Monday, August 29, 2011

Free Short Stories on my Blog

I've been throwing around the idea of publishing free short stories here on my blog from time to time.  I'm still not sure if I will or not, because I just can't see giving my fiction away for free, or being the judge of whether my work is good enough to publish.  Several writers I know are doing, or have done, free serials on their websites, and there has been some success with getting those serials published, but I wanted to do something a little different.  The serial idea is interesting, but I couldn't write chapter to chapter with any sense of cohesion.  The way I write, four chapters in there would be a lot of information that would have to be deleted or added to the first chapters.  When I write larger works, the beginning and end are two different things and require a lot of re-writing to bring the story together.

I can count out doing a serial, but I like the idea of using my blog as a platform to introduce readers to my work.  With my debut novel coming out soon as well as a novella, I think providing some free fiction could help encourage uncertain readers to give my longer works a shot. 

Also, I have several stories that I just can't find the right publisher for.  Stories that just don't seem to fit any of the guidelines.  That doesn't mean there isn't a publisher out there for them that I have yet to discover, but I wonder if I should just publish some of these stories here.

Still arguing with myself about it.  I may just send some of these stories to decent e-zines, that way I won't be judging my own work and the stories will still be free to read if they are accepted, though I do see myself publishing one here and there, so look for them.  I just don't want to go overboard and give too much of my fiction away for free.  Not that I would start selling my stories on smashwords or something -- I'm not established enough to do that!  It's just knowing that once a story is published, no matter where it's published, it's a reprint, and thus it's value is depreciated.  That's my greatest struggle with the decision to publish a story or two here on my blog.

But, I have a lot of stories to choose from, so expect something in the near future.

2 comments:

  1. Why not publish stories when their rights revert to you - no problem with *you* publishing reprints.

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  2. I think I'll do that. I have have a certain re-print in mind that I'm certain very few people read. It's kind of long, so I'll probably split it into a 3-part serial -- easier on the eyes, having to read off of a blog and all.

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