I am curious how much people enjoy reading short stories in our time. I am publishing a book of short strange/horror stories soon and really excited to see how it will do. Any idea how well short stories do as far as adaptation for the screen is concerned? I think most of my stories are quite visual and would make great shorts. :)
Would share the e-book cover here, but I'm not clear if it's against the guidelines or not...
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Share away Crina... I have... and not encountered any problems. I've written a LOT of short stories and also collected them together in my anthologies, First Words and Unzipped: The Mind of a Madman. Sales are very poor, despite the quality of the content - some of which has won awards. I've sold more individual short-stories directly than I have books containing lots of them. Weird. Mind you, people think nothing of spending money on a coffee from Strabucks/Costa/etc. every single day of their lives but can't seem to bring themselves to spend the same amount of money it costs for one coffee to buy a book which will last longer and leave a much better taste in the mouth! :-)
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I agree. People spend money on beer, coffee, make-up and sort of fading things, but they frown when it's about paying for a book. Do you have your books on Amazon? Are they on Kindle unlimited? I thought that might offer a better chance because if people pay a membership they are more inclined to give a book a read than buy it individually, especially if it's more expensive. I'll add the cover when I'm at a computer, can seem to do it from my phone (or maybe I don't see the right button).
This is the e-book cover.
Cover painting by psyca.
Cover design by me.
My books are on all good online bookstores, including Amazon. I wouldn't recommend KDP Select. It's rubbish and only rewards those authors already selling hundreds of thousands of books. They don't do anything to help new authors. In fact, they constructively obstruct them.
Sorry to hear that about Amazon. I had my books wide bug I don't do paid advertising so I haven't had much success on other stores. I'm going to do Kindle Unlimited with this new book of short stories. I'll see how it will do. If it's bad, I can get it out. But I'm planning to put them all in Kindle Unlimited (except one non-fiction book) because I'm hoping to get page reads and be exposed to more reads. We'll see how it goes.
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I'm in the same boat. I've written a (fairly long) short story that I've submitted to the New Yorker and a bunch of its lesser known siblings. It's very heavy on dialogue, so I thought maybe it could become a script. Stranger things have happened, right? Problem was that the story was the first thing I've written on spec in a long time and I have no intention of doing more of it.. Also, I live in Brooklyn, where it seems to be illegal to live unless you have a screenplay to flog. i had no desire to join that army. I want Hollywood to pay me to turn the story into a screenplay with an option to buy once it's finished
Here's what I did: One of the major characters in the story is a woman in her 40s. Movie stars in this demographic are always complaining that there are no good parts for them. So I made a list—Juliannne Moore, Jessicaa Chastain, etc. I found their agents and the agent's email addresses online. (Tricky, but it can be done. I used to be a reporter so I'm pretty good at Google.) I wrote to these agents, sent my story, said this has the potential to be a great part for your client. Lo and behold, last week I get a note back from a heavy hitter at CAA who's "interested" in the idea. I have to sign a release so she can read the story.
Who knows what this means but I've already bought a Maserati and I'm shopping for a place in Malibu.
This might be a fluke and there might not be lesson to be gleaned from this experience. And, of course, nothing has happened yet. But you might want to find something unique in your story, play it up, and try to find someone to whom it might appeal. Anything to set yourself apart from the mass of screenplay waiving wannabes.
Look at me, answering a question here. A week ago, I posted aa thread that essesntially said, "I'm clueless. Help!"
KDP Unlimited just means that your book is available for those who have chosen to join that programme of Amazon's and read unlimited books.
Yes, I know. And you get possible readers and page reads, basically exposure.
Paul Braverman, that is a good strategy to make use of. I would rather have a screenplay written first, before approaching agents because otherwise they might prefer hiring a screenwriter they know. But that's me. I just think it saves more time and is less hassle if you've adapted your own novel into a screenplay and it's ready to go. This way, if an offer is made, you have more power. You look more professional, in my opinion. Of course, there's author who would rather have nothing to do with writing a screenplay after their novel because it's a completely different medium. Markus Zusak comes to mind, if I'm not mistaken. His novel The Book Thief got adapted in a pretty good movie.
I would not jump on buying a Maserati just yet (maybe just some land where I could grow my food forest creative retreat). But everyone acts as they seem fit. If you can afford to be this bold, good luck. Once again. great strategy with writing for a specific age group. I do think it will go really well if you do that. Shows you've done your research.
Let me know how it goes, I would love to hear positive news. :)
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My book of short strange stories has just been published.