anarchist]

If I had written a bunch of shorts, I'd use them for my mailing list.

1. I'd take the one with the best reviews and offer it to potential subs (i.e. a bribe).

2. I'd unpublish the rest and keep them on reserve exclusively for my subs.

3. I'd set up an autoresponder that sends the shorts out periodically (e.g. once every 6 to 8 weeks though this interval should depend on what and how often you normally send stuff to subs).

4. On the landing page that promotes your mailing list, mention that subs get your best-reviewed short immediately. Also mention they'll receive other shorts down the line. Don't mention the interval. Keep 'em guessing and waiting for the goodies.

I'm not saying you should do this, Joe. But that's what I'd do. I'm all about the mailing lists. ;)

[okey dokey]

More thoughts from right field:

How many free copies did the publisher give away of Gone With the Wind because it was by an unknown author?
Ditto Peyton Place.
Ditto From Here To Eternity.
Ditto
Ditto
etc

And if a retailer wants to price shorts at 99 cents, why should you?

Blank CD and DVD disks cost less than a penny if bought in bulk
Is Windows priced at a few  cents?
Or Photoshop?

Figgur out how to place a value on your work, regardless of the length, and how to promote your work as something the reader willl want.

- the unpopular guy

[Simon Haynes]

Australian Society of Authors

I didn't even know there was one. 

Are they as trad based as other author societies are?

"If you are a published writer, we would warmly welcome you as a Full Member of the ASA.

If you are serious about writing, but just starting out and  would like to benefit from our advice, training and resources, or if you are interested in industry issues and keen to support the author’s peak body, then we would welcome you as an Associate Member"


I'm guessing "published" does not mean uploaded files to KDP.

But to be fair, they're not really going to have a lot of info on Kindle Unlimited vs wide, generating epub or mobi files, where to hire a cover artist or proofreader and the like.

[okey dokey]

Was Margaret Mitchell at member of that group BEFORE she proved that she was a real writer?
Ditto James Jones.
And others. 

Now I'll seal my lips before the rotten fruit starts flying

[Lorri Moulton]

If I had written a bunch of shorts, I'd use them for my mailing list.

1. I'd take the one with the best reviews and offer it to potential subs (i.e. a bribe).

2. I'd unpublish the rest and keep them on reserve exclusively for my subs.

3. I'd set up an autoresponder that sends the shorts out periodically (e.g. once every 6 to 8 weeks though this interval should depend on what and how often you normally send stuff to subs).

4. On the landing page that promotes your mailing list, mention that subs get your best-reviewed short immediately. Also mention they'll receive other shorts down the line. Don't mention the interval. Keep 'em guessing and waiting for the goodies.

I'm not saying you should do this, Joe. But that's what I'd do. I'm all about the mailing lists. ;)

Good plan!

[elleoco]

The one short story I've published has (from memory) sold about 2,500 copies at $.99, but although most of its sales were when it was first published, that's over 10 years. Also, it's tied into my most popular romance and features those characters a few years after the book ends. I wrote it because I wasn't going to have another book out for a while and wanted something to keep my name out there. I wouldn't publish a short story on its own again.

I'm another one not willing to give much away. Everyone on my mailing list has received a download link for a short novel, which left me wondering why they'd buy it now that I'm ready to publish it. My solution is to make it one of a duology with another related short novel.* I won't do that again, and the only things I'll ever offer for free download to the mailing list are short stories, and the only reason I'll ever write any is for the mailing list.

* Digression: The short novels are in the 50,000 to 55,000-word range, and I have readers referring to them as novellas and even as short stories. That's genre related I guess, or maybe my longer standalones have spoiled my readers, but I'm going to try to only write greater than 80,000 words from now on. They sell better, and I'm not expecting the duology to sell as well as one long novel.

