Archive for the ‘Short Stories’ Category

Writing Short Stories For Money

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

People love to read short stories they are the perfect length for sitting in the Dr’s office or while you are waiting to get your hair cut. They are just long enough to grab your interest but not so long that you cannot finish them by the time your turn has come. They can be found in books as compilations or in magazines; they come in all genres and vary in length from several hundred words to several thousand words.

How do you go about making money with your stories and where do you start? If you have never tried to get a story published before this can seem to be a daunting task, we have all heard how hard it can be to get an editor to look at your work. In the printed book world this can sometimes seem to be the case, if you have ever faced an editor’s rejection you would understand.

Thankfully, there are many magazines that print short stories from unknown and well known authors, side by side. The biggest trick to finding one, is knowing how to use the Internet to couple your story with the right magazine, after all a horror story would not fit well in family circle. At most magazine companies you will find a list of their rules for submissions. If you want to have any chance at all you must follow these rules to the letter, any variance will end with a rejection notice no matter how good your story is.

There are places on the Internet that will help you get your stories published, many of them offer free services and will not only help you publish your work but will help you market it as well. Some of these such as Xilbris and Dorrance offer editorial and publishing services to help get your book the most publicity. A word to the wise though they will charge you for their services, but you get what you pay for and if you want to make money with your stories you are going to need a high quality publisher.

You can also sell your short stories on web sites in the form of eBooks. This is becoming a very popular medium for new writers and it is a great way to turn your short stories into some well deserved cash.

Sience Fiction Stories: The Time Is Now

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Time travel offers a great topic for science fiction short stories. Time machines, paradoxes, disasters, are all rich fields offering many unique stories. But what makes a great time travel story? It’s always about something you never expected such as a butterfly crushed on a boot, or a wife’s murderer who just happens to be a time traveling senator. In one book messages sent back in time help prevent a global disaster caused by the startup of a new powerful atom smasher. (Hopefully this is fiction). What we need is a new time travel science fiction blog.

But aliens and robots truly capture our attention. People scour the internet for either aliens or robots far more than for free science fiction or science fiction short stories. Everybody wants a robot butler. Everybody wants to know if alien abductions are science fact or science fiction. Have alien robots visited the White House, has an alien ever been elected? Now that would make a great science fiction blog post. The time for science fiction is now. Aspiring writers with a science fiction stories trapped in their heads should come forward and be heard. People who have always been interested in becoming an author, but have never found the time to get started should start writing today. There are still so many science fiction stories yet to be told.

Spider Worlds – A Short Story That Wouldn’t Die!!!!

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

In fact it was eventually expanded into three novels — a surprise to the magazine editors that rejected it, no doubt. I was also told by one “literary critic” that there was no way to expand a story like this into a book. Fortunately HarperCollins didn’t agree.

However the three spider tales novels spun (pun intended) from this short story were still more or less an accident. When I was asked to send in three proposals for a trilogy aimed at intermediate readers, I had two good ideas — but not a third. Time was running out, so I dusted off this short story, expanded the idea, and transformed the character into a young man. I knew the editor’s wouldn’t go for it; it was a throwaway that got me the third story idea.