A Snippet on Short Fiction Money Making
I was lurking about the KBoards Writer's Cafe (which is an awesome place) and came across possibly one of the most inspiring things I've ever read about the business of short fiction.
The forum thread was discussing Amazon's new Kindle Unlimited program and people got to discussing how whether or not this could lead to a flood of short stories and, basically, put an end to novel-length works.
Short story author EelKat (yes, that's the name she writes under if you're curious) gives this epic reply:
But there are already 5 shorts for every 1 novel in Select, and there has been right since Select began. Predictions like this occurred when Select/Prime/KOLL first rolled out and that was what 3 years ago?
Amazon has no need to change the prices and you want to know why? Because for every 10,000 novels sold only 10 short stories sell. Do you realize I'm listed by critics as one of the world's top selling Short Story writers and I'm lucky if one of my titles sells at a rate of 1 copy a week? My highest sales days ever I can count on 1 hand. In 36 years I have had exactly 4 days where I have sold more than 10 copies in one day. Those are NOT 10 copies of a single title. I have NEVER sold 10 copies of a single title in one day. I have 683 stories published and I have only sold more than 10 copies per day across all titles combined exactly 4 days. Those totals were as follows:
49
71
22
37
Total sales in one day across 683 titles.
The only 4 days I've ever sold more than 10 titles in one day.
And I repeat what I said earlier: I'm considered 1 on the Top Ten Highest Seller and Most Paid Short Story Writers In the World.
Go back and look at those numbers, than think about that title.
Than start asking other Short story writers about their sales. the average Short story Writer sells across all of their titles combined 5 to 10 copies PER MONTH and gets 2 to 3 borrows PER YEAR.
NEWSFLASH: There are approximately 2billion readers on the planet. Of them, there are almost exactly 37,000 readers of Short Stories.
I'm sorry, but on what planet do novelists think they can find enough readers of short stories to get rich writing shorts? Even at $2 a pop, which I what I make on my shorts, because I price them @ $2.99. My price chart, for those interested in pricing shorts (and you will want to price them high like this IF you want an income, once it hits you square in the face that people don't borrow shorts and KU won't be paying you a penny.)
More than 400 of my 683 titles have under 5k words.
I write Horror, Dark Space Opera, and D&D/S&S Style Fantasy, fewer than 100 of my titles are in other genres.
With that in mind I price my work based on word count:
0.99c = less than 3,000 words
$1.49 = 3,000 to 7,500 words
$2.99 = 7,500 to 30,000 words
$4.99 = 30000 to 50,000 words
$6.99 = 50,000 to 90,000 words
$8.99 = 90,000 words or more
I price my collections/bundles/box-sets like this:
$2.99 =
3-pack of 10ks (30k total) or
5-pack of 5ks (25k total) or
10-pack of 2ks (20k total)
25-pack of 1ks (25k total)
$4.99 =
3-pack of 15ks (45k total) or
5-pack of 10ks (50k total) or
10-pack of 5ks (50k total) or
25-pack of 2ks (50k total)
$6.99 =
3-pack of 20ks (60k total) or
5-pack of 15ks (75k total) or
10-pack of 7ks (70k total) or
25-pack of 3ks (75k total)
$8.99 =
3-pack of 30ks (90k total) or
5-pack of 20ks (100k total) or
10-pack of 10ks (100k total) or
25-pack of 5ks (125k total)
My Erotica skews slightly higher (keeping in mind fewer than 50 of my 683 titles is Erotica):
0.99c = less than 3,000 words
$1.49 = 3,000 to 5,000 words
$2.99 = 5,500 to 15,000 words
$4.99 = 15,000 to 36,000 words
$6.99 = 36,000 to 60,000 words
$8.99 = 60,000 words or more
I price my Erotica collections/bundles/box-sets like this
$2.99 =
3-pack of 5ks (15k total) or
5-pack of 2ks (10k total) or
10-pack of 1ks (10k total)
$4.99 =
3-pack of 7ks (21k total) or
5-pack of 5ks (25k total) or
10-pack of 2ks (20k total)
$6.99 =
3-pack of 15ks (45k total) or
5-pack of 10ks (50k total) or
10-pack of 5ks (50k total) or
25-pack of 2ks (50k total)
$8.99 =
3-pack of 20ks (60k total) or
5-pack of 15ks (75k total) or
10-pack of 7ks (70k total) or
25-pack of 5ks (125k total)
I make money as a Short Story writer ONLY because of my higher prices. Take a look at that price chart, if I was writing novels, I'd be charging $8.99 a book, not .99c or even $2.99 or even $4.99.
