The Financials of Short Stories

Last weekend, I participated in a Twitter author chat. One of the participants seemed genuinely confused by the notion of making royalties off short stories in the form of eBooks. So, I’d like to explain the different ways that I could sell a short story so that people are aware of their options.

First, short stories are short works that are too small to published as their own print novel. Harvest Moon is called a “novelette”, meaning it’s a long short story. It’s 11,000 words or about 30 pages.

Fiction magazines are the most obvious place where authors try to sell their fiction. There are a number of publications. The pay ranges in “exposure” (also known as “4theluv” or “we don’t pay you”) to “pro” markets that pay $0.05/word. If you relied solely on these kinds of rates, you would starve to death. I’ve made 1 sale to fiction magazines, with payment of 1 cent per word.

Non-fiction magazines are coveted because they pay well ($0.05-$1.00) but are very difficult to get into. I’ve made 1 sale here, at 7 cents per word.

e-Zines are magazines that are solely based on the web. The payment varies from “exposure” to “pro” (5 cents and more). I have made 1 sale to an e-zine. It paid a flat fee, which works out to about 1/2 cent per word.

Anthologies are print or digital books that are a collection of short stories by different authors. They usually have a theme or something that joins them together. I’ve been in 1 anthology with a flat payment that works out to be around 2 cents per word. I’ll also have a reprint story in an upcoming anthology this year, the flat payment around 3/4 cent per word.

In all of these cases, I sell the story and am paid once. I don’t get paid again, unless I happen to sell the story elsewhere or, in the case of “Space Sucks”, will be paid by the same publisher to reprint the story in another of their publications. My rate of pay is also not affected by how much or little those publications sell.

What a number of authors – and readers – forget is that there is another market for short stories – e-publishing. Unlike print, which requires a set length for stories to make them physically work with the layout of the magazine or book, ebooks can be as long or as short as you wish them to be.

Many people think e-Books are, well, book-length. However, they aren’t always. Harvest Moon, for example, is about 1/9 the length of a fantasy novel (unless the novel was written by Tolkien or Robert Jordan). Flying Kite, Crashing Ship is only 5000 words, less than half the length of Harvest Moon. A quickie read.

So, how does it work with short stories and ebooks?

e-publishing, traditional model – These are publishers that follow the print industry’s traditional model. The e-publisher has a “slush pile” where you submit your work and editors from the house review it. If the story is picked up, it goes through the same rigorous editing process as a novel, with 3-6 edits for content and line errors. They will also provide cover art, an ISBN number, some marketing and promotion, and distribution through online vendors. You are paid royalties, not a flat free.

You typically get between 25-50%, thought 35-40% seems to be the general average. I have sold 2 stories through this method. I will not see monies for any sales until next March, when my royalty statement comes out for Harvest Moon. (I promised several author friends that I will blog about my statements and what that means, marketing affects, etc in 2011.)

e-publishing, self-published – This is when an author publishes the story themselves. There are many different ways. They can offer it as a free read on their websites. I currently have 1 free read on my website. An author can offer it on their website or on another site, like Smashwords, by donation. I am planning to launch a short story this way. Finally, you can bundle it up, put a price on it, and sell it like any other ebook. This method puts editing and cover art solely in the author’s hands. Since I need an editor to check my work over and I couldn’t design a cover if my life depended upon it, I will be contracting this aspect out to a freelancer.

As you can see, there are many different ways to sell your short fiction. Authors today are lucky in the wide and varied choices available. Likewise, readers have more ways to find great reads than ever before!

For authors –What methods have you used to publish short fiction?

For readers — How do you access short stories?