Hey, crew?
While I’m cranking through a lot of back logged audio work (and gearing up for Mike Sullivan’s Avempartha), I’m throwing around a few ideas to help cut down the amount of time you have to wait for new content from me.
A lot of people have said “Write some short stories” but most of you know, I don’t really like to do shorts.
Except, I’ve done a few that were really quite fun. I did one for JR Blackwell’s Birthday Book last year that was a gas. I’ve got one going into Tee and Pip’s Steampunk anthology. I even did one a couple years ago from Matt Selznick’s kick off anthology (and that might show up in a Star Ship Sofa episode some day, too.)
So… That leads me to Novel Nibbles.
I met Debora Geary on the Kindle Boards recently and she convinced me to take a look at her site and read her first nibble. It’s a novella length (20,000 words) and I really enjoyed it. I read it on my phone. While this is not unusual for me, it also struck me that this might be a great way for me to toss a bit of reading your way for the between-times, keep my hand in, and try out some different stories.
At 99 cents they’re not real expensive, but if we moved a few of them, it would help cover bandwidth costs and they’re small enough that you’d get something you could read on your smart phones or ipads or whatever. You don’t even need to own a kindle to as long as you have a device you can get the app for.
It’s not going to take the place of my main writing but I’m trying to find ways to get more work out between the big chunks of stuff. At 20k words it’s enough room to tell a simple story and I think that’s a pretty good value for a buck. So? You interested?
Check out the site, maybe read the nibble there and see how it works for you as a test run, and let me know what you think of this idea? Pllease leave me a comment and lemme know what you think–good, bad, or indifferent?
Thanks.
I’ve not started buying kindle books yet cause I’m afraid that’s where all my extra cash will end up going but for your would I’d certainly pay $1 to read something I’m sure to enjoy. I’d say go for it. :-)
I’d pay a buck to read your “shorties.” My vote is: Go for it!
sounds good to me. I would pay a buck to read it. and i would be happy to do it.
Um, I’d buy that for a dollar?
I be happy to pay the dollar!
Of course, I’ll be even happier to pay the $35 for the signed hard copies… Any news on them?
Ridan is still fighting with Lulu over the Hardcovers .. but they should be coming off the pipeline soon.
Yeah, I’d pay a buck for it. Have you considered teaming with other indie authors and perhaps compiling a set of shorts and novellas and offering them as a serial publications? I have no problems paying $2.99 for Asimov magazine on the kindle, but we get several shorts in each addition.
Why couldn’t a group of you get together and offer a similar deal for .99 recurring? It can’t be THAT hard to come up with four or five stories submitted by several authors.
Could we also get them out on the nook? I’d buy one then!
@Michael – yes, definitely out on the Nook, and in the iTunes store as well.
@Jason – there are some indie authors playing around with serials. Can’t think of any that are out yet, but I know of a couple in the planning stages. I started writing Nibbles because I like novella length writing, but I think ebooks are going to open up a lot of different lengths and formats. Experimenting is fun :).
@Justin – I won’t tell you what my kindle has done to my book budget…
And kudos to Nathan for being brave enough to read my funny little romance ;-).
Yeah, I don’t need to look at the website, I’m in.
I concur!
The main reason I got into the audiobooks and podcasts is that I don’t have any time to read. I also don’t have a ebook reader. So I wouldn’t be interested in buying them. Of course that’s no reflection of how much I enjoy your stories. Luckily my wife doesn’t listen to Audiobooks, so I get to buy my favorite podcasters books so she can read them.
I still say give it a try. If you put a few out and it didn’t work out, then you didn’t lose much. You may think about selling all of your work that way, contracts permitting. Sigler sells his work as ebooks, audiobooks, and traditional books.
Also, on an unrelated note, Ridan publishing is great! When I ordered Half Share I also ordered Nyphron Rising (thanks for introducing me to Mike Sullivan’s work!) and they accidentally shipped me Quarter Share instead, which I already had.
They corrected the error, and let me keep the extra copy of quarter share. It’s now been loaned out, read, and enjoyed by 3 others, and it’s still making the rounds.
Keep up the great work Nate!
Kindle no, epub yes…
@mike – good points on podiobooks but they’re – by their nature – longer works and they take a heavier commitment. Very good input tho.
@mark – yeah – Nibbles are in all the formats. Do you have a good portable epub reader? I see a lot of people looking for epub but I can’t find a reader that works on my phone and I don’t read books or stories at the computer … I need something that’ll run on my blackberry.
@Nate – I use FBReader on Android. I tried the Kindle app, but did not like it. I do not plan to buy any more Kindle books.
Rumor has it that B&N is supposed to be adding a blackberry version of their reader, which handles epub files. Calibre is a free program that interconverts DRM-free files into any format you need. It’s what I use to generate my ebook files. I use it to make epub files for my husband – he reads on the iPad and prefers a reader that wants epub format.
What a great idea! Kindle offers a text to speach option which is how I listened to QS and HS before finding podiobooks. I is no where near a nice as your naration, however is does feed the need for a fix. :0
I am not, in general, fond of shorts, but I sure do enjoy Lee and Miller’s chap books. They do not follow the usual formula for short stories though, which seems to me to set up a story then have a surprise ending which you are not supposed to see coming and which I, personally, usually hate. (I am NOT referring to art. 37—I saw the attack coming but not the art. 37) You do not write that way. Yours would be more like Lee and Miller’s chap books, which I do enjoy, where it takes a piece of time and tells what is going on at that time with a character. The upshot of this little opinion piece is— go for it, Nate, but only if you want to do it. It will be as tiring as writing a book if you sit there not really wanting to do it. It wouldn’t be fun.
