Clean Romances discussion

Hi guys

I put a clean romance short story on to Amazon recently and it was criticised for being too short (it runs to 100 words). It was pitched as free but will soon revert to 99c.

So is this too short to be worth it? What is the minimum acceptable length for a romantic short story?

Thanks

Andy

I don't know the answer to that, but I have a short story on Amazon that runs approx 2000 words. It's available now for free, but initially Amazon made me sell it for 99 cents minimum, and I got super-zapped in a review for it. "The writing was good, but it was too short to be worth 99 cents." Something like that. So yeah, I'd be careful. Or at least prepared for some readers to complain.

Thanks Joyce, I'm glad I am not the only one to get this. What irks me a bit about this criticism is that everyone can see how long the story is from the page on Amazon - the number of pages. Also you can even sample a little bit of the story before you buy.

I'm coming to think that these stories need to be 2k-3k words minimum for people to feel they've had their moneys worth.

A

Some readers just can't be pleased and even if they got the story free, they'll attack the fact that it normally isn't. Unfortunately, though the Amazon page does indicate the length, most people don't notice it. They see "FREE" and aren't looking at much of anything else on the book's page.

I typically don't bother with the eBook retailers when I have a short story less than 2000 words (I even hesitated over one that's just under 5000 and all because of this issue). Stories less than 2000 words either get posted on my website or the Clever Fiction website.

Hi Andy,
I have a short story, My Last Blind Date, which is around 5,000 words and received complaints that it was too short. I've also received a lot of 5-star reviews. In March, this book was in the top 100 Paid Kindle on Amazon US and Amazon UK. You know what they say, one person's treasure is another person's trashy review. That said, I just released a 6 page short story called, An Unexpected Date. As long as you're clear in the description of what buyers will get for the money, why not have it available for digitial? I'm sure your fans with ereaders appreciate it. BTW, I downloaded Scouting for Lucy and posted a review on Amazon...it was quite a witty read! Don't forget to post tags for it so readers will be able to find it easily...happy writing!

Many thanks Susan, I appreciate the advice and support. Just out of interest what else , if anything, did you do to promote your work on Amazon?

Regards

Andy

PS I couldn't find Scouting for Lucy on Goodreads or I would've left a review there, too. You might want to add it here. :)

Joyce wrote: "I don't know the answer to that, but I have a short story on Amazon that runs approx 2000 words. It's available now for free, but initially Amazon made me sell it for 99 cents minimum, and I got su..."

Joyce (or anyone else who knows) how did you get your story listed for free? I wanted to do the same thing for Paulina's Story (which is about 9500 words) but I couldn't see how to do it, so I signed it up for select to at least offer it for free on the promotional days.

Hi Susan

I don't think I can reproduce it here directly becasue it's on Amazons KDP Select program. The link is here:

http://www.amazon.com/Scouting-for-Lu...

Thanks

Ginger wrote: "Joyce (or anyone else who knows) how did you get your story listed for free? I wanted to do the same thing for Paulina's Story (which is about 9500 words) but I couldn't see how to do it, so I signed it up for select to at least offer it for free on the promotional days."

You list it on Smashwords for free and once it goes live, you report to Amazon that you saw it's free elsewhere. They price match.

Thanks, Jaimey. Guess I'm kinda screwed now. I listed it with KDP Select for the exclusive 90-day period. Oh, well. You live and you learn!

Susan wrote: "Hi Andy,
I have a short story, My Last Blind Date, which is around 5,000 words and received complaints that it was too short. I've also received a lot of 5-star reviews. In March, this book was in ..."

Seriously, how can 5,000 words be too short? I mean why don't these guys just go and read War and Peace and have done with it!

A short story should be as long as it needs to be, I think each story has a natural length, if short story writers feel they have to pad out their work we will ger poorer stories for it. Sometimes a story is better for being shorter.

