Michael J. Sullivan hosts a Q&A discussion

You wrote The Viscount and the Witch as a marketing move to draw people in to your other books.. or was there some other reason to write such a short story?

I had two reasons for writing The Viscount and the Witch.

1. It was during a time when my self-published books had been pulled, and the new Orbit books were in pre-order but no one could actually read them. So I wrote it to have "something" out there so I wouldn't fall off the Amazon algorithm radar completely.

2. It was indeed for marketing purposes. I made it free and short so that it was and easy way to introduce people to my writing. People like to "try before they buy" but some don't like sample chapters because they are just the start of a story. By doing a piece that has a full arc (beginning, middle, end) it shows your story telling capability. My main goal for that piece was to give "the flavor" of the dynamics between my two main protagonists so that if people liked what they saw, they could read more in the full series.

So yes, I think this is a good idea to do. Be sure and include the first chapter of your longer novel as "bonus material" to the free short. That way if they get done with the short - they are fed right into the first chapter. Also....Make sure you put a "link to your paid book page" at the bottom so that when they get reading it is just a kindle click away.

Great advice, thanks so much!

@C.M. You are welcome.