Shorts are a hard sell. Even at .99c most writers can't sell theirs, a lot of writers complain at having shorts at permafree and they can't even give them away. Because there simply is no demand for shorts. So the notion that novelists are going to storm Select with flash floods of shorts and make millions is silly at best.
I continue to laugh at the novelists who are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, thinking they can switch to writing short stories and see the same amount of sales/borrow they did with novels. They have no clue how hard it is to sell a Short Story.
No, I don't doubt that novelists will flood Amazon with short stories thinking they can write shorts and get rich quick. I also don't doubt that novelists will learn fast that writing a GOOD short story is hard to do and takes years of practice and requires a totally different skill than novel writing.
Everyone and their cousin and their dog thinks they can write Short Stories because they are short. Ha! I laugh again at the brainless idiocy of such thinking.
Quantity is key. You are NOT going to see a livable income on short stories, even at $2 a pop until you have at MINIMUM 200 titles in you backlog. Barest minimum.
I've had folks (other authors) laugh at me and say I was nuts because I have a short story series I've been writing for 36 years and it's now got 231 volumes, but the sales are so horrible. Why do you keep writing it, they ask me, why don't you write something more profitable, write a best seller. A novel. Stop wasting time writing a series that has most of it's titles ranking at the bottom of sales rank.
Why do I keep writing it? Well, I love it and I'll never stop writing it. Even if I stopped publishing it I'd still keep writing it, so why not publish it and make a few penny a week on each title? Those pennies do add up after all.
Uhm...let's do the math...
If each title in the series sells just 1 copy a week, not a day, but a week:
231 x $2.99 x 70% x 52 = $25,105.08
Well that's a pretty good income, for such a crappy bottom feeder with sucky sales-rank and sales as low as 1 a week.
Keep in mind too that I have a cult following of 7,000 die hard fans who literally land in my driveway and follow me around town, some of them claiming following me around is even better than the days when they followed the Greatful Dead around. They follow me to WalMart and McDonald's, and the laundromat, and they meet me at conventions where they CosPlay as characters from my short stories. I don't know of any other short story writer who has gained the fandom my series did, there aren't even many novelists who have a pack of fans CosPlaying their characters vigorously like this. Did I mention I'm a fluke?
And that is just ONE of my series.
I write several series and across all of them I have just under 700 titles now. Yeah. A lot of them only sell 1 or 2 copies a month. A lot of them sell only a single copy a week. The most any has ever sold in one day was 27. But 700 titles. Yeah. It adds up. I don't need a best seller to live off my writing. I don't even need a good seller to live off my writing. Heck, a lot of my books are out right poor sellers and I still make a living off my writing! LOL
So, yeah, I don't really care if my books sell horribly, because I got enough of them out there that it really doesn't matter.
Follow this article and do what it says step by step, you'll be living 100% off nothing but short stories in 5 years.
Making a Living with Your Short Fiction
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9457
But do keep in mind that for those 5 years you will be living on absolutely nothing while you write enough short stories to live off of. But, keep in mind, that I'm a fluke. I'm one of the VERY RARE short stories writes who gets a sale per title per week. Most short story writers don't get a sale per title per month.
I'm a fluke because I happen to be d*mned good at writing short stories. On the other hand I can't write a novel worth sh*t.
That's the thing there's a world of difference between writing a novel and writing a short story. Novelists are foolish if they think that just because they can write a novel means they can write a short story. Most people who think they can write a short story, can't. They suck at it big time. Why? Because they are trying to write a 300 page novel and stuff it into 10 pages, that's why. You can't do that. It won't work. Readers won't like it.
Few people who are very good at writing novels are also very good at writing short stories and vice-versa.
Novel writing is an art that takes time and practice.
Short story writing is a different art and requires different time and practice.
Sure authors can do both, but the ones that try to do both often are the ones who later complain to not having good sales, can't find steady followers, and wonder "what am I doing wrong?'
Novel readers follow novelists. They know all the greats, they know the upcomers, they couldn't give a rat's patooy about short stories or short story writers.
Short story readers follow short story writers. They know all the greats, they know the upcomers, they couldn't give a rat's patooy about novels or novelists.