[notthatamanda]

More thoughts from right field:

How many free copies did the publisher give away of Gone With the Wind because it was by an unknown author?
Ditto Peyton Place.
Ditto From Here To Eternity.
Ditto
Ditto
etc

And if a retailer wants to price shorts at 99 cents, why should you?

Blank CD and DVD disks cost less than a penny if bought in bulk
Is Windows priced at a few  cents?
Or Photoshop?

Figgur out how to place a value on your work, regardless of the length, and how to promote your work as something the reader willl want.

- the unpopular guy

Thing is I've done it both ways. When I was in KU book one of my trilogy didn't sell at full price. But it moved when I had my 5 free days per quarter and that's what drove sales of books 2 and 3, to non KU readers of course. Now that I'm wide, having the first book of my trilogies free gets me sales of books 2 and 3 (sold some today in fact). My value is in creating characters and a story so compelling that people will want to continue reading enough to pay for it. I have some 1 and 2 star reviews about people complaining that the book is first in a series and you have to pay for the rest. That's to be expected. Personally, if all ebook retailers banned all free books I would be okay with it. But as the market is right now, first in series permafree works for me.

[Lorri Moulton]

Free first in a series is working for me.  Now, I need to finish more series!

[Joe Vasicek]

Thanks for all of the responses, guys. Lots of great ideas.

okey dokey — Believe it or not, I do appreciate your comments. It is always good to be reminded of the perils of devaluing our work.

Anarchist — That's a very interesting idea, but I'm curious: are you concerned at all that you're training your subscribers to expect all your books to be free? Also, I'm not sure that would work with the other part of my short strategy, which is to sell to the traditional markets first. You can't really make a story an exclusive if it's already up on a website, or a podcast feed.

idontknowyet — Good points. A few other reasons to write short stories are practice, publicity, and prestige.

Science fiction and fantasy has a thriving publishing scene for traditional markets like magazines and anthologies. Getting a few publications in some of the big ones can really boost your career. If I hadn't already pro'd out, I would be submitting to Writers of the Future religiously every quarter. The semiprozines can also help in getting your name out there and setting you apart from other self-published writers in the eyes of the SF&F community.

The great thing about traditional short story markets is that they typically pay by the word and revert all the rights back to you in between a few months to a couple of years. Some of them don't even ask for exclusivity, which means that you can turn around and self-publish them almost immediately.

Besides all that, short stories are good practice for writing and storytelling techniques. If you have an idea you want to play around with but aren't sure how it's going to turn out, turning it into a short story wastes a lot less time and energy if it doesn't work out.

Short stories definitely have an essential place in a writing career, especially for science fiction and fantasy writers. The tricky part, for me at least, is figuring out how to fit indie publishing into the equation.

[Anarchist]

Anarchist — That's a very interesting idea, but I'm curious: are you concerned at all that you're training your subscribers to expect all your books to be free?

I'm in non-fiction, so I do something a bit different (and more creative).

With regard to fiction, I remember joining Darcy Coates' list for a free collection of shorts (ghost stories). I'm not even a ghost fiction fan, but over the past 3 1/2 years, I've picked up 16 of her books.

I joined Leslie Wolfe's list a little over two years ago. He used to send out periodic emails that included links to free short stories. Each link would take you to a PDF on his site. In the last two years, I've picked up 15 of his books.

I remember getting a free book from Jay Allen upon joining his list a few years ago. Then, I'd get emails about a few of his other books for free. I don't even think I picked 'em up at the time. Just bought 'em later. Today, I own 36 of his books. And I wasn't even a mil sci-fi reader when I joined his list! (I joined to watch his emails.)

So I never got trained to expect stuff for free. Some people might develop those expectations. But I wouldn't worry about them.

Also, I'm not sure that would work with the other part of my short strategy, which is to sell to the traditional markets first. You can't really make a story an exclusive if it's already up on a website, or a podcast feed.

Too true.

Whether the above plays into your larger strategy is the most important question.

