Hence, I come to you with a couple of questions. I figured this might interest anyone who wants to epublish, so I hope it's appropriate to post here.

1. Do you ever purchase short fiction from Kindle/Nook/iBooks/GoogleBooks/Smashwords?
2. How do you browse the market? (i.e. on your device only, or from a desktop/laptop... what search terms to you use?)
3. Do you look for new fiction, or stick mainly with authors you already know?
4. Is there a price point that turns you off? Would you object to paying more than $.99 for short-form fiction?
5. Do you buy series of short works? Would you buy issues of a series if you liked the first issue?
6. Is there a word length you expect for $.99?
7. Have you ever purchased directly from Smashwords instead of through your device's built-in store? Would you do so if you knew how much more the author got?
   

1. Not often, but I've just started.
2. I'm very frustrated with browsing on my device (a Motorola Xoom). Kindle seems to have the best browsing experience, Nook's store is just god-awful, and Google's could use some work. The kindle reader for Android tablets is absolutely horrible, though, so usually it is searching by keywords through Google Books. I occasionally look online through Smashwords.
3. I'm guilty of sticking with people I've heard of before one way or another for short fiction, but I absolutely look for new authors of full-length fiction. Usually my choice there is based on recommendations by friends or reviews by a few celebs I read blogs of in which they occasionally review other books (in my case, Patrick Rothfuss, Felicia Day, and Brandon Sanderson).
4. I'd be hard-pressed to buy full-length fiction for more than 9.99, and short fiction feels like a $.99 thing to me. That was before I knew about the revenue split differential between a $.99 book and a $2.99 book, though. Still, most consumers don't know that, so I have to say I'd gravitate towards $.99 only unless the author was someone I knew and loved.
5. I think I'd buy a series of short works. I haven't done this yet, but... I haven't really seen this around, outside of magazines.
6. I'd probably be inclined not to pay cash, even $.99, for something less than 8K words or so. I know that it's quality, not quantity, but... it just feels wrong to pay for something that's only a few pages.
7. No. But now that I know the price difference to the author, I absolutely will. It can be a bit of a pain to get the books on your device though. One of my missions at the moment is to try out buying something in .mobi format and see how hard it is to stick into my kindle collection.
   

I also buy a bit on the Kindle store to read on my iPad. I have found $1-2 discrepancies on price sometimes between the bn/kindle stores, so I'm open to doing that, but then I"d be limited to ONLY reading on my iPad, which is heavier and more fragile than my nook so I don't want to read on it in certain environments like the gym.

2. I browse on line and on the iPhone, but I much prefer to keep a small inventory of unread books on my iPhone because the purchasing experience is much better on a full size computer. I generally winnow the population down by genre and then by reviews. I try to keep my purchases down, but there are authors that have a 'series' where you get the first for free and then 2.99 for each 20,000 word episode after that which they call a book. I've read a six 'book' series that was about 100,000 words and paid over $20.00 for the privilege. That's the biggest ripoff I can see. You do have to put up with amateur editing at the lower price points.

3. I buy mostly on price and good reviews unless there is a specific book I want to buy (i.e. Rothfuss's latest) So I'd say I'm looking for new authors 80% of the time.

4. Since most of my searching is on kindle, you can't really tell how long the work is. I wouldn't pay more than 99 cents for a short work, but I would for an anthology. In fact, my first ebook is likely to be a short story collection.

5. I've never bought a short story series, but I have bought a novella series (the author passes them on as novels...) I'd rather read novels, I'm afraid.

6. For 99 cents, I'd expect at least 20,000 words. A thin paperback is about 50,000 words. That's my impression.

7. I've never been in Smashwords' store because I like the synchronization of stories on Kindle between my devices.

Why would I want to pay money for someone's rejected story? Unless it was a friend, I suppose.

A serial could work, but the segments would have to be a significant length to pique my interest. Probably $0.99 would be my price for a novelette length.

Rarely. I subscribe to Analog and Asimov's on Kindle and F&SF in print. IGMS, BCS, Clarkesworld, etc. on line, plus the occasional Albedo One and Andromeda Spaceways. I don't have time to read all these.

2. How do you browse the market? (i.e. on your device only, or from a desktop/laptop... what search terms to you use?)

Desktop or laptop, almost never from the Kindle or iPad. In Ireland the only way to get anything on the Kindle was to get it on the laptop first. I think that's changed, but I'm not sure. Now it's a habit to use the laptop and the UI is far superior in my opinion. I've bought from the iPad and Kindle in the airport, but that's usually a desperation play before a long flight. I do very little browsing or searching; see my answer below.

3. Do you look for new fiction, or stick mainly with authors you already know?

I use personal recommendations and Publisher's Weekly starred reviews and Amazon recommendations (in that order mostly). I have four family members all linked to my account so there's always something new to read, some of it works I wouldn't choose myself. I also try to read all Hugo and Nebula winners and finalists though I'm not so disciplined about this anymore.

4. Is there a price point that turns you off? Would you object to paying more than $.99 for short-form fiction?

For a single story? Maybe. Depends on the story. .99 buys a novel from some writers. Some of these are surprisingly good.

5. Do you buy series of short works? Would you buy issues of a series if you liked the first issue?

Are there any? I might. Ages ago I used to read themed collections, but those were sold as books. Fritz Leiber's Fafhyrd and the Gray Mouser, Thieve's World, that sort of thing. Do people still publish this sort of work?

6. Is there a word length you expect for $.99?

No. I expect dross for .99 and am surprised when I get more. Word count isn't a factor; it's all about story.

7. Have you ever purchased directly from Smashwords instead of through your device's built-in store? Would you do so if you knew how much more the author got?

No. If writers want to make more they should just charge more on Amazon if they want me to buy it. .99 for a novel is ridiculously cheap in my opinion. Good writers are leaving money on the table and bad writers are overcharging. I'm not price sensitive for quality work until it pushes past 9.99 for an ebook. I still buy hardcovers for writers I love and whose work I intend to reread or study.

Hope this helps.

quote:

---

5. Do you buy series of short works? Would you buy issues of a series if you liked the first issue?

Are there any? I might. Ages ago I used to read themed collections, but those were sold as books. Fritz Leiber's Fafhyrd and the Gray Mouser, Thieve's World, that sort of thing. Do people still publish this sort of work?

---

One of my motives in asking is that I was planning on trying this out.

quote:

---

7. Have you ever purchased directly from Smashwords instead of through your device's built-in store? Would you do so if you knew how much more the author got?

No. If writers want to make more they should just charge more on Amazon if they want me to buy it.

---

Part of the Amazon (and Nook) agreement that you have to abide by is that you are not allowed to sell your work for a lower price anywhere else online. If you fail to do so they can ban you from their stores.

I think the good part of e-publishing your short story would be the practice of doing it. It's a tough sell, but if you don't plan on finding it another home, what's there to lose?

For myself -- if I put up a short story on Amazon, I could maybe get 2 Hatrackers to buy a copy (and that would be a stretch) and maybe 3 of my friends. But then I would feel like a chump for making my friends buy my short story, so I would buy them drinks. It would net me -$6.50 for the experience.

I've made about $6.50 total so far (I'm totally making that figure up. Too lazy to do the tally at the moment) on my two short stories that are up on smashwords/kindle/nook right now.

Since October.

Hey - we all have to start somewhere. I had no illusions that a short story would get me instant riches, but it does give me some virtual shelf space, which I plan to dominate with my YA sci-fi novel CONVERGENCE which I will epublish sometime in the next 2 months....