What do you read? That's what you should write.
The forum thread was discussing Amazon's new Kindle Unlimited program and people got to discussing how whether or not this could lead to a flood of short stories and, basically, put an end to novel-length works.
Short story author EelKat (yes, that's the name she writes under if you're curious) gives this epic reply:
But there are already 5 shorts for every 1 novel in Select, and there has been right since Select began. Predictions like this occurred when Select/Prime/KOLL first rolled out and that was what 3 years ago?
Amazon has no need to change the prices and you want to know why? Because for every 10,000 novels sold only 10 short stories sell. Do you realize I'm listed by critics as one of the world's top selling Short Story writers and I'm lucky if one of my titles sells at a rate of 1 copy a week? My highest sales days ever I can count on 1 hand. In 36 years I have had exactly 4 days where I have sold more than 10 copies in one day. Those are NOT 10 copies of a single title. I have NEVER sold 10 copies of a single title in one day. I have 683 stories published and I have only sold more than 10 copies per day across all titles combined exactly 4 days. Those totals were as follows:
49
71
22
37
Total sales in one day across 683 titles.
The only 4 days I've ever sold more than 10 titles in one day.
And I repeat what I said earlier: I'm considered 1 on the Top Ten Highest Seller and Most Paid Short Story Writers In the World.
Go back and look at those numbers, than think about that title.
Than start asking other Short story writers about their sales. the average Short story Writer sells across all of their titles combined 5 to 10 copies PER MONTH and gets 2 to 3 borrows PER YEAR.
NEWSFLASH: There are approximately 2billion readers on the planet. Of them, there are almost exactly 37,000 readers of Short Stories.
I'm sorry, but on what planet do novelists think they can find enough readers of short stories to get rich writing shorts? Even at $2 a pop, which I what I make on my shorts, because I price them @ $2.99. My price chart, for those interested in pricing shorts (and you will want to price them high like this IF you want an income, once it hits you square in the face that people don't borrow shorts and KU won't be paying you a penny.)
More than 400 of my 683 titles have under 5k words.
I write Horror, Dark Space Opera, and D&D/S&S Style Fantasy, fewer than 100 of my titles are in other genres.
With that in mind I price my work based on word count:
0.99c = less than 3,000 words
$1.49 = 3,000 to 7,500 words
$2.99 = 7,500 to 30,000 words
$4.99 = 30000 to 50,000 words
$6.99 = 50,000 to 90,000 words
$8.99 = 90,000 words or more
I price my collections/bundles/box-sets like this:
$2.99 =
3-pack of 10ks (30k total) or
5-pack of 5ks (25k total) or
10-pack of 2ks (20k total)
25-pack of 1ks (25k total)
$4.99 =
3-pack of 15ks (45k total) or
5-pack of 10ks (50k total) or
10-pack of 5ks (50k total) or
25-pack of 2ks (50k total)
$6.99 =
3-pack of 20ks (60k total) or
5-pack of 15ks (75k total) or
10-pack of 7ks (70k total) or
25-pack of 3ks (75k total)
$8.99 =
3-pack of 30ks (90k total) or
5-pack of 20ks (100k total) or
10-pack of 10ks (100k total) or
25-pack of 5ks (125k total)
My Erotica skews slightly higher (keeping in mind fewer than 50 of my 683 titles is Erotica):
0.99c = less than 3,000 words
$1.49 = 3,000 to 5,000 words
$2.99 = 5,500 to 15,000 words
$4.99 = 15,000 to 36,000 words
$6.99 = 36,000 to 60,000 words
$8.99 = 60,000 words or more
I price my Erotica collections/bundles/box-sets like this
$2.99 =
3-pack of 5ks (15k total) or
5-pack of 2ks (10k total) or
10-pack of 1ks (10k total)
$4.99 =
3-pack of 7ks (21k total) or
5-pack of 5ks (25k total) or
10-pack of 2ks (20k total)
$6.99 =
3-pack of 15ks (45k total) or
5-pack of 10ks (50k total) or
10-pack of 5ks (50k total) or
25-pack of 2ks (50k total)
$8.99 =
3-pack of 20ks (60k total) or
5-pack of 15ks (75k total) or
10-pack of 7ks (70k total) or
25-pack of 5ks (125k total)
I make money as a Short Story writer ONLY because of my higher prices. Take a look at that price chart, if I was writing novels, I'd be charging $8.99 a book, not .99c or even $2.99 or even $4.99.