[idontknowyet]

idontknowyet — Good points. A few other reasons to write short stories are practice, publicity, and prestige.

Those three reason fit within my two basics ideas. You either practice to get better at something you enjoy doing, or you practice to write a better story to make money. This could fit both at the same time, but it's important to be honest with yourself as to why you're learning a skill. Which is the driving force?

Publicity is to make money plain and simple. You want to draw people in to buy your work.

Prestige can be either or both at the same time. You can want the notoriety to fuel your ego and to fill your wallet.  Some writers want to be remembered through the generations and some couldn't care in the least if people know their name as long as they make money.

[Joe Vasicek]

They're not quite the same thing.

Practice may or may not give you pleasure. It may be that you need to experiment with an idea in a short story in order to see if it will work in a novel. It may be that you suck at dialog, or endings, or writing the opposite gender, so you force yourself to work on those skills by writing short stories, even when you'd rather write something else.

Prestige is more than an ego-boost. It's name recognition, reputation building, and establishing a brand. It may or may not lead to profit in the immediate term.

Publicity is closer to prestige than profitability. It's getting your name out there, and if readers go on to buy your other books, that's not something you can easily measure. If your goal is profitability, you need some way to measure the effectiveness of your efforts, otherwise you're groping in the dark.

Let's not be so reductivist. Ultimately, we could reduce everything down to what does and does not make us happy, but that isn't useful in this context.

[idontknowyet]

Your question in itself is reductivist. If you don't make money why not give it away free?
The data you found is repeated over and over again in writer groups. Are there exceptions? Sure.
But the majority of short stories don't make money.

It isn't as simple as that. I agree because with anything there is overlap, but I see so many people creating art then complaining that it doesn't sell.
But my point is knowing what your driving force is determines how you frame your work.
If you're writing for the joy of it write what you love. Don't worry about the money. If you are writing for money, do the research and figure out what is the most effective use of your time.
It's a dream when you write what you love and it makes money, but you will find a lot of people even then have a strategy to what they write and why they write it. There is also a lot of leeway when you have built an audience.

[PJ Post]

I'm not attacking you Joe, but this is a perfect example of the publishing myopia I've railed against for years. We deride traditional publishing and yet remain bound by the century-old constructs of their failing industry.

Shorts used to be a big thing. Many of the Greats started out with them, but those avenues are no longer open because the industry has changed. The lack of visibility has eliminated the demand for shorts, and therefore their value.

I'm not doing this yet, but since the game isn't zero sum...

Perform/read your short stories on YouTube or as a podcast. Invite your mailing lists. It's another way to reach your audience, reach new fans and to expand your revenue opportunities. Talk about them (promote/market) everywhere your fans hang out. It’s another opportunity to engage, and meaningful engagement generates brand loyalty (fans), so there’s no downside.

You'll need a decent microphone, DAW (digital audio workstation) and an audio interface. You can get started on the cheap for under $200. For an extra $100 you can get a semi-professional setup. If anyone is interested, start a new thread. I know a few of us here work in audio and can give advice.

The trick to social media for creatives is you need to be consistent in your output. How often you publish is less important than maintaining that schedule, whatever it may be. And remember to be patient. Social media like this usually takes a while to get traction.

Our industry is not literature, it's entertainment. Specifically, we sell emotional experiences through stories. Paper books and e-pubs are nothing more than packaging. We need to adapt. And this is an easy first step for those interested. It might even be fun

 

[Joe Vasicek]

An update:

Just made my last (for now) short story single free on all platforms. That makes seven free stories altogether. They all have a page in the back promoting my $4.99 collection Pilgrims and Time Travelers, with links to all stores, and I already have a sale. The earnings for one sale of the collection is equivalent to selling 10 short stories at 99¢, so that's not bad at all.

All told, I think I've had about 900 free downloads so far, with most of them on Amazon.

