Blog question...

[JennyorAlice]

Okay, I have a question. I have some short stories that I've been writing. I've written one and I'm in the process of writing second one. My question is, should I release my short stories on my literature based blog? Or do you think I should get the short stories published separately from my blog?

The reason I ask is I've been thinking of ways to monetizing my blog and I thought releasing my short stories on my blog would be one way to do it. I've been thinking of content I haven have for people to pay for on my blog and I thought the short stories that I'm writing would be just one of them. Do you think that's a good idea? Or am I doing this all wrong?

 

[kensonplays]

This is by no means a 'hard recommendation,' but you could probably create them as a PDF, then charge a small fee of like 1-2$ (or however long it is and how much u think its worth) to buy and access offline.

 

[Cedric]

Depends how many short stories you plan to do. If it's a frequent thing and you want to monetize it, then I would have a separate section and post snippets of those stories in your main index. That will get people hooked and possibly buy a subscription to whatever it is you have setup to gain access.

I would however first of all, see who your target audience is and ask yourself, "would I pay to read this content?" If the answer is no, then release it for free but add advertisements in between the lines. If your answer is yes, without being biased, then you can put them behind a paywall. However, doing so might not given the wanted results, so I'd be careful with expectations and expect the worst, the disappointment will be less hard to swallow then.

Good luck!

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think publishing your short stories on your blog could work, people look for unique content and your short stories will certainly be something unique you can offer to your readers! Since you're blog has been around for a while, you've got a memberbase and I'm sure they'd be thrilled to read your own short stories. Then perhaps later on down the road, you could get some of your stories published into one book and it'll help bring in money and get the word out more about your blog too.

 

[JennyorAlice]

I've got the short stories broken down to chapters. My original idea was to release a chapter on my blog periodically behind a paywall of some kind. It was going to be something I'd offer to people who paid for a "membership" to my blog. If people didn't exactly want to pay for a "membership", then I thought about just charging a small fee for each chapter released to my blog. But that depended upon me coming up with other things to offer for people who purchase a "membership" to my blog....

The way the short stories are written, I also think they'd be good if published in a magazine.

 

[Shortie]

Publishing your short stories on your blog could work but I also know that Amazon offers a service where you can publish your work for people to be able to purchase and you are paid for it as well. It all depends on what direction you wish to take

Here is the link to the Amazon Publishers so you can take a look https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/

 

[SDL]

It sounds like a good idea to publish them on your blog, especially if you already have traffic and a paid membership in place or plan on setting one up. It would make more business sense to encourage users to purchase a membership as opposed to selling them individually, perhaps offer a discounted trial for the same price as one story to get them hooked. It'll be easier to sell instead of hoping they buy each individual story and you'll have a predictable recurring revenue.

 

[JennyorAlice]

Well, I have one short story that I've written already and I'm currently writing another short story now. I have a third short story brewing in the back of my mind. If I can come up with more than the three, then maybe this can become a recurring revenue for my blog. I'll see if I can write out the three that I've got and then see if I can come up with others before I decide to implement this into my blog. If I can't come up with more than the three, then I may go with the option that @Shortie provided.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Okay, I have a question. I have some short stories that I've been writing. I've written one and I'm in the process of writing second one. My question is, should I release my short stories on my literature based blog? Or do you think I should get the short stories published separately from my blog?

The reason I ask is I've been thinking of ways to monetizing my blog and I thought releasing my short stories on my blog would be one way to do it. I've been thinking of content I haven have for people to pay for on my blog and I thought the short stories that I'm writing would be just one of them. Do you think that's a good idea? Or am I doing this all wrong?

If you plan to just make random short stories here and there with different genres, maybe a category on your literature blog would be good enough for your stories? It will be relevant after all.

However, if you want to get your stories out and popular, you might consider a whole dedicated blog to it.

If I had a literature blog that showed people tips and trick of literature, I'd want an additional blog for my stories to link to as examples for tip articles and such

 

[Nomad]

It is difficult to make money from a literary blog, I tried and I failed. I suggest you publish your story on KDP and a short expert on your blog and link it to your Kindle book.

 

[JennyorAlice]

Okay, you guys that answered my question originally, I'm going to tag you guys to this because I have a new question.

I know Shortie threw in the idea that you can send in the short stories to Amazon but what if I did both? Like, would I be able to send in the short stories to Amazon, where the short stories can be bought and sold. But can I sell the stories on my blog as well? Or would I have to do one or the other?

@Cedric @Ravenfreak @Shortie @SDL @Shawn Gossman @Nomad

 

[Shortie]

Okay, you guys that answered my question originally, I'm going to tag you guys to this because I have a new question.

I know Shortie threw in the idea that you can send in the short stories to Amazon but what if I did both? Like, would I be able to send in the short stories to Amazon, where the short stories can be bought and sold. But can I sell the stories on my blog as well? Or would I have to do one or the other?

@Cedric @Ravenfreak @Shortie @SDL @Shawn Gossman @Nomad

I believe because it is your work, you would be able to do both but I could be wrong.

I believe @Nomad would know more about this as I know he has published and sold his work before

 

[SDL]

Yeah as long as it’s your work you can publish it wherever as you retain copyright. Most books are published on multiple platforms unless you sign an exclusivity agreement.

 

[Nomad]

Okay, you guys that answered my question originally, I'm going to tag you guys to this because I have a new question.

I know Shortie threw in the idea that you can send in the short stories to Amazon but what if I did both? Like, would I be able to send in the short stories to Amazon, where the short stories can be bought and sold. But can I sell the stories on my blog as well? Or would I have to do one or the other?

@Cedric @Ravenfreak @Shortie @SDL @Shawn Gossman @Nomad

Amazon needs original work, you cannot publish that has been previously published. When you are publishing on Amazon, you get options to choose between selling exclusively on Amazon or selling else where as well. When you sell exclusively to Amazon, you are entitled to better pay. I am not sure if they have changed the rules these days.

 

[Tracy]

Like, would I be able to send in the short stories to Amazon, where the short stories can be bought and sold. But can I sell the stories on my blog as well? Or would I have to do one or the other?

How about the best of both worlds... publish it on Amazon... then on your site offer a "teaser" of the book then provide a link to the Amazon option.
That way, if you do decide to monetize them, you can get the higher payout from Amazon.

 

[JennyorAlice]

I think if I have a choice between Amazon and my blog, then I'm going to go with Amazon. I might do like Tracy suggested and just have a "teaser" of sorts on my blog with a link to it on Amazon.