Shorts are a hard sell. Even at .99c most writers can't sell theirs, a lot of writers complain at having shorts at permafree and they can't even give them away. Because there simply is no demand for shorts. So the notion that novelists are going to storm Select with flash floods of shorts and make millions is silly at best.
I continue to laugh at the novelists who are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, thinking they can switch to writing short stories and see the same amount of sales/borrow they did with novels. They have no clue how hard it is to sell a Short Story.
No, I don't doubt that novelists will flood Amazon with short stories thinking they can write shorts and get rich quick. I also don't doubt that novelists will learn fast that writing a GOOD short story is hard to do and takes years of practice and requires a totally different skill than novel writing.
Everyone and their cousin and their dog thinks they can write Short Stories because they are short. Ha! I laugh again at the brainless idiocy of such thinking.
Quantity is key. You are NOT going to see a livable income on short stories, even at $2 a pop until you have at MINIMUM 200 titles in you backlog. Barest minimum.
I've had folks (other authors) laugh at me and say I was nuts because I have a short story series I've been writing for 36 years and it's now got 231 volumes, but the sales are so horrible. Why do you keep writing it, they ask me, why don't you write something more profitable, write a best seller. A novel. Stop wasting time writing a series that has most of it's titles ranking at the bottom of sales rank.
Why do I keep writing it? Well, I love it and I'll never stop writing it. Even if I stopped publishing it I'd still keep writing it, so why not publish it and make a few penny a week on each title? Those pennies do add up after all.
Uhm...let's do the math...
If each title in the series sells just 1 copy a week, not a day, but a week:
231 x $2.99 x 70% x 52 = $25,105.08
Well that's a pretty good income, for such a crappy bottom feeder with sucky sales-rank and sales as low as 1 a week.
Keep in mind too that I have a cult following of 7,000 die hard fans who literally land in my driveway and follow me around town, some of them claiming following me around is even better than the days when they followed the Greatful Dead around. They follow me to WalMart and McDonald's, and the laundromat, and they meet me at conventions where they CosPlay as characters from my short stories. I don't know of any other short story writer who has gained the fandom my series did, there aren't even many novelists who have a pack of fans CosPlaying their characters vigorously like this. Did I mention I'm a fluke?
And that is just ONE of my series.
I write several series and across all of them I have just under 700 titles now. Yeah. A lot of them only sell 1 or 2 copies a month. A lot of them sell only a single copy a week. The most any has ever sold in one day was 27. But 700 titles. Yeah. It adds up. I don't need a best seller to live off my writing. I don't even need a good seller to live off my writing. Heck, a lot of my books are out right poor sellers and I still make a living off my writing! LOL
So, yeah, I don't really care if my books sell horribly, because I got enough of them out there that it really doesn't matter.
Follow this article and do what it says step by step, you'll be living 100% off nothing but short stories in 5 years.
Making a Living with Your Short Fiction
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9457
But do keep in mind that for those 5 years you will be living on absolutely nothing while you write enough short stories to live off of. But, keep in mind, that I'm a fluke. I'm one of the VERY RARE short stories writes who gets a sale per title per week. Most short story writers don't get a sale per title per month.
I'm a fluke because I happen to be d*mned good at writing short stories. On the other hand I can't write a novel worth sh*t.
That's the thing there's a world of difference between writing a novel and writing a short story. Novelists are foolish if they think that just because they can write a novel means they can write a short story. Most people who think they can write a short story, can't. They suck at it big time. Why? Because they are trying to write a 300 page novel and stuff it into 10 pages, that's why. You can't do that. It won't work. Readers won't like it.
Few people who are very good at writing novels are also very good at writing short stories and vice-versa.
Novel writing is an art that takes time and practice.
Short story writing is a different art and requires different time and practice.
Sure authors can do both, but the ones that try to do both often are the ones who later complain to not having good sales, can't find steady followers, and wonder "what am I doing wrong?'
Novel readers follow novelists. They know all the greats, they know the upcomers, they couldn't give a rat's patooy about short stories or short story writers.
Short story readers follow short story writers. They know all the greats, they know the upcomers, they couldn't give a rat's patooy about novels or novelists.
What do you read? That's what you should write.
To read the rest of her reply click here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,190464.msg2689328.html#msg2689328
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