[notthatamanda]

This thread must have been percolating in the back of my mind because I came up with an idea for a short story/reader magnet, last night while I was sleeping, so thanks for that.

Is there a minimum length that a short story has to be for Amazon to accept it? Joe did you do any advertising to get those 900 downloads, if you don't mind me asking? Good luck getting lots of new readers from it.

[Joe Vasicek]

I have no idea where to even begin with AMS ads, so all of my ads are auto-targeted with a daily budget of $1 and a max bid of $.05. And the only reason I have those is because I suspect that the Amazon algorithms won't favor your book unless you have at least a couple of ads running. I recently archived all of my ads in order to set up new ones, and I've only been spending about $0.10 a day, so I don't think it's the AMS ads.

"Payday" got a big boost from my newsletter, but "Lizzie-99XT" got about 150 downloads out of nowhere—maybe because the algorithms recommended it? But it's not in "Payday's" also boughts, so maybe not.

All of these stories have been published for a while, so it's possible that a bunch of people had set an alert to be notified if/when they ever went free. I hear that there are a couple of sites that do that, though I'm not sure how to sign up for those updates myself.

[Joe Vasicek]

So my short story "Payday" got more than 1,000 downloads today, and I'm not sure why. It's not from AMS ads, so far as I can tell. Another of my permafree books got a spike from an AMS ad that appeared on a book that must have gotten a BookBub or something, but it's much smaller than this one, so I don't think people are downloading that book and then clicking through to the short sory.

When I featured it in my newsletter on Thursday, it saw a boost of only about 330 downloads, and that's since tailed off. What's going on? Word of mouth? Algorithm love?

[Jeff Tanyard]

Could be the timely nature of the subject matter.  One of the reviewers says as much, though that review is from back in April.

Also, one of the story's reviewers is a Vine Voice reviewer.  Another is a Top 500 Reviewer.  Maybe those reviewers are bringing some readers with them.  The Top 500 guy left his review on August 22, so the timing fits.

That's all I've got.  Let us know if you figure it out.

[JRTomlin]

Struggling actors, who would accept any role without pay just to get exposure, caused the actor's guild to set up a pay scale. If someone just walked across the stage, he got paid something.
You shouldn't give your talent away.
Endure the struggle.

(this comes from the least popular guy on this forum)

You don't seem to understand that most of us here are both authors AND publishers. The comparison is like telling the producers of shows that they can never give away free tickets.

[PJ Post]

I think it's better to focus on brand management rather than one-off scenarios. In this case, the question is not whether or not our short stories should be free, but how we can leverage them to better achieve our goals. The goal isn't to move short stories per se, the goal is to better enhance our brand because that's what drives revenue. Every short is an IP, an opportunity to use/share however it might make sense. Magazines are still an option, as are their online counterparts, podcasts, general sales - paid or free (Amazon or wide), specific niche website contributions, your blog, other blogs, wattpad, facebook, patreon. There are a gazillion options limited only by our imaginations.

This may be obvious, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

[Joe Vasicek]

A quick update, since I'm here:

"Payday" has garnered about 2,000 downloads since I made it free last week, and while it's starting to tail off, it's still going at a decent rate. Haven't done any promo on it or anything. I do think that the five-star from the Top 500 reviewer gave it a boost on Amazon, but I've also seen a bump on Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books, so it's probably also just the fact that it's a timely story.

The other stories haven't performed nearly as well, but they are getting daily downloads too.

Has it led to a boost in sales? Well, I've sold one copy of my short story collection so far, which is probably one more than I would have sold otherwise—and since at $4.99 that's the equivalent of selling 10 stories (which is also probably 10 more stories than I would have otherwise sold), that isn't nothing. But besides sales, I've also seen a small boost in four- and five-star reviews and in organic newsletter signups. Again, that isn't nothing.

Is this free short story thing a quick path to riches, fame, and glory? Probably not. But it does seem to be worth it so far, especially considering how little those stories were doing for me at any other price point.