Jenny Hilborne, author of Suspense Thrillers, recently had TreasureLine Book Services format a short story for her as well as create a cover and it got me to thinking. Have you ever wondered what you can do with your short stories besides writing them for the extremely advantageous purpose of honing your skills? There's a market out there for short stories and they're a great way to give readers a sample of your work at a fraction of the cost. This article posted by author Mark Edward Hall shares some of the benefits of actually publishing your short stories. I believe he focuses on Amazon, however, Smashwords is another great venue for shorts. He talks about making money from publishing shorts for 99 cents as well as urging those with doubts to look up John Locke and research his success. The post is here: http://www.markedwardhall.com/the-pros-of-publishing-short-stories-on-amazon.
So, what would you need to publish a short in ebook format on say Amazon's KDP (Kindle) or Smashwords? You need a properly formatted Word doc and a cover that will get a potential reader's attention (which we'll cover another time). And you need to set up your accounts on both of those sites (please note: You may not enroll in Selects on Amazon if you also have your book on Smashwords so keep that in mind).
There are some really helpful articles on the web pertaining to formatting. I'll list a few, however, the thing to remember is Amazon will convert your book to a prc file. In doing so, you will lose all unnecessary spacing, hence use the Before and After Spacing to create spaces, not a carriage return. You also need the document single spaced, and in the case below, I wanted the line to be flush against the left. PRC conversion automatically puts in an indent if you don't specify. You can't see the .01 visually - it makes it appear like it's exactly where I want it. Throughout the document where I want an indent, I put in .3 because I like it better than the standard .5. Personal preference. If your alignment is Centered, where this one is Justified, you put NONE in the Special box.
So, what would you need to publish a short in ebook format on say Amazon's KDP (Kindle) or Smashwords? You need a properly formatted Word doc and a cover that will get a potential reader's attention (which we'll cover another time). And you need to set up your accounts on both of those sites (please note: You may not enroll in Selects on Amazon if you also have your book on Smashwords so keep that in mind).
There are some really helpful articles on the web pertaining to formatting. I'll list a few, however, the thing to remember is Amazon will convert your book to a prc file. In doing so, you will lose all unnecessary spacing, hence use the Before and After Spacing to create spaces, not a carriage return. You also need the document single spaced, and in the case below, I wanted the line to be flush against the left. PRC conversion automatically puts in an indent if you don't specify. You can't see the .01 visually - it makes it appear like it's exactly where I want it. Throughout the document where I want an indent, I put in .3 because I like it better than the standard .5. Personal preference. If your alignment is Centered, where this one is Justified, you put NONE in the Special box.
You'll find some really great articles for formatting on CJ's Easy As Pie blog. And here's one specifically geared to Kindle formatting: http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/2010/03/steps-to-clean-up-ms-word.html. If you decide you simply can't do it, don't despair! TreasureLine Book Services can do a simple short story format, converted to prc even, for $25. We also offer format and cover for $75 + image costs for up to 5,000 words. (http://treasurelinebooks.weebly.com/publishing-services.html). And if you decided to do it yourself, we're always available with guidance and advice ... and talk is always free :-)
So, what do you think? Ready to find a new home for some of those shorts and share them with more readers? Think about it. Then, in the words of founder Patrick Sipperly, go and do the write thing!
~Linda
So, what do you think? Ready to find a new home for some of those shorts and share them with more readers? Think about it. Then, in the words of founder Patrick Sipperly, go and do the write thing!
~Linda