{"id":217,"date":"2019-06-02T18:53:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T00:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.camdenparkpress.com\/laurynchristopher\/?p=217"},"modified":"2019-08-17T17:17:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T23:17:49","slug":"the-value-of-short-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.camdenparkpress.com\/laurynchristopher\/the-value-of-short-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"The value of short fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"short_stories_cover\"<\/a>Some colleagues and I were recently discussing the relative value of short fiction (short stories, novelettes, and novellas)<\/em> vs full-length novels. Much to my surprise, there were those who seemed to feel that short stories were of no particular value – one went so far as to suggest that the “lowly short story” was essentially a waste of a writer’s time, for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n

Yeah… you know me. I couldn’t leave that one alone, and because I feel so strongly that short stories are extremely valuable – both to readers and<\/em> writers – I had to address the issues point-by-point.<\/p>\n

Lowly Argument #1:<\/strong> Short stories are lowly in the author-recognition factor.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have often read a short story, enjoyed it, and looked for more work by that author. As a reader, a short story is a great way to test the waters and see if I like a new-to-me writer’s work without the commitment of a full novel. As a writer, short stories are one of the best forms of author-advertising there is, for lots of reasons (see argument #4)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lowly Argument #2:<\/strong> Short stories are lowly in the paid department, because the author gets no advance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sure, there are a lot of unpaid markets out there for short fiction, and most of the professional-paying short fiction markets will pay in the neighborhood of $.05-$.10 cents a word for a story between 3000-10000 words long (talking in averages here). So it doesn’t add up to a ton-o-bucks up front. But short fiction markets also only hold onto the rights for a very limited time (see argument #3 on contracts)<\/em>, and then the author can (and I have) sell reprint rights, put the short story up as an ebook at low or no-cost, offer it as an audiobook, etc., and continue earning from it.<\/p>\n

As an example, “With Friends Like These”<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is a 10,000-word story I didn’t sell to a print market, but published directly as an ebook in 2010, and it’s been a consistent earner for me for nearly four years. Even at ebook royalty rates, it’s been a decent workhorse, in both the royalty dept. as well as in leading people to the companion novel, Conflict of Interest<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. I’ll be putting up another short in that same series this summer, in anticipation of the next book release in the fall. (see the previous topic: short stories as author-advertising)
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And in the ROI department, it takes me so much less time to write a short story than a novel (orders of magnitude less!) that what I earn from a short story over its life is actually quite competitive with the earnings from a novel, in a strict, “dollars per hour” sense.<\/p>\n

Lowly Argument #3:<\/strong> How about contracts?<\/em><\/p>\n

What about the contracts? Short fiction markets in the US (whether print or online):<\/p>\n