Short Story Use for Marketing

[BWFoster78]

I've read in several places that writing a short story to give away is a good method for building interest in your work. I'm making progress on mine, but I have some questions:

1. Should I try to get the story published somewhere to build my resume?
2. If I publish it, can I still give it away?
3. I'm a big believer in good cover art, but I can't afford to pay a bunch for an artist for a story I'm going to be giving away. What is the standard for short stories versus novels? Can I get by with just text or is cover art the standard? If so, would it hurt me to go with a less expensive artist?

My current plan is to offer it free through my website in exchange for signing up for my newsletter (also read that a email list of people who are already interested in your writing is, by far, the best marketing tool you can develop). I'll also put it up on B&N, Amazon, etc. for .99. I plan to get as many bloggers as I can to refer back to my free offer.

Any thoughts/tips regarding using short stories for marketing would be appreciated.

BTW, I'm going to want to put a fine polish on this story since it will be such a crucial representation of my work, so the more beta readers I have for it the better. If you're interested in helping, please send me your email either in a message or to author@brianwfoster.com. I hope to have it to my readers by the end of September, and I think it will be in the 10k to 12k range.

BTW, I will not add any emails received this way to my email list. Just wanted to make that clear

Thanks!

 

[Steerpike]

1. It's not a bad idea, though unless you sell it to a professional market, I'm not sure how much it matters to anyone in terms of resume building.
2. Depends on what rights you give the publisher. For example, they may want an exclusive right for thirty days, and then nonexclusive thereafter. So for thirty days you can't publish it yourself, but afterward you can. Just know what the publisher is asking for before you say yes.
3. I think cover art will still be important in attracting interest. You may get some people who will take a chance on a freebie, whether the cover art is good or not, but I think a lot of times, even with free fiction, people on Amazon are kind of scrolling through the thumbnails of all the covers and then taking a closer look at what catches their eye. I may be wrong. I do think, however, that you can make a catchy cover with public domain art and GIMP or Photoshop.

 

[Devor]

Any thoughts/tips regarding using short stories for marketing would be appreciated.

I know people like this sort of thing nowadays, but it's not the route I would take. The goal of making it "free and available" detracts from the idea of making it look like a representation of good quality writing, and even for people who do read it, a single story is easily forgotten.

In terms of marketing, you should be thinking less about "extra product" and more about making your work into an event. For instance, maybe take a big scene from your novel that's relatively underdeveloped and in the background - like one of Rob's fights in Game of Thrones - and find some way to play it up in short 1,000 word increments released every week for two months (maybe each from a different POV), ending in a bigger 3,000 word climax.

Start putting it on your website just before your book comes out. Or maybe that 3,000 word climax is somehow your prologue.

Just spitballing.

 

[BWFoster78]

I know people like this sort of thing nowadays, but it's not the route I would take. The goal of making it "free and available" detracts from the idea of making it look like a representation of good quality writing, and even for people who do read it, a single story is easily forgotten.

In terms of marketing, you should be thinking less about "extra product" and more about making your work into an event. For instance, maybe take a big scene from your novel that's relatively underdeveloped and in the background - like one of Rob's fights in Game of Thrones - and find some way to play it up in short 1,000 word increments released every week for two months (maybe each from a different POV), ending in a bigger 3,000 word climax.

Start putting it on your website just before your book comes out. Or maybe that 3,000 word climax is somehow your prologue.

Just spitballing.

Thanks for the input.

I think I'm pretty set upon my course, mainly because I'm really digging the story.

 

[robertbevan]

i did this. so far, about three hundred people have downloaded the free short story. and i think it's responsible for three of my main book's sales for last month.

the biggest benefit, though, is being able to look at my amazon stats and see that a couple of people are downloading something i've written every day. if the main book was the only one on there, looking at those amazon stats would get pretty depressing.

 

[Alex Stuart]

Well the stories are interesting to some extent and marketing has unique philosophy and the purpose of marketing is to create value for customers and it is possible by implementing techniques of marketing.

 

[JCFarnham]

I've said it before else where but here it goes again

The benefit of using short stories to break into the market is swiftly changing. The number of paying markets for short fiction has changed because, to put it simply, you can get it any where you want, not just in magazines. The internet makes it harder for you to get noticed IN EVERY WAY.

So don't count on that, if short stories aren't "your bag".

However, Free stuff is notorious. Almost every person I know my age would go to a convention or county show just to score free stuff. The pens, the pencils, the button badges, you know, all that. There is a short story writer who fits an entire piece of flash fiction on the back of his business card (google it, it's pretty awesome really). If that isn't effective I don't know what is.

The most annoying thing for consumers (me at least, and most people I know, apart from my girlfriend...) is to be presented with something free, and then come up against a cliff hanger and have to pay through the nose for the full thing just to find out what happens. It's demo syndrome. It could help, it could work and in theory it really should, but if it happens too much, or is too damn annoying... no one is going to buy a damn thing. Making it an event is great but unless you have a massive, rabid following people might be more likely to say "eh." and move on, if you're not careful.

I'm of the impression that the best way of handling the short story as marketing your main book... Is to keep it tangential. Keep it self-contained. Keep it a showcase of you as a writer (that's more useful than anything to me) and don't expect it to do much heavy lifting. It's "just a free story." A sample.

But I know you're doing that anyway Brian

 

[BWFoster78]

I'm of the impression that the best way of handling the short story as marketing your main book... Is to keep it tangential. Keep it self-contained. Keep it a showcase of you as a writer (that's more useful than anything to me) and don't expect it to do much heavy lifting. It's "just a free story." A sample.

But I know you're doing that anyway Brian

Exactly.

My ultimate goal is to use it to build an email list of people who might be interested in my writing.

1. Make story available on my website for free if you give me your email address (with opt out option available)
2. Advertise the heck out of my story on every blog that will link to it
3. Create email list from all the downloads
4. When I have a new book come out, send announcement through email list
5. Remember to do the following: only use the email list for major announcements, try to include freebies/discounts/some kind of value add for people on the email list, maintain an easy opt out option for the email list

We'll see how it works. Once I get to that point, I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. I'm much more focused on the 2nd draft of my book than on the story, but I should finish the rough draft this week, next at the latest. I'm taking the story to my writing group in 2000 - 2500 word increments and want to pass the whole story by them before I go to the beta reader stage, so we're looking at another 4 weeks for me to finish my second draft. Another couple of weeks after that, I hope to have comments back from beta readers.