I adore writing short fiction. It’s the only way I can keep several pen names going concurrently and have time to ghostwrite short fiction as well.
Recently I did a Q & A with my Pro Fiction class (sorry, it’s invitation only) on writing short stories. A couple of the students weren’t keen on short fiction. They were new to self-publishing, so couldn’t see the benefits.
Let’s look at some of them.
Short fiction helps you to develop your self-publishing venture in various easy ways, including:
- Giving you the ability to publish short stories in between publishing novels and nonfiction books to clear your mind and relax;
- It’s fun: you can explore an idea in a short story within a few hours, then publish it next day;
- No-hassle, “free” marketing. With hundreds of thousands of books hitting the Kindle Store each month, advertising is not only expensive, it takes significant time away from writing. Your short fiction promotes your novels;
- A novel not selling? Bring it to life with a prequel/ sequel short story or novella. If you try this, you may get a big surprise—you may find that you’re developing material which turns a standalone novel into a trilogy, a brilliant new serial, or even an on-going series. This has not only happened to me, it’s happened to students as well. It seems that the more time you spend in a “world” the more ideas you get;
- When you have no time to write, you can find a few minutes to continue a story on your phone.
Write spare time short fiction, it needn’t be a huge commitment
One of my students tells me she writes short fiction in her car, while dropping the kids off for their after-school activities.
New to writing fiction? Many new authors prefer to write short fiction to build their writing muscles before they plan a novel.
Get started with short fiction, and benefit.
If you write fiction, you may not know this secret…
Did you know that short story of 5,000 words can make more money than a 60,000 word novel?
Check out Your Short Fiction Formula: The Easiest-Ever Writing Process (Workshop) to discover a process which makes writing short stories easy and FUN.
If you’re self-publishing, you may be aware that savvy authors use short fiction (short stories and novellas) to generate sales and income quickly.
Explore Your Short Fiction Formula: The Easiest-Ever Writing Process (Workshop) now. You’ll be glad you did.
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Photo by Vlad Zinculescu on Unsplash
Copywriter and marketing pro Angela Booth maintains a busy copywriting and ghostwriting practice. Fascinated by online marketing, she wrote one of the first business books for internet marketing, published by Allen & Unwin. She’s been an enthusiastic blogger since the late 1990s.
