Valerie Allen Shares Path to Short Story Success

Who Loves Short Shorts?

by Valerie Allen, 

If you like to read and/or write short stories welcome to the “McQuick” world of modern times. In today's world we tend to want all things, our way, ten minutes ago! Reading an interesting story used to be a long and leisurely break from the hustle and bustle of daily demands or an interesting escape from the routine and mundane events of everyday living.

Now we can listen to books as we multitask. We can also sneak away for a few minutes to read a short story. Stories can be humorous or poignant. Tales can be under 1000 words, better known as flash fiction, or they can be the more typical short story of 1000 to 5000 words.

It takes a special skill to create interesting characters, define a place, develop a plot, and tell a good story in only a few words. If you've dabbled with writing the short story and feel you have a talent for it, the big question is how and where to connect with readers.

Over the course time, with many trial and error attempts, I have found these marketing strategies to be most successful.

1. Research the many magazines, newspapers, and online venues seeking short stories to attract hurried readers or fill in small spaces in their publications. Submit to all of them within their guidelines. Eventually you will strike gold! Narrtive Magazine, Electric Literature, One Story, Joyland Magazine, The First Line, Crazyhorse, Ploughshares, The Atlantic, and others.

2. Publish your single short story on Amazon.com via KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) as an ebook. I charge .99 cents and earn a 35% royalty. This is not a get rich quick opportunity but you will sell in quantity and pick up many readers. I have been able to create a strong following with this idea. You can see my books and short stories at Amazon.com/author/valerieallen

3. Every week have an online post featuring one of your short stories. Use the title, blurb, and cover. Send this out to your friends, fans, and followers. Readers will look forward to seeing your notices. You will get your name and story titles out on the electronic highway and build your brand as a writer of short stories. People will click to buy your story on Amazon.com and many will write a review. Here is an example of one of my recent posts: Here is your quick, short story weekend read: "The Garden of Love," Amazon.com/dp/B010W1D9FE “Life is good! Their boy is grown and married with kids of his own. He's got it together or does he? Why is he back? Why is he offering to help with the yard work?”

4. Find places to post online that are FREE. My motto is, It's FREE, it's for me! The benefit—you will find new readers. Granted you will not make money when you give away your work but you will build a following and your brand as a short story writer whose work people enjoy. One of the best online FREE places to post is StoryStar.com. I have posted 26 stories on this site and have had over 7000 views. The average number of views per story is 295 for my work. My most read short story, with nearly 1000 views, is Future Plans.You can find it FREE on StoryStar.com or you can buy it for .99 cents on Amazon.com/dp/B010TXRDQQ .

5. Create an anthology of your short stories and sell them as a book and/or ebook. You can also have them published in a large print edition and as an audio book. You can create a random collection and then make it into a series. I've done this with  'Tis Herself: Short Story Collection Volume One, and Volume Two, and VoluMan in Your Life.

me Three. You can also make a collection with a specific theme. See, Stories for the

6. I've also used my short stories to make mini books which I give out at book and author events. I use my document and divide the 81/2 x 11 page into four columns. I print it in landscape, front to back. I then fold it into a mini book with one short story and all my contact information. It's a FREE give away and who doesn't love FREE! Again, this brings me more readers and more exposure for my work.

MORE ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER

Valerie Allen writes fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and children's books. She is the Director of Authors for Authors (AuthorsForAuthors.com) which hosts book and author events. You can find of her ideas in Write, Publish, Sell! Quick, Easy, Inexpensive Ideas for the Marketing Challenged, 2 nd Ed. at Amazon. She enjoys hearing from writers and invites you to contact her at VAllenWriter@gmail.com. Join her AuthorsforAuthors group on Facebook.


MORE ABOUT THE #SharingwithWriters BLOGGER

 Howard-Johnson is the multi award-wining author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is

also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered by Modern History Press in its third edition. Carolyn's latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page (http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile). Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (http://bit.ly/Last-MinuteEditing) is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and, another booklet, The Great First Impression Book Proposal (http://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) helps writers who want to be traditionally published. The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com)

New Kindle Singles Announcement and Old Amazon Shorts

Amazon has announced a new Kindle Singles program. It sounds a lot like their old Amazon Short program that I loved. They are more expensive than the 49 cents they charged for Shorts. In fact, that may be why they discontinued Shorts. They apparently couldn't sell them in Canada or other countries because they would lose money on them. Or so some rumors said.  These Singles are more expensive but still very FRUGAL! Ha!

 I had several such booklets cum whitepapers published as Shorts. Here is a link that will give you a better idea of what they have in mind and I'll keep you tuned when I hear more:

http://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/amazons-new-kindle-singles-now-available/1

See the cover of one of my original Shorts published by Amazon. below The buy widget is for the booklet I made out of it when the program was discontinued is to the left.  Guess we all need to keep evolving.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Victor Volkman and Irene Watson Love to Give Free Stuff to Writers

I love to give my blog readers (and, yeah, readers of my books) free information when I can. There are others who like to do that, too, including Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman of Author Access. We are some team when we get together as we did last week when they interviewed me on the fine art of book proposal writing and why it matters. Many of the tips were taken from my 49 cent wonder "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your Book in Twenty Minutes or Less." We talked about the "A" to "Z" of book
proposals and how to make your unique voice shine through. We also talked about:

* Why I wrote "The Great First Impression Book Proposal"
* Why this how to on book proposals differs from most–-other than it’s being only 49 cents
* The most important part of a book proposal
* Why you need a query letters to go with your book proposal
* Why I chose the Amazon Short format for "The Great First Impression Book Proposal"

Download the free podcast at http://authorsaccess.com/archives/146
Learn about the 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers at Authors Access.
To learn of other free podcasts that benefit writers follow Victor and Irene on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/vvolkman Follow me at http://twitter.com/frugalbookpromo


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

Nora Roberts on Branding Her Books

Nora Roberts, the author of more than 150 romance novels, was asked why she writes romantic suspense novels under a pen name. Here is her answer:

"It's marketing."

She says because she writes quickly that makes it difficult for her publisher to publish all of her work. Plus the works she labels penned by J. D. Robb are "edgier" she says. "Putting it under a pseudonym helps brand it for the reader."

Writers will find information on the concept of branding in They'll find information on the concept of editing aThe Frugal Book Promoter.s part of marketing (and therefore branding) in The Frugal Editor. They'll learn even more about how to sell their work in my Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less".

If you should be considering using a pen name here's what you should know:

1. It is very hard to keep a pen name secret. Everyone knows who Kristie Leigh Maguire is, as an example, and if people didn't know before that Robb was Nora Roberts' pen name, most of them will now.

2. It is very hard to promote in person--especially if you choose an opposite sex pen name. In fact, promotion of all kinds can become touchy if you are intent upon keeping your real identity a secret.

3. Using a pen name isn't necessarily an effective barriar against law suits.

Read more about Roberts in Time Magazine's "10 Questions" feature, page 6 of the Dec. 10, 2007, issue.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.