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Hello!
I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but as everyone here enjoys reading on their Kindle, and I'm publishing short fiction for you to read, I'm trying something new with my work, and I'd like your opinions. Don't worry, I'm not going to plug anything here. If you're interested in my current Kindle offerings, I have a thread in the Book's Bazaar that discusses all of them. But that said, thus far I've just published short fiction, and since the lowest price Amazon lets me set is eighty cents, I can't help but feel I should offer something extra with my stories. Not that eighty cents for fifteen to thirty pages is a horrible price. That's cheaper than a soda at most fast food places, and probably even more satisfying. Depending on how thirsty you are... Anyways, with my latest publication I thought I'd attempt doing something different and took a hint from my DVD collection. I decided to include some bonus material after the story. Not just a little afterward, but some things to give the reader a lot of insight on the creation and evolution of the story. That included a short essay on why I started work on the story, and another on the main image of the narrator throughout the tale. I also tossed in a mess of random trivia (facts like how each of the character's got their names, moments of my life that inspired moments of the story). There was also a section (met with mixed reviews) that I thought would be fun for discussion between readers or a way to give different insights to the story, and it was more or less a series of "essay" questions. I thought that if I asked the readers the same things I was asking myself while writing the story, it could almost serve as a "commentary track" while still allowing the reader further develop of his own interpretation.
Anyways, the over all idea was to give the reader excuses to read the stories three or four times and stretch out that eighty cent experience. It was also an attempt to see what sorts of new and exciting things I could do on the Kindle that I probably wouldn't in a standard paperback. Not only that, but readers who are just sampling the story will get a slightly longer 10% of the book.
So all of that said, now that I've tossed in these bonuses with one story, I'm thinking that I'd like to make it a regular thing. If possible, I'd want to inspire other writers to try the same. It was a fun experience. But I also want to make sure I include materials that you'd be interested in. The random trivia seemed to have been a hit. Again, the discussion questions were hit and miss. But what do you think? Should I include essays discussing some of the philosophies behind my work? Should I write about how the characters were developed? Over all, my question is, thinking of your favorite books and authors, if they were to include some extra features and such, what are the sorts of things you'd like to see? Or even what would you prefer not to see?
I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but as everyone here enjoys reading on their Kindle, and I'm publishing short fiction for you to read, I'm trying something new with my work, and I'd like your opinions. Don't worry, I'm not going to plug anything here. If you're interested in my current Kindle offerings, I have a thread in the Book's Bazaar that discusses all of them. But that said, thus far I've just published short fiction, and since the lowest price Amazon lets me set is eighty cents, I can't help but feel I should offer something extra with my stories. Not that eighty cents for fifteen to thirty pages is a horrible price. That's cheaper than a soda at most fast food places, and probably even more satisfying. Depending on how thirsty you are... Anyways, with my latest publication I thought I'd attempt doing something different and took a hint from my DVD collection. I decided to include some bonus material after the story. Not just a little afterward, but some things to give the reader a lot of insight on the creation and evolution of the story. That included a short essay on why I started work on the story, and another on the main image of the narrator throughout the tale. I also tossed in a mess of random trivia (facts like how each of the character's got their names, moments of my life that inspired moments of the story). There was also a section (met with mixed reviews) that I thought would be fun for discussion between readers or a way to give different insights to the story, and it was more or less a series of "essay" questions. I thought that if I asked the readers the same things I was asking myself while writing the story, it could almost serve as a "commentary track" while still allowing the reader further develop of his own interpretation.
Anyways, the over all idea was to give the reader excuses to read the stories three or four times and stretch out that eighty cent experience. It was also an attempt to see what sorts of new and exciting things I could do on the Kindle that I probably wouldn't in a standard paperback. Not only that, but readers who are just sampling the story will get a slightly longer 10% of the book.
So all of that said, now that I've tossed in these bonuses with one story, I'm thinking that I'd like to make it a regular thing. If possible, I'd want to inspire other writers to try the same. It was a fun experience. But I also want to make sure I include materials that you'd be interested in. The random trivia seemed to have been a hit. Again, the discussion questions were hit and miss. But what do you think? Should I include essays discussing some of the philosophies behind my work? Should I write about how the characters were developed? Over all, my question is, thinking of your favorite books and authors, if they were to include some extra features and such, what are the sorts of things you'd like to see? Or even what would you prefer not to see?