Publishing on your blog for fun

[Philip Overby]

I was writing a series of stories about Tundrak, a barbarian that travels through current gossip and news stories. He fought Christina Aguilera after she botched the National Anthem and traveled with a guy who looked like John Stamos (after there we rumors about him replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and 1/2 Men). The concept was basically to have this barbarian go on quests to destroy things that vaguely resembled real-life celebrity gossip (he destroyed some kind of gem that trapped Aguilera's mind or something like that).

Anyway, the point was that the stories would never be published. It was sort of my Perez Hilton way of making fun of celebrity gossip with a barbarian's adventure. It was fun to do. If merely for myself.

So I say, yes, publish on your blog if you're just doing it for fun with no intention to publish it. If you intend to publish it, don't put it on your blog. Polish it and send it out.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I was writing a series of stories about Tundrak, a barbarian that travels through current gossip and news stories. He fought Christina Aguilera after she botched the National Anthem and traveled with a guy who looked like John Stamos (after there we rumors about him replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and 1/2 Men). The concept was basically to have this barbarian go on quests to destroy things that vaguely resembled real-life celebrity gossip (he destroyed some kind of gem that trapped Aguilera's mind or something like that).

Anyway, the point was that the stories would never be published. It was sort of my Perez Hilton way of making fun of celebrity gossip with a barbarian's adventure. It was fun to do. If merely for myself.

A Conan-like character interacting with shallow celebrities? I'd read that.

 

[Philip Overby]

A Conan-like character interacting with shallow celebrities? I'd read that.

Well, maybe I'll start doing it again then! You can find it by Google searching "Tundrak and Friends."

Basically what I was saying is that if you're going to publish fiction on a blog, then make it something light. I notice people don't like to read heavy fiction online. That's why blogs, Twitter, and Youtube is so popular. You can get a quick dose of something, then move on. I don't think the internet is made for reading long stories or novels. That's just my personal preference though.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

an interesting anectdote,

One of my authors floated a 5 story set of his Short Stories out for free for a number of years (10), and we e-book'ed them for .99 each, and they are his best selling titles. So you just never know.

On a personal level, I think there's a level of "OMG, it's something to sell, why am I not selling this?" sort of feeling about just giving it away, but I have to counter that fear with the confidence of, "I'm a writer, I write, I'll write plenty of new works to sell".

How short are we talking?

Two reasons I ask:

1 - My wife thinks that I do well as a writer of short stories. I've written stories that are hundreds of words, intended for children or just for fun, friendly writing contests (and the challenges on this site), and also stories that are thousands of words long.

2 - My current novel (155K words) reads like a series of episodes. I could split the novel into novella-length sections (40K), as there are already good stopping points there... or simply release the story one episode at a time (10K). So in theory, I could pull this off as I polish the novel!



EDIT: I read this article, plus info on "Kindle Singles" which mentions a word-count-range of 10K-30K! Perfect for what I'm thinking of...!

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

My own personal thought is to keep stories I sell at 3k words or longer. The min length for Kindle Singles is 5k, but I write shorts at 3-4k words and they sell at a steady trickle at 99 cents each, with some very nice reviews.

 

[writingcontest]

In my opinion, publishing on a blog is generally better if it's not fiction. When I think of writing a blog, I think new, opinions, how-tos, personal diaries, etc. I suppose a writing blog would be great for personal progress though, but it could hurt it's ability to get published in the future if it's publically available. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Devor]

In my opinion, publishing on a blog is generally better if it's not fiction. When I think of writing a blog, I think new, opinions, how-tos, personal diaries, etc. I suppose a writing blog would be great for personal progress though, but it could hurt it's ability to get published in the future if it's publically available. Just my 2 cents.

There's you as a writer and your work as a product. "Over-sharing," let's call it, on your blog might be bad for your product but good for your reputation as an author and your developing readership. You've got to figure out if you have enough material to both share and publish and what kind of balance is right for you.

I will say, if you aren't going to follow through with promoting your work, you're giving up your product for nothing.

 

[writingcontest]

There's you as a writer and your work as a product. "Over-sharing," let's call it, on your blog might be bad for your product but good for your reputation as an author and your developing readership. You've got to figure out if you have enough material to both share and publish and what kind of balance is right for you.

I will say, if you aren't going to follow through with promoting your work, you're giving up your product for nothing.

That's true, great point. So over-sharing your product as a way to build you reputation could help your future product that's not as over-shared/accessible, assuming your initial product was good enough to garner interest at all. I'm sure it's possible, but it seems like a tough goal without some pr-existing standing in the industry.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

My own personal thought is to keep stories I sell at 3k words or longer. The min length for Kindle Singles is 5k, but I write shorts at 3-4k words and they sell at a steady trickle at 99 cents each, with some very nice reviews.

So if I'm selling stories in the 20k+ range, should I be charging more than $2? Or do readers expect "singles" to be $0.99 whether they're 30k or 5k words?

I know Amazon wants Singles to be priced at $0.99 to $3.99, but am not sure what the market norms are. Should price be proportional to word count, or should it be a consistent price throughout my series of shorts even if word count is somewhat varied?

(NOTE: "somewhat varied" = the word count ratio of longest story to shortest story < 2:1)

 

[OrionDarkwood]

Would you do it? Or would you keep back every story that you write and try to get it published professionally? I ask because right now I'm working on a short story (or novella, the way it's going) and I'm considering putting a link to it on my blog rather than trying to publish it professionally or self-publish, as I'm writing it for practice and my own enjoyment. I'd probably put it up as a Google doc and link to it (view only) so anyone who came to my blog could read it. What do you guys think?

I am doing it so people can see what kind of writing I am doing and have done as well as be able to test the waters. I heard of once famous screenwriter all they did was send synopsis's until someone showed some interest then they would write out everything.

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

So if I'm selling stories in the 20k+ range, should I be charging more than $2? Or do readers expect "singles" to be $0.99 whether they're 30k or 5k words?

I know Amazon wants Singles to be priced at $0.99 to $3.99, but am not sure what the market norms are. Should price be proportional to word count, or should it be a consistent price throughout my series of shorts even if word count is somewhat varied?

(NOTE: "somewhat varied" = the word count ratio of longest story to shortest story < 2:1)

Varies wildly. I am selling 3.5k word stories for 99 cents. Other writers are selling 100k word novels for 99 cents. Some folks are selling 10k word short stories for $2.99 and novels for $5.99, others sell shorts at 99, novellas at 2.99, and novels at 4.99.

And then you get special prices, too - I've had By Darkness Revealed down to 99 cents through the holiday as a special, so my novel is the same price as my short stories right now.

The price on that will go up soon, but it could change again later. That's one of the nice things about epublishing - you have enormous power over pricing, so you can shift what you're doing to match what you think will work best. Experiment!

 

[Telcontar]

Publishing agility IS pretty awesome. I'm trying to get really good cover art for my first entry, but frankly I'm not sweating it too much. I can always change the cover later on! Same with typos that might slip through... I've edited the thing to hell and gone, but something always gets through.

 

[aderyn]

I think it's wise to have a blog, to build your reputation (as people here have already mentioned). And I would agree that providing some sample of your work is also important, readers need a taste of your style. I'm trialling an experiment with my blog by writing a blogfic serial, it remains very much an experiment,but I'm enjoying it