There, I've had a rant I feel better now...
A

Andrew wrote: "Hi guys

I put a clean romance short story on to Amazon recently and it was criticised for being too short (it runs to 100 words). It was pitched as free but will soon revert to 99c.

So is this to..."

Doh! Significant typo - my short story runs to 1,000 words, not 100! Even I think that would be a bit short!

Andrew wrote: "Many thanks Susan, I appreciate the advice and support. Just out of interest what else , if anything, did you do to promote your work on Amazon?

Regards
Andy"

No problem, Andy! Things to promote? When you know your story is going to be free on Amazon, you can send a message to place like Kindle Nation and Pixel of Ink to let them know and they choose if they will announce it. These sites get a lot of reader traffic so that's a great way to let readers know about the free promotion deal you're offering. I do some social networking like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads Blog, and also my own website. Reviewer websites are a good idea too. I'm also doing my first author chat soon on Night Owl Reviews...should be fun!!

:) Susan

Ginger wrote: "Joyce wrote: "I don't know the answer to that, but I have a short story on Amazon that runs approx 2000 words. It's available now for free, but initially Amazon made me sell it for 99 cents minimum..."

What Jaimey said. ;-)

Thanks, Joyce. BTW, I read your interview with Tina. Great job! SO CUTE!

I haven't sold a ton of copies of my short stories, but I've sold a fair number between the three of them, none of them are more than 4,000 words and one is under 2,000 words, but I haven't gotten any backlash for them being too short. But then I mark it clearly in the title, "Alone No Longer:a short story." You could also put in the blurb that the story is only 1,000 words if you're getting complaints about the length. Some people will take the time to read the whole description, and that may make a difference.

That's what I did with my novelettes (the shortest of which is the 9500 words one.) It is the first thing listed in the product description. I have to say that before I ever wrote a book, I would not have known anything about word count. I think with the rise of the ebook short story, though, people have become much more savvy and have a good idea of length from a word count.

Alternately, you can put the number of double-spaced pages, since that's roughly the same as a page in a novel and is easier for some people to understand.

Actually, Amazon has begun listing estimated page length. They base it on number of page turns on a Kindle in the font size most closely resembling a printed book. It really messed me up a couple of weeks ago, because I included my own estimated page length in the product information, and of course, it was different! I don't know about the other vendors.

Andrew wrote: "Susan wrote: "Hi Andy,
I have a short story, My Last Blind Date, which is around 5,000 words and received complaints that it was too short. I've also received a lot of 5-star reviews. In March, thi..."
ROFLOL on War and Peace. I'm totally with you on being true to the story and its natural length. :-)

I think maybe the problem is that single short stories are listed in the same category as short story collections such as my own: "For A Smile". Obviously a collection's word count much more closely resembles a "book" in readers' minds so when a story of 1000 words (which is a commercially standard length)is offered, it seems little in comparison with a longer collection. There's nothing you can do apart from be honest about the length: if readers don't take that on board, you have at least done all you can. :)

Lydia wrote: "I think maybe the problem is that single short stories are listed in the same category as short story collections such as my own: "For A Smile". Obviously a collection's word count much more closel..."

Fair comment Lydia - thanks

Andrew,

I don't think any length is "too short". A story takes however long it takes. Pricing is the only problem. :)

If you're concerned people are expecting a longer story, you might want to try the Kindle Singles program. It's specifically for short stories. Originally, IIRC, it was invitation-only, but now they're accepting work from self-publishers as well as others.

Here's the link, in case you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&n...

Thanks for the tip Amy, I'll check out the singles program.

A

I have two novellas of over 20,000 words (between 75 and 100 pages), clearly label them as novellas, and never charge more than $.99, and readers still say they are too short!

I will never release something under 20,000 words for fear of being crucified by readers.

I found my novella sold as well or better at $2.99 than it did at 99 cents. So your readers might be claiming the story is too short just because they want more, not because they think they didn't get enough reading material for their money. I haven't received any complaints that 99 cents is too much for my short stories.

Thanks, Heather, for your info.