Source
r/selfpublish•
bakarocket

SCIFI: Anyone ever try offering cheap short stories as background chapters for main books?

I've got dozens of short stories that form the historial foundation of the narrative universe I've built, but that have no place in the books I'm writing now.

For those who are into science fiction, you will recognize the whole Future History thing Heinlein did, but that honestly wasn't my intention. I meant to write a seven-century-long saga, but then realized the best part of it was the "modern" day part set in the 28th century, and so I started cutting all my histories.

Now I'm left with a bunch of stories and characters I love that I wrote as part of that saga that just don't fit in the narrative of the books I'm writing anymore. I was thinking about selling them on Amazon or giving them away for free, partly as a marketing tactic to increase my presence on the site and increase the number of "books" I'm offering, and partly because I can't stand the thought of them going unread.

Has anyone successfully tried this? Anyone have any advice?

Posted Jul 21, 2022, 1:30 PM UTC

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dromedarian•

Yeah man. Those are called reader magnets. They're an incredibly valuable resource for you. You give them away for free in exchange for an email address, and that's how you get your newsletter audience. And then those people are primed and ready to buy your books when they come out.

And you can at the same time bundle the collection together in one anthology and release it on its own. You can do both things. Maybe give a couple of the most stand-alone ones as the reader magnets, and then sell the bundle as well. The reader magnets can help you find readers for both the novel and the anthology.

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bakarocketOP•

That sounds awesome! I admit that I am feeling a bit nervous about putting out a newsletter, but if I can add stories to it, that solves my content worries.

Thanks for the advice.

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dromedarian•

Dude, newsletters are your friend. I always recommend bookfunnel for growing your subscriber list. I get more than fifty new subs a month doing their newsletter swaps. Which is literally just including an image and a link in your newsletter. So that's just a little more content in your newsletter, and incentive for your subs to open it because that link is to free ebooks. It's so stupid easy. And you've already got your reader magnets ready to go, so you should be able to get it sorted out and ready to go right away.

But don't forget to put in a couple of paragraphs of a letter to your reader in your newsletter. Just including them on your writerly journey. Make yourself human and likable, give them someone to root for. Sure, also include some short stories or excerpts in your newsletter, but don't just duplicate what they got for free in exchange for their email address.

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bakarocketOP•

I've just had a look at Bookfunnel, and considering I have ZERO people on any mailing list, it looks great as a first step.

Thanks for all the extra advice on content too.

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Eleret•

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have self-published 'chapbooks' of short stories in their universe for quite some time (since 1995, I think). There are worse models to follow!

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bakarocketOP•

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have a look at what they've done.

(I'm a nerd and can't believe I've never read anything by them.)

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Libreture•

The Special Edition ebooks I sell over at my Scarlet Ferret bookshop all come with digital extras. Many authors include 'deleted scenes', and the sci-fi series, Fermi's Progress comes with loads of goodies that includes an extra story.

Depending on where you choose to sell your book, digital extras might be something that could attract potential customers.

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bakarocketOP•

First, that's a great looking site. I think I just found a couple of books I'm interested in.

And is that series by chance yours? I love the premise.

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Libreture•

Thanks! That's kind of you.

No, not my series. Would be so proud of it though, right? Let me know what you think of them. Chris is currently working on Fermi's Progress - Season 2...

And regarding your own books: building your readership base first helps create fans. Once you have fans, it shouldn't matter where you sell from, they'll come to buy, and will always love and appreciate extras! Basically, talking about your books, like you're doing here, is great!

Now where can we all learn more about your books? Do you have a website? Can we follow you on Reddit, Twitter? We want to know more. :)

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Libreture•

Oh, and this:

ScarletFerret.com/submit

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bakarocketOP•

I'll have a look! Thanks!

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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bakarocketOP•

I do have a very bare-bones website going, but I'll avoid taking on the wrath of the mods by posting it here. It's in my profile.

I'm working with a marketing friend this week to go through all the options on how I can expand the reader base more organically. (I've never been very good at self-promotion.)

PM me and I can send you a copy of the book too, if you want.

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sarcasonomicon•

I posted a story on r/nosleep that was a prequel/background for my book for sale on amazon. The r/nosleep story rose to the first position for a day or so - so it had a lot of readers. Sales of my book shot up to 9/month for that month, from a baseline of 1/month. So, I guess I got a 9x boost in sales! Too bad it was nine times one.

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bakarocketOP•

I looked around a bit for subs I can do that with, but I had no luck finding stuff that matches my genre.

I'll do another deep dive and see what I can find. Thanks for the suggestion. (I'd be happy with a 9 X boost in sales as well.)

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dvewlsh4+ Published novels•

Prequel stories serve as fantastic reader magnets.

Sites like StoryOrigin and Bookfunnel allow you to join group promotions with other authors, you all send out the link to your email list and gather new sign-ups.

It also makes for a way to get email addresses by putting a link to a sign up form in the back of your books.

Since you have multiple stories you can offer some as further incentives to your email subscribers.

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bakarocketOP•

I'll have a look at both! Thanks for the ideas.

I kind of have to use Amazon for sales everywhere because I live in Japan (and banking rules are...odd...to say the least), but if I can use sites like that to funnel people back to me, that would be great.

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The_Original_Gronkie•

Stephen King has published stand-alone short stories based on The Dark Tower series, and GRR Martin has published stand alone short stories based on his Game of Thrones series. There's no reason you can't publish these stories to give your hard core fans something special.

Publish them separately and cheap, or give them away, or collect them in an anthology, or repurpose them as flashbacks or background chapters in your full books. Maybe include one as a special bonus at the end of each of your full-length books.

Always remember: There are no rules. Do what you want, be an innovator. The next time someone asks a question like this, maybe you'll be the example.

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bakarocketOP•

Thank you for the examples, and for the emotional uplift, fellow Redditor.

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The_Original_Gronkie•

We're all in this together, my friend.

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sacadoShort Story Author•

Fans of your series will absolutely love this. They are a great way to let them wait in between two novel releases.

Don't give them all for free, but you can certainly give one or two and sell the remaining ones. You can also use one as a giveaway for your mailing list subscribers if you have one.

Release them one by one, then when you're done make a collection out of them.

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bakarocketOP•

Thanks for the advice!

Now I just have to get me some fans.

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sacadoShort Story Author•

Fans come with volume anyway, and short stories can be a great entry point since they are cheap.

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