: Re: Do people read short stories? I enjoy writing as a 'side' interest and I have written 10 short stories (which are approximately 1,750 words each). I am publishing them as standalone ebooks (or

@Frith254

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Question:

I have a [...] romance short I’m thinking of publishing, but it’s currently about 1,700 words. At that length, do you think it would work better as a free story on my blog? Or should I still try to sell it?

Answer:

I have six different stories at that length up for .99. And I also have all six in stand-alone paperbacks for .99 through CreateSpace, and one is selling like crazy. Strange, but true.

This is cited from the comments of Dean W. Smith's blog post about "Making a Living with Your Short Fiction".

Smith is writing and selling a lot of short fiction. If you follow his blog and the comment section you will see that there are many other writers making good money with short fiction. So the answer is: Yes, there is market. Yes, people read short stories. And yes, you do not charge enough for your stories.

The whole post is about making money with short stories. I highly recommend it (even if you do not want to sell short stories). But to answer your question, you do not have to read that blog post.

Because it is totally irrelevant if there is some market if you write these stories anyway. And you say you enjoy doing so. So there is no reason to stop what you enjoy. Put them out there where people can find them and if people by them, then you have your market. Maybe a niche market, maybe not, but why should you care if people buy your books?

Sell the single stories, sell them as compilations. Both. More variety gives your readers more options to find you. There is nothing you can lose. Even if the majority do not like reading shorts. It doesn't matter. You only need a few fans to make money.

Write more stories, put them up and repeat. Use as many markets as possible. Amazon is not the only marketplace. Think about paper books. The world is connected. A connected world is open for every niche there is. Wouldn't it be worth it even if you only find one hundred people who buy your stuff, but do it regularly?

There is nothing to lose if you try it. Only experience to gain. And money.

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