i am trying to figure out which does better in terms of sale or garnering more attention in the literary/entertainment world.. a book of short stories or a novel. what do you guys think?
Unless you are self-publishing, you're not going to have an easy time getting a publisher to take on a book of short stories you've written. So if you're going the traditional publishing route, the novel is the viable of the two options.
I'd say definitely a novel. Short stories usually get published only after the writer made his/her name with a successful novel.
Novels get more attention. Back in the old days of Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling, you could easily sell short stories. Nowadays, the major markets for short stories are genre magazines, like science-fiction magazines, mystery magazines, horror magazines, and so on. In the USA, the only mainstream publications that regularly publish short stories are The New Yorker, Harper's, and the Atlantic. There are plenty of literary magazines that publish short fiction, but they have small circulations and usually can't pay except in copies of the magazine. There are some famous recent writers, some still working today, who have made their reputations as short story writers. Alice Munro, for example. But they're relatively rare. Most publishers are looking for novels, because it seems that most readers are looking for novels.
ok..i appreciate the insight..but if i had a book of short fiction would self publishing make more sense..like just an ebook or is there another option.
If you have short fiction, you could do a few things: 1) find markets for the individual stories and sell them separately; 2) self-publish an ebook, for example on Amazon.com; or 3) sell the stories separately to various markets and THEN combine them and sell them as an ebook on Amazon.com
thanks steerpike (thats an awesome name by the way)..lolol.. i wanted to go the self publishing route..i am doing some research on that to see how that would play out
A well established author, like Stephen King, can get a collection of short stories published, but they still don't sell as well as their novels. They often end up being more successful as movie scripts because they are shorter and easier to adapt to a 90 minute running time. Many of SK's short stories have been made into films - Running Man, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption, Sleepwalkers, but these are never the stories that people remember as being by Stephen King because they lack the impact of, say, the Shining, The Stand or The Green Mile. If you're not a best selling author, your best bet is submitting your stories to magazines, or self publishing. But don't expect to make a lot of money - my cousin sells short stories to a monthly magazine, and gets £50 a time.
A well established author, like Stephen King, can get a collection of short stories published, but they still don't sell as well as their novels. They often end up being more successful as movie scripts because they are shorter and easier to adapt to a 90 minute running time. Many of SK's short stories have been made into films - Running Man, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption, Sleepwalkers, but these are never the stories that people remember as being by Stephen King because they lack the impact of, say, the Shining, The Stand or The Green Mile. If you're not a best selling author, your best bet is submitting your stories to magazines, or self publishing. But don't expect to make a lot of money - my cousin sells short stories to a monthly magazine, and gets £50 a time.
I've got to admit. I do prefer Shorts. I can be alot more descriptive over one particular scene or chapter than I could with a novel.
If I had a lot of publishable short stories, I would submit them to genre magazines. If you're published in magazines and later write a novel, you can mention your previous publications in your query letter. This may help you get a foot in the door. If you self-publish, on the other hand, this won't help your credibility with agents and publishers if you do write that novel.
