building a case for my short story collection (and yours)

It was early May 2023 when a tweet was, for lack of a better word, heard round the world and it was written by someone who has a name that will likely go down in history. I wasn’t there, as I stopped using Twitter a month earlier, but you don’t have to have been there to have heard the name.

As of writing this, it has been “viewed” 18.4M times! 👀

You just can’t make this stuff up! Now, Mr. dickolas (if I may call them that?) doesn’t have many followers on Twitter and I’m sure this tweet can be used as an example of how going viral can be advantageous. But what makes this story so interesting to me is that the authors of This is How You Lose the Time War had no idea what was going on when they saw their book climb the charts to #3 on Amazon and #9 on the NYT Bestseller’s list. Pretty impressive!

In the aftermath I had a few take-aways from this phenomenon that I think are worth keeping in mind:

1. This book was published back in 2020, a good THREE YEARS before this tweet!

2. At that time it was nominated and won the Hugo as well as the Nebulla and Locus awards for Best Novella. If you hang out in short story circles then you know those are pretty awards and it’s an honor to just be nominated.

3. Anything is possible if you put in the work.

What exactly am I trying to get at, you may be asking yourself. Okay, so if you’re new around here, I’ve been writing one 100 word story every single day since May 1st (right around the time this viral tweet happened). Why? The mood struck me and I’m not one to back down from a challenge, even if it’s one I give to myself. And as I’m nearing 100 of these stories written (quite a milestone for any person) I am growing increasingly intrigued at the possibilities of putting these stories into some sort of book form.

THE KERNEL OF AN IDEA

Self-publishing books is not new to me. It started way back in college when I wanted to see my poetry in book form so I went to Lulu.com and made it happen in a few easy steps. Then I got older and wanted to try my hand at selling copies of my work so I wrote an illustrated book with a close friend who did all the artwork. Then I had a wild idea for a fantasy series. Basically, this all boils down to the fact that I know all the ins and outs of ISBNs, Amazon KDP, Adobe InDesign, and whatever else is needed to get the book from written to published.

I’ve had several iterations and ideas ruminating in my brain about how I would want to create my first (of many?) collections. How many would go in the book is a discussion for another day but I have already set my sights on the Austin Kleon books and want mine to be a square. That’s a given. Then there’s the inside and that kernel of an idea is still in its infancy but I’m leaning towards handwriting every story. Would take a lot because I’m already overly critical of my handwriting but every “handwriting font style” I’ve tried just isn’t quite right. And like my momma always said, “sometimes you just gotta do it yourself!”

CAN GOOD BONES MAKE A GOOD BOOK?

Just because I’ve been working on “the book” for years (it seems) doesn’t mean it’ll be what the people are clamoring for. That’s where we all come in. Good bones, I believe, are built by the hands (or mouths?) of others. Word of mouth, in the case of collections of short stories can do well as long as two statements can be made true:

1. Consistently good stories shared.

2. Trusted word of mouth from us to or followers.

I’m hoping to build good bones with my collection coming at the end of 2023 and beginning of the new year. I’d like to think I can do it all with my own two hands but I can’t. It will take a village to help this get off the ground. But I’m not asking just for myself. I’m asking on behalf of all of us out there in the fiction writing community who are toiling away on sharing short stories but are unsure if it can ever be anything more than an email in an inbox. It can! Let’s do it together. Let’s build good bones!

I want to get the word out about your work, especially if your intention is to put it in book form to sell. The act of writing can be a very solitary one. We hide away in our writing places wherever we can find the time, but then we can also come together and when the time is right, build those good bones.

I am sure when El-Mohtar and Gladstone wrote their little book they were immensely honored to be nominated for such prestigious awards and then doubly so when they won. But to expect three years later for a random tweet by the randomest of Twitter users to cause such a viral stir on the algorithm that it raised their books from the depths of where it was, to above some newer released books. No one could’ve predicted that. It’s the power of messaging, community, and most of all word of mouth.

Am I expecting Substack to lift us up to the heights of 18.4M views in two months? No. But let’s see what we can accomplish if we put our heads together.

PLANT A FLAG! MAKE A STATEMENT!

There’s nothing like the power of community supporting your passion and dream! But we can’t support what we don’t know. Mentioning it on social media is great but you know what’s even better? Cementing it in an email right on your own Substack (or blog). I know, that kind of commitment can be hard to do. What if you don’t follow through and finish what you started? I’ve been there. But we can’t finish what we don’t start and that’s just facts.

Ever heard the phrase “no risk, no reward”? Well, that’s what you need to do. Or as I like to say, “risk it for the biscuit!”

So, let’s plant a flag together! Cause I would never ask you to do something I wasn’t more than willing to do myself. Let’s write an email/blog outlining our collection endeavor. Share what you want to do, how you plan on doing it, and most importantly, how often you’re going to let us know how it’s going? All really important questions. But notice the one question I didn’t include? When it will be finished and released. That is an answer you don’t need to have right now. Don’t worry about finishing. Focus on starting and getting those stories in order.

Life will always get in the way and before you know it the time you thought you had won’t be there anymore one month from now. Lean on the community for support during those time. Let us tell you it’s all good and remind yourself of the great work you’ve already done to get to wherever you are now. We can do this!

Look for my “announcement” email some time in October!

THE BEST TIME TO START PLANNING THAT COLLECTION?

You know my answer is going to be “NOW!” Who knows what could happen three years after it’s been released. You could be seeing an unexpected surge too. That’s not to get anyone’s hopes up. Least of all, my own. But I do like to dream big.

My “dream big” idea isn’t to sell 1M copies. I want to know my work kept someone up at night or made them pick up a pen and start writing something. I want to teach and influence through my own journey in storytelling. And with any luck be able to do this for the rest of my life.

How am I making this dream a reality? Well, it starts with one day at a time thinking. If I think of the finished product I easily get overwhelmed. I don’t think about hitting one-hundred stories written in 100 days. Instead, I think about the one story I have to write today. Small goals and accomplishments will eventually lead to a collection.

Time to sound off on our dreams! I want to hear from you! What are you fiction writing dreams? Go beyond what you’re currently doing. Dream big. And not just “I wanna be Stephen King rich.” That’s kid stuff and boring.