I plan to self-pub a 5,000 word short story soon, but am overwhelmed on research materials.

I just read the piece of this story you posted up and it's good. I liked it.

Two things though. Firstly, if you're going to publish on amazon you may want to delete it, or at least some of it. They have a rule about how only 10% is allowed to be published elsewhere.
Secondly, when I was reading your story I had the impression Donny was older. No idea why. When you write your blurb/story description you may want to put his age in there.

 

Awesome .

I'll look into that, thanks!

I was debating on putting his age in the blurb, so it's good to know it has a vote!

 

Thank you @rincewind31, and good luck to you.

 

Incidentally, someone mentioned using createspace and making a paperback, but createspace requires a minimum of 24 pages so, no, I wouldn't even bother thinking about it.

 

KU is quite easy to use, just a couple of suggestions from my experiences:

If you plan to use the look inside feature this only shows 10% of your story, so to make sure that isn't taken up with intros and publishing dates etc, acknowledgements, consider putting these at the end of the story and starting with your story, so people can get a good feel for what they will be buying. Nothing worse than looking at the Look Inside feature and only getting to read the first couple of lines of the actual story.

There is an automatic renewal in to KU after 3 months, so if you are considering coming out of it son you can market it on line in other places, make sure you untick the box for auto-renew.

You have already got lots of good advice but keep asking those questions as they crop up.

 

@rincewind31

altho most definitely the best opening I've read on Amazon self-published/links from WF...

'...the black underpants,' then she rolls over...

I'll read on despite 'top critical poster' calling you a 'lightweight,' lightweight x

 

@matwoolf

If the top critical poster was looking for heavyweight literature they were most definitely looking in the wrong place

 

I have a createspace at 26 pages and an Amazon at 33 which is also available in papperback.
Maybe it would be another "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." One could only hope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

 

?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a full-length book, isn't it?

(I'm not seeing the connection...)

 

Ah, that answers my question, and maybe @rincewind31 's as well—you HAVE had critiques and feedback from betas. If you've got to the point where the betas and feedback aren't turning up any problems, then fire ahead.

You're quite right, not to want to taint your reputation with a half-baked story. Because a half-baked story will not only do you no good, but will make you squirm every time you look at it. However, if it's polished and people already like it ...well, congratulations! Put it out there. All the best wishes for success from me.

 

Thank you! I'm finding all the advice on this thread quite helpful. My biggest hurdle now is trying to figure out what audience to target it at--children, young adult, or adult. I really have no idea.

Are you any good at finding the target audience? Would you mind reading it for the purpose of helping me figure it out (fair warning, it's not completely polished yet)?

 

As an initial guide consider the content and how it has been handled to consider an appropriate age. Also, consider the words, while children need to be challenged, they don't want to have to sit with dictionary at the side of them. Also, is the main character of a certain age? Children often read books with characters the same age or a couple of years above (as a general rule, I know there are exceptions). Is the book illustrated, again this can be used to decide an target age group. I spent time in the local book shops checking out the content and illustrations in what age ranges to decide where my novel sat.

 

The MC is a 10-year-old boy and it's in first person so I tried to write the whole thing in his voice. I didn't write it with just children in mind, though, and all my betas are adults and have enjoyed it. I'm honestly not sure how to write for children, so I don't know how to tell if I've accidentally done it. I've also read that children's books don't do as well on Kindle, so I was hoping to target a more adult audience, but I'm wondering if that's the right thing to do. I mean, would adults accept buying (or downloading) a 5,000 word story that's marketed "adult"?

(totally not clueless )

 

If you've written as a ten year old boy in his voice then you probably have to aim it at that range. Maybe teens too.
Short stories are a really hard sell anyway whatever the genre, although they're more accepted in the really adult market, that whatever market you aim at it isn't going to be easy.

 

Is there a framing device or anything you could use to make the story more appealing to adult audiences (a la To Kill A Mockingbird or whatever?).

I'm really not sure about short stories for kids - there's a magazine market, I guess, but solo self-pubbed?

 

Thanks, guys! I have somewhere to start now in my research!