I am not a short story fanboy, but I would be interested in what you would be doing with them. I think 0.99 is a fair price and I would be glad to pay that amount. Make your first one real good so I get hooked. LOL
I concur with @Debora Geary, Calibre is easy to use and I convert files (DRM free) all the time to a Kindle compatible file. I can’t deny you a measly 99 cents to read your materal. That seems reasonable to me. :-)
I think the Sar you should just go for it and maybe a short about article 37 when they caught up to him
Sorry Nate, I’ve got an actual ereader, but it’s not a kindle. The difference to my tired eyes was sufficient for me to pay for another device.
I’m going to be the odd man out here, Nate. And don’t get me wrong, I love short stories, but that said they don’t give seem to give me same the satisfaction of a well written novel. Of course, there is no doubt that you could write a short story (or novella), but in my opinion, the way you craft a story requires a longer exposition and a moderate pace and I’m not sure that the shorter forms would allow you enough room to effectively tell your tales the way you do best (leisurely, with that more intimate attention to detail and the little things in life).
I’m in. I love reading on my Kindle and I’d definitely buy your short stories!
I personally think it’s a fantastic idea. I devour novels and short on the Kindle all the time… so having another source of literary goodies is fantastic It’ll give your followers an occasional bite of your content PLUS it’ll give you the chance to hone your chops on a literary output that you haven’t delved into too much. In my book, that’s a win-win for everyone.
I bought Geary’s novella and enjoyed it. I’d buy them by Nate also.
Whee! Thank you, Ada. I’d read one by Nathan too :).
@ignatz – thanks. the length is my concern as well. I *really* like the elbow room in the longer forms.
@all the rest – Thanks for your feedback. It’s been very useful and I appreciate your taking the time to give me the guidance.
You had me at hello.
I like the idea. I would rather see/hear more of Tanyth Fairport.
I like that is short enough to keep me wanting more, but not compelling to read just a little more, when I should be doing something else. BTW, maybe it’s the Nate curse but the message at Novel Nibbles is, we’ll be back shortly… server…
Well … I think a good source of short tales would be the “Flea Market”. I’m sure there are a lot of interesting stories floating around them. It provides a repeatable source so that the tales could be interlinked and grow to whatever length feels right.
=
if nothing else it will give you more stuff in your catalog. even if it is short story’s
I would gladly invest some paypal change on anything you’d care to write, but Ignatz has a good point too. I think the pacing of these stories is a big part of the charm. But If you’re writing these for existing fans, you don’t need to reinvent the Age of the Solar Clipper ‘wheel’ in every story. Just jump right in.
I could easily see pulling a quote or paragraph from one of the books as a springboard into a story, offering a little more insight into characters and events, without affecting the integrity of the existing books. That would allow folks to choose stories related only to those books they’ve finished and won’t slight folks who don’t want (or can’t afford) to purchase content . There are so many little tidbits that were never woven into the larger story, you could go anywhere! Fredi and Mr. Maxwell during their Academy days, Pip’s youth flying with the family, Alys and Cassandra’s friendship. It would also be fun to read (and maybe to write?) about some of the event’s in Ish’s life, from someone else’s POV. Go! Write! :)
oops! I wanted to chime in on the tech thing too – from one who views it all as magic. I read via app on my ipod and I think everything is epub. I don’t know exactly how – but it works.
I know Abbie Hilton has published some short fiction in both audio and text and seemed to have run into (and vanquished) every formatting demon and gemlin imaginable. I’m guessing she’d share her wisdom with her favorite tortured Grishnard.
I still prefer the audios, because I have much more time to listen than read. I do use an old Palm m515 that is quite serviceable for most ebook formats. It is small, handy and I would love to fill it with shorties. The idea of expansions of characters, customs or events in any of the previous books is really appealing.
Thanks for all you’ve done so far.
Yes, sar, please sar! This is all new to me and I don’t do Kindle, but I tried out the Novel Nibbles site, and found it very easy to download and read the offering there by Debora Geary (cute story) on my laptop – via Paypal and Smashwords. 99 cents is a bargain. If you can offer the same kind of accessibility for people like me who need Easy (I’ll never test beyond the lowest rank in the technical track), I’ll happily read anything you write; I only hope you will hurry up and do it! Thanks for your wonderful work.
Nate;
One more on the side of loving the idea of .99 cent stop-gap reading while we wait for the main content.
I say go for it.
Kenn Mackintosh
PS: the pen is still in the works :)
I would gladly pay 99 cents for any little bit you have to offer. But, I cant. I don’t own anything that will allow me to read a kindle item. I have a normal phone and don’t have the money for a new gadget. Is there any other way it could be released? Paid website access or something?
I love you Nathan! I’ll pay it! I’m anxious for your next book…HURRY! I’m listening to you in the background as I type….Short stories would be okay but I believe your talent is in novels….. Please don’t let those short stories take away from the development of Saiah, Ish,…
@gwen, if you have a computer that attaches to the web, you can get the kindle software (and several others including the mobireader) for free. You’ll have to read at your computer, but you’d have that problem with a website as well.
@kelly – thanks. Novels require a huge commitment and I can only do them a few times a year. The idea with the Nibbles was to be able to take advantage of those times when I can’t commit to a novel, but still want to tell a story.
I’d pay a buck in a heartbeat. Please bring it on!