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7/25/2021 9 Benefits of Self Publishing Short Reads

9 Benefits of Self Publishing Short Reads

(Click to watch the Vlog)

Eyrie Iolair: Prodigal Sons the short-read miniseries is now LIVE on Amazon and soon to be published Wide. Each part is only $.99, or buy the miniseries for just $2.99.

Montane MacGuire was a typical college student chasing his master’s degree in 2016 until he met Rory Highwell at the beginning of the spring semester. The eagle man is convinced that Monty is the foretold leader of the kings of a fabled magical realm atop a mountain, and he has the evidence to back up his claims. When Monty has an accident while on a mission trip to Guatemala, the truth of who he is and how he's lived his adult life comes to light.

If he's going to help his friends and take his rightful place as the Lord of the Skies, his life will have to change drastically. Struggling to understand the prophecy surrounding him, protect his sister, save his friends, and claim his mate leads him on a series of adventures that almost puts him at odds with a far more powerful magic force affecting the dream until his life axiom of ‘Don’t Tell Mom’ finally saves the day for him and everyone he protects.

This one might be more young adult paranormal romance, but I don't know if that niche exists. (Sorry, I just had to plug one of my miniseries publications.) I will be listing it in several niches soon, but that can of worms belongs in a different blog post.

Short Read Project Publish

Prodigal Book Cover

As many of you know, my ability to remain in the dream full-time came to an end in August of 2020. Financially, it was a bit impossible to maintain my preferred level of immersion. My Indie Author's Walk has taken many twisting turns. I made the decision to attempt to publish as many of my doc files finished stories as I could before the dream became my part-time escape once again.

Having made that decision. It was important to inform my readers how I intended to speed the process. Short reads! They're far easier to produce than full-length novels. The stories are already written. So why not?

My shorter stories like the duet book Still Waters were what gave me the idea. They were just hanging out in my docs files collecting electronic dust and pestering the novels, so I decided to put them to work by publishing them. Cleaning up the docs files wasn't the only benefit to publishing short reads.

9 Benefits of Self Publishing Short Reads

Short reads don't need as many extra details that I feel must be included in a novel! That's important, but those details are still cool. So if you decide to publish a paperback version, be sure to add them. If you are going strictly ebook, then short reads as serial fiction might be the easiest writing game in town.

  1. No table of contents is required when the title isn't going to have more than 6 or 7 scenes at the most. Kindle Vella and Fictionate.Me will help create the table of contents for you and so will Draft2Digital if you collect the parts and publish them as a whole. Some might have only one or two long chapters, so with fewer pages, a lengthy table of contents seems silly. If you are publishing in series and want to group them later, add that feature back in especially if you are publishing hardcover or paperback for the larger work.


2. Easier to use online grammar tools to obtain a smoother reading experience. Use Google docs built-in spell-check. Grammarly is awesome, but past a few chapters, it gets clunky and slows down dramatically. Shorter is better here. Have the computer read it back to you so you can easily correct awkward phrasing or repetitive elements. Ask a beta reader to offer any proofread suggestions as well. I know nothing beats human editors, but let's face it, that is expensive. Cut the expense by having the cleanest copy possible before an editor sees it. (Smaller story parts are cheaper to edit than long novels, so it will hurt the wallet less in upfront costs.)


3. There's no need to craft pagination and footers. Formating takes a lot of time. In my short reads, each title is only about 50-60 pages long. Pagination and headers and footers are only necessary for paperback books or hardcovers as e-books lack this feature being reflowable documents and the reader platform determines page count.

Notes: Paperbacks do give e-books legitimacy, and also more facings on some storefronts, but that can come later as most Wide storefronts are selling digital content, not physical print books. Creating serial fiction just got easier as you need only add many of the formatting features if you are publishing print-on-demand books. Promoting the print version release might also give slowing sales a boost, so that could be helpful later on as well.


4. No need for a title page when a short intro will suffice. Just place your book cover on the first page of your manuscript instead. No one expects a fancy title page with a short story unless it's a collection of stories. (Also, you want to leave out the fluff to meet the time restraints of page/word counts on Kindle Short Reads).


5. Readers get straight to the story. Full-length novels have a certain appeal to them like no other style of writing. If a reader has only a short amount of time, however, a short read is already chunked as a bite-size package. If you want to be able to publish prolifically, then short-reads and episodic serial fiction are the way to go. They are better for the author as well. Those chunked bite-sized packages upload to all the vendors a lot quicker! 


6. When the work has been out for a while, it won't be hard to combine as a single volume so you can market it as a boxed set or a collection and sell at a reduced price. Short reads and episodic publishing help to promote a story before the work is fully published and/or effectively extend the shelf life of the book during the marketing phase. The hard parts, like proofreading and editing, will have already been completed. (So the novel readers won't be disillusioned or disappointed later on.)


7. There's less competition in short read categories and episodic publishing than in other categories, so authors have a better chance of getting their work noticed and building up readership while helping to hit the 7/11 rule a serious blow. (See some of my previous blog posts for an in-depth explanation of the 7/11 rule in marketing books.) Also, it gives a reader a lower price point to come into the body of work. The first part or first few chapters could be made perma-free and the ensuing parts could be sold for only $.99 allowing people to take a chance on an unknown author without risking much if the book wasn't appealing. (This is what made Wattpad and Inkitt so popular!)


8) The audience is different for short reads, episodic fiction, novels, and even boxed sets so an author has more opportunity to market and promote their book to a wider readership by publishing smaller first. The time to promote the work is extended as well as it transitions into larger reads. This allows for more readers a chance to interact with the text. Let's face it, the more readers the better. Welcome to the dream...


9) Writing a short read series also aids in deleting the 'lull spots' in a book. All stories have parts that aren't as interesting no matter how important. Each part of a short-read series would have at least one 'impact scene' aiding the reader in maintaining their interest in the story. In Dread Allies, each short read part has at least one romance scene that moves the story along. That way my readers don't feel cheated. (Not all of my books work like that. But I am getting better at storytelling. In short, writing short makes an author a better one!)

I mean this one is a true slow burn paranormal romance in the devils and demons niche. The first three chapters are free to read on Kindle Vella and Fictionate.me but it's only $.99 on Fictionate.me. I still am not positive, but I think it will cost the reader more on Kindle Vella and I will likely make less than what I would earn on Fictionate.me. Plus you can listen to the book for that same $.99. (I think it might be a bit better platform than Kindle Vella.)

Please, Don't Forget to Leave Reviews

Thanks for reading my words and hearing my voice. If you've only barely stumbled over Ophelia Kee, I'm happy you found the dream. If you've been a regular visitor for a while, thank you even more! I truly want to write and share my stories with lovers of adult fantasy, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance. If you like immortals, magic, shifters, vampires, dragons, paranormal abilities, and fated mates then the dream just might be your next reading destination. I'm always working on my stories and hoping for inspiration from readers so, bother me, please!

Soon, I plan on publishing a lot more titles, wide and as serial fiction. I will also be updating several of my older titles and crafting short-read audiobooks. Check back often for more behind-the-scenes of the dream information. As always if you read, please be kind and leave your review.

Be Careful!

Happy reading,

Ophelia Kee