I'm zooming up on finishing a full-length sci-fi novel (105K words) that I expect to release in mid-November (in mid-August, I expect to start taking Kindle pre-orders for the new novel). At the same time, I've written a short story (approx. 15K words) that serves as a prequel to the new novel. I anticipate publishing the short story at the same time I kick-off pre-orders for the full-length novel. I grappling whether to offer the short story for free or charge for it ($0.99 or $1.49). As a long-time direct marketer, I prefer buyers versus triers, but I've not tried Kindle Quick Reads as a lead generator before, so I'm unsure of its effectiveness. Other important info: Both the novel and short story will be KU books. The intent behind marketing the short story is threefold: (1) it provides a backstory to the novel storyline that I didn't want to insert in the novel, and (2) I thought it might be a way to promote pre-orders of the new novel and (3) it provides me a chance to start building a following in the sci-fi community (I have three other books on KU and they generate a bit more than 40K page reads a day, but they are in the mystery/thriller/suspense genre. This will be my first foray into sci-fi). Thoughts? Suggestions? Opinions?
