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 wasnāt there, as I stopped using Twitter a month earlier, but you donāt have to have been there to have heard the name.
As of writing this, it has been āviewedā 18.4M times! š
You just canāt make this stuff up! Now, Mr. dickolas (if I may call them that?) doesnāt have many followers on Twitter and Iām 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 Bestsellerās list. Pretty impressive!
In the aftermath I had a few take-aways from this phenomenon that I think are worth keeping in mind:
This book was published back in 2020, a good THREE YEARS before this tweet!
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 itās an honor to just be nominated.
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 youāre new around here, Iāve 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 Iām not one to back down from a challenge, even if itās one I give to myself. And as Iām 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.
Iāve 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. Thatās a given. Then thereās the inside and that kernel of an idea is still in its infancy but Iām leaning towards handwriting every story. Would take a lot because Iām already overly critical of my handwriting but every āhandwriting font styleā Iāve tried just isnāt quite right. And like my momma always said, āsometimes you just gotta do it yourself!ā
CAN GOOD BONES MAKE A GOOD BOOK?
Just because Iāve been working on āthe bookā for years (it seems) doesnāt mean itāll be what the people are clamoring for. Thatās 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:
Consistently good stories shared.
Trusted word of mouth from us to or followers.
Iām hoping to build good bones with my collection coming at the end of 2023 and beginning of the new year. Iād like to think I can do it all with my own two hands but I canāt. It will take a village to help this get off the ground. But Iām not asking just for myself. Iām 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! Letās do it together. Letās 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 couldāve predicted that. Itās 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 letās see what we can accomplish if we put our heads together.
PLANT A FLAG! MAKE A STATEMENT!
Thereās nothing like the power of community supporting your passion and dream! But we canāt support what we donāt know. Mentioning it on social media is great but you know whatās 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 donāt follow through and finish what you started? Iāve been there. But we canāt finish what we donāt start and thatās just facts.
Ever heard the phrase āno risk, no rewardā? Well, thatās what you need to do. Or as I like to say, ārisk it for the biscuit!ā
So, letās plant a flag together! Cause I would never ask you to do something I wasnāt more than willing to do myself. Letās 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 youāre going to let us know how itās going? All really important questions. But notice the one question I didnāt include? When it will be finished and released. That is an answer you donāt need to have right now. Donāt 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 wonāt be there anymore one month from now. Lean on the community for support during those time. Let us tell you itās all good and remind yourself of the great work youāve already done to get to wherever you are now. We can do this!
Look for my āannouncementā email some time in October!
THE BEST TIME TO START PLANNING THAT COLLECTION?
You know my answer is going to be āNOW!ā Who knows what could happen three years after itās been released. You could be seeing an unexpected surge too. Thatās not to get anyoneās hopes up. Least of all, my own. But I do like to dream big.
Whatās the use in dreaming small,
why bother having dreams at all?
My ādream bigā idea isnāt 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 donāt 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 youāre currently doing. Dream big. And not just āI wanna be Stephen King rich.ā Thatās kid stuff and boring.
Interesting post, thoughtful. tbh, the tweet name made me think of Monty Python “Life of Brian” where a character had a very similar name. I may read the book, but not just yet as I simply don’t have the time.
Thanks for reading it! Tremendous nail biting happening over here! lol
Encouraging positivity.
Already on it. I’m just about finished with one Novella (actually book 1 of a series.)
I have a second (Which is here on Substack) at 97 pages and 14k words or so. When it’s done, I’ll make it a second novella.
I’ve been slowly collecting all my favorite (self-penned) short stories into an anthology. Not sure when it’ll be done, but I know I want to be very proud of it when it does eventually go up for sale.
If you ever need any advice or help, let me know. I love working in Adobe InDesign for print books and I use Vellum for all my ebook formatting.
Thank you!
“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.” Love this quote. This is what I want, too.
My dream is oddly specific: I want to sell 423 copies of something I’ve written (ideally a novel or novella, but it could be a story collection too). Why 423? Because it’s one more than the number of copies sold by the writer played by John Cusack in 2012 of his book about a space shuttle crisis, “Farewell Atlantis.” I figure if I can beat that guy, I’m good. š
I published a book during the heart of the pandemic. It was a bunch of articles I and others had written. We did an ebook via Amazon, and if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t.
Yeah, I did that too. I published a few books but then wanted to do a rebranding of myself so I took them all down. When I return to publishing at the end of this year it will be for good this time.
I’m sure you have it down way better than I did! Unfortunately, the labor-intensiveness really turned me away from wanting to do it again any time soon. Maybe there will be a “book consolidator” type LLM made just for us?
Erica, it’s been good timing or luck but I never fail to either be entertained (100 Words!) or be instructed (on how to do/deal with going from an idea to getting the words in front of a reader), I’m glad you wrote this one. I hope you’ll someday write editorials on the ins & outs of self-publishing.
You got it! I’m in the middle of self-publishing my 100 Word Stories into a collection that will hopefully come out either end of this year or early next and I’m documenting as much of that process as possible. I’ve got some things in the pipeline for sure!