Joined
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3,198 Posts
As my father says: data is happiness (he's an engineer
)
I've seen a lot of questions/speculations thrown around here about short story sales. So I want to do a guest blog series on my blog (http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/) gathering REAL data from short story authors. I think this is important for both indie short story and novelists alike.
Personally, I write because I enjoy it. But I think that people hold back on writing short stories because they fear there's no money in it. Perhaps that's true, perhaps not.
So here's what I would like for you to send me in the body of an email:
Your past short story writing history- Just a few quick words saying if you used to write for magazines and such back in the day or if you're entirely new to writing
Date you electronically published your first story- through a publisher or by yourself, I don't care
Amount of effort you put into advertising your short stories- high, medium, low, none
Genre(s)- list your main ones
The average length your individual short stories tend to be- of course this varies, but everyone has a comfortable norm
Amazon sales data
-I would prefer last 6 months, but if you haven't been published that long, send me what you got
-For each month, send me how many TOTAL standalone and collections you had up for sale
-For each month, tell me how many TOTAL standalone and collection sales you made (please combine US, UK and DE sales)
B&N sales data
-Same as Amazon so we can compare
I'm asking for totals because I believe short stories sell differently than books. You're looking for 1 reader to buy all 30 stories rather than 30 different readers. This is why it's important to list how many works you had up and then total sales.
Please send all information to [email protected] You may also send me one personal link to add at the bottom of your guest post. This is merely a fact gathering attempt. Is it realistic to be a full time short story writer?

I've seen a lot of questions/speculations thrown around here about short story sales. So I want to do a guest blog series on my blog (http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/) gathering REAL data from short story authors. I think this is important for both indie short story and novelists alike.
Personally, I write because I enjoy it. But I think that people hold back on writing short stories because they fear there's no money in it. Perhaps that's true, perhaps not.
So here's what I would like for you to send me in the body of an email:
Your past short story writing history- Just a few quick words saying if you used to write for magazines and such back in the day or if you're entirely new to writing
Date you electronically published your first story- through a publisher or by yourself, I don't care
Amount of effort you put into advertising your short stories- high, medium, low, none
Genre(s)- list your main ones
The average length your individual short stories tend to be- of course this varies, but everyone has a comfortable norm
Amazon sales data
-I would prefer last 6 months, but if you haven't been published that long, send me what you got
-For each month, send me how many TOTAL standalone and collections you had up for sale
-For each month, tell me how many TOTAL standalone and collection sales you made (please combine US, UK and DE sales)
B&N sales data
-Same as Amazon so we can compare
I'm asking for totals because I believe short stories sell differently than books. You're looking for 1 reader to buy all 30 stories rather than 30 different readers. This is why it's important to list how many works you had up and then total sales.
Please send all information to [email protected] You may also send me one personal link to add at the bottom of your guest post. This is merely a fact gathering attempt. Is it realistic to be a full time short story writer?