posted
There are a lot of people who will tell you that it's a terrible idea. I'm not one of them because the gimmick worked on me.
Brandon Sanderson won me over with Warbreaker. I've bought every one of his books that came out since I read it (including Warbreaker when it was officially published). I'm almost certain (without taking the time to actually calculate it) that he has gotten more of my reading dollars than any other author in the last two years.
Would I have bought the books if he hadn't released that one for free? Perhaps, I can't say.
posted
I think it depends. I had a web site a few years ago and I published three stories on it at different times but none were ones I was going to try to sell. Speaking of that I need to put on of those on my blog. One is a Christmas story that is more Political by nature which I will put up around Dec. I think I lost the other one.
Hmm, I have a sort of fantasy story about our reaction to 9-11 I may put up too.
But I know that some writers are selling some of their rejected stories online through various groups.
As to you putting up a story or three. That is up to you. If you have some already for sell-in epublishing or regular publishing- it might help. Don't know if it would influence any editors but it could attract fans. That could be fun.
posted
The way I see it, I think what works for established novelists doesn't translate to the short story market and/or new writers. Here's why.
An established novelist has a lot of back catalog and gets paid royalties - so there's a direct benefit from increased readership. Let's take your example - Sanderson has 11 published novels; if someone is already really into his work they're going to buy his next Alcatraz book anyway. But for someone who is thinking about buying his work, the Warbreaker teaser gives them an opportunity to try before they buy - and when they buy, they're possibly buying quite a lot of back catalog and generating substantial income for the author - more than a casual reader who buys one book and no more.
For someone who writes short stories only and generally isn't paid royalties, the benefit from increasing readership is far more nebulous - the reader has to do a lot more work to go find the publication, and the publication has to realize the increase in readership is due to that particular author's work, and the author then has to make a new sale to capitalize on the increased marketability of their work. There's a lot of steps there where the system can break down, though that's not to say it's not worth doing (so long as you see the difference).
For new writers with no back catalog though I think the benefits are even less than getting work out there in the public eye through traditional publication channels, because (unless they're writing out of altruism) there needs to be some financial benefit, and setting up an expectation that one's work is available free may be really quite counterproductive with readers and possibly also publishers. I'm not really sure there's any harm in it, but I guess I simply fail to see the benefit...
posted
At a MileHiCon panel this past weekend, the agent giving the talk said that agents and book editors do look at a writer's website when they're considering whether to take on a project. So just make sure the story you put on your site is representative of your current level of work. That might mean, over time, you would need to replace the story with a more recent one. I for one would not want anyone to read the stories I was writing even two years ago because I've improved quite a bit since then.
I'd go with posting an excerpt. I cringe at the thought of burning off a possible sale by publishing the story on my website. Unless the story has already been published elsewhere and there's nothing in the contract that would prohibit you from posting it.
quote: At a MileHiCon panel this past weekend, the agent giving the talk said that agents and book editors do look at a writer's website when they're considering whether to take on a project. So just make sure the story you put on your site is representative of your current level of work. That might mean, over time, you would need to replace the story with a more recent one. I for one would not want anyone to read the stories I was writing even two years ago because I've improved quite a bit since then. I'd go with posting an excerpt. I cringe at the thought of burning off a possible sale by publishing the story on my website. Unless the story has already been published elsewhere and there's nothing in the contract that would prohibit you from posting it.
I think Jennifer makes sense here. But I would add or if the story's rights have been returned to you. I can't do that with my one sell, it was in some one's established universe and I never had the rights to it, but I know people whose stories were published a couple of years ago. They might be able to republish them by now.
Speaking of Dean he is doing that with some of his older sold stories. He's also selling some. He has the rights to them again and they have been just sitting around gathering dust on his computer. A Newbie though would not be in that situation.
The stories I post, with the possible exception of the Christmas story, are older and probably should be updated with my improved writing. (yeah, right)
With all that has been said here it might be a good idea to put up one or two stories you don't mind losing. I think it depends on how you feel about it and it could be one of those things that are changing because of the internet. Some of the old rules don't apply to the internet except for the considered it published one. We, as writers, need to feel our way around the changes.
posted
Well, I haven't had any problems putting up whole stories on my website. I keep firmly in mind (1), that I've completely given up on them and I am not (a) revising them again or (b) submitting them again...and (2), I wanted something of mine out there that people could see, that wasn't Internet Fan Fiction.
posted
There's nothing intrinsicallly wrong with putting up free stories for people to read.
The question is, how do you persuade people to come and read them? There are millions of people out there writing on the web, there are billionsof words being published every day. What can you do to make yours stand out? Brandon Sanderson already has a huge name/reputation so for him it's perfectly viable to expect thousands to read his free book and then a fraction of those to buy other work. If I did the same thing, I'd be lucky to get five hits a week and sell one book a month.
posted
I try to throw out a couple short stories a month just because it keeps me writing. It also offers a nice break from working on my novels to focus on something new. I'm not trying to get my short stories published either, so that makes things easier. Nor do I write short stories using characters I have in my novels.
Of course I don't get many hits, but that doesn't really bother me. I write them just because it's fun, it helps me focus my style, and maybe... just maybe... there's someone out there that cares.
posted
I can't vouch for the number of hits on my website, but I doubt it's very much. Not what I'm trying for right now. At least a number of people have said they've looked in, or were going to, and that seems enough for right now.
(Also I'm cybersquatting on the name, in case something does come up...)
posted
If you're going to do a sample story, you might as well test out the epublishing options out there, put it up on smashwords and the kindle store and make a very small bit of money on it. Price a short story at .99, short novels at 2.99, novels at 4.99 (or whatever, but there's reasons to do this specific pricing scheme.)
Then provide the link to your story on your blog. The epublishing sites let you offer a free sample to potential readers, so you can still give people free samples (and you can specify what % of the text you offer as a free sample, so you can make your free sample large. There are some rules, though, read through them as you're publishing your story.)
Also, be careful to keep to the idea that the work you offer in any means online (free, 99c, or more) should reflect positively on yourself. In other words, don't kitchen sink it and throw up that essay you wrote about Jacques Cousteau in the sixth grade. Or that crap story that you wrote last year that you never liked. (If you want to try to make money on something like that, try a pseudonym.)
posted
I thought about the smashwords option KayTi but the problem is that in my country you can only spend money through paypal I can't receive any. That's one of the reasons why I can only work with markets who send out checks.
Stupid question, but do I need a paypal account to publish something for free on smashwords?
As I read on, giving a story a story away for free doesn't seem to be a good idea.
It would probably better to get something published and put a link to the publication.
[This message has been edited by Foste (edited October 30, 2010).]
[This message has been edited by Foste (edited October 30, 2010).]
posted
Well, the one story that's up on my blog--and has been from almost the beginning--I don't consider to be sellable anyway. Not because it's not good enough, but because one of the characters isn't mine. It's from a character challenge here almost a year ago, which it won. (I asked permission from the creator of the other character before I put the story up.)
Other stories, I would wait until they had been published, the rights expired, and I was ready to retire them. The idea of using smashwords and a link is a good one, though. Might try that with a couple sometime.
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