Amazon's Kindle Select Payment Plan Has Changed.

So, what`s Amazon up to now, Indies?

I see they’ve made an announcement about their new concept where they only pay authors of self-published Kindle books enlisted in the Kindle Select program based on the amount of content – or pages – the readers actually consume.

As an author with eight books on Amazon, and several in the Kindle Select program, it will be interesting to see whether this concept fails or not. I think it will be different for every genre. Short stories should do well, while novels that are slow to start ought to do poorly. A short story collection or anthology using this method, I would think, is destined to take-off!

Lucky me! I’ve recently published a short story collection and had planned to include it into the Kindle Select program. Now I’m not entirely sure if that’s a good idea. However, in the service of indie Author’s everywhere, I will include Waning Metaphorically into this program and report back with the stats.

I assume there will be a cost-per-page-turned in order to tally up each books worth to the reader, and those monies handed over to the author? That’s what I’m getting from this. But what that number per page is, I haven’t found out as yet.

If you have it, please respond and share.

Enter to Win New Anthology of Short Stories Today! Book Contest on Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Waning Metaphorically

by Michael Poeltl

Giveaway ends July 20, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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A New Collection of Short Stories and Flash Fiction Released - Summer Reading List

Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald

“A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick – a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.”
– Neil Gaiman

“I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up.”
– Alice Munro

The short story is once more in vogue. After Alice Munro, a short story author from Canada, won the Nobel Prize for literature at age 82– the short story seems to be experiencing a renaissance.

Every story has a life span. Whether that happens to be a novel, novella, short, or what has more recently arisen in the literary arts: flash fiction, each has its purpose and its format. Each is an art form. Like poetry. A short offers less meat and more action to get from beginning to middle to end. Flash offers even less to digest and puts you right in the action whereas a novel can meander and take its time with character development and placing the reader in the scene.

“As many author’s do, I have my own slush pile,” explains Poeltl, “I knew the vast majority of my random scenes and false starts wouldn’t sustain novel length works, and I realized that literary shorts play an important role for the reader. Many of the stories within the pages of my own anthology are such refugees. At least, that’s how they’d begun their literary lives: a thought, a quote, a supposition.”  Poeltl has since revised and edited, lengthened or shortened, these scenes, and added fresh stories and narratives to accompany them in their own multi-genre book: Waning Metaphorically.

Poeltl states in the Forward of his new collection: Life is a Metaphor. A metaphor is a symbol. A symbol is a sign. Watch for the signs. Like all stories, they can be watered-down to act as metaphor or parables; but unlike parables, metaphors can be interpreted differently, depending on the subject. A waning metaphor therefore, only sustains resolve if a person decides to recognize it.

So enjoy the instant gratification shorts offer in their ability to disclose the intimate secrets of a life or lives in not so many words.

Pick up your Pre-order Kindle Version today!

Short Stories and Their Relevance in Today's Market

So I've been asking a few writing and publishing groups on LinkedIn about their opinion of the short story.  I wanted to research this subject before committing to a published anthology of my own shorts and flash fiction. This post will cover a few things my research has unearthed, and from it you can draw your own conclusions on the short story's relevance.

There was a time when newspapers published serials. The greats like Charles Dickens and Poe were fond of these. Money was to be made as well! Then magazines became the popular medium to carry the short story. Buying shorts to include into a genre specific magazine was a major draw for readers.
Both have seemingly lost their punch. But the short story lives on.

Websites like Wattpad carry millions of short stories and serials from authors hoping to be discovered. No one is getting paid for these, but paying sites do still exist. Besides, writing short stories are meant to bring in an audience rather than make you money right?

Wrong. The short story is an art form. It won the Nobel Prize last year for literature. It's not playing second fiddle to novels, and never has. In fact the short has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts recently. Even the film industry has been picking up shorts because a 500 page and up novel is much more difficult to write into a script than a 20-80 page story.

Fan fiction is a great way to enter the short story market too. I wrote a short concerning a character in my trilogy, The Judas Syndrome, which told the story as seen through her eyes after book three had ended. I wrote it in just twelve pages.

The problem with selling your short stories one by one via Amazon and Smashwords is that many self-published authors are selling their novels for $0.99, and the majority of readers look for deals. Multiple consumer studies in 2013 and 2014 confirmed that readers won't spend the money for a short versus a full-length. So your short story, though every bit as good, if not better than a novel, only offers 20 to 80 pages of literary bliss while the novel is 200 and up.

The fix? Put your shorts and flash fiction into a collection. An anthology. Find the stories that share a common theme or genre and sell them as a package deal. Now you're attracting the larger audience to your works.

My own collection will be available very soon, and will be found in both paperback and ebook formats, entitled: Waning Metaphorically. Follow this blog or find me on Facebook and Twitter, Goodreads, linkedIn and Google+

gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers & Writers Festival - April 16-19th, 2015

Don’t miss out on one of Southern Ontario’s un(der)discovered literary gems!

gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers & Writers Festival is entering its second successful decade and is growing every year. The festival attracts audiences from all over the GTA and Golden Horseshoe, with dynamic and interactive readings, discussions and workshops held at the beautiful Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King Street West).

Established in 2004 by Hamilton author Krista Foss, gritLIT has introduced Hamilton’s dynamic book-loving community to writers from across Canada, while at the same time offering local literary stars a chance to showcase their work. Over the years, gritLIT has provided Hamilton readers and writers personal interaction with and mentorship from some of Canada’s most respected national and international-award-winning authors — authors like Rawi Hage, Kathleen Winter, Dennis Lee, Emma Donoghue and local luminary Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes), to name a few.

Each year, the festival creates new opportunities for involvement. gritLIT has hosted blue pencil rooms, writing workshops, and master classes, and has brought writers of children’s and young adults' books into local schools and libraries. gritLIT runs an annual writing competition (short story and poetry) that attracts entries from established and emerging authors across Canada and overseas. One of this year’s short story winners is from Australia! Workshops and meet-up events also give local writers many opportunities to interact and hone their skills.

As Hamilton’s premier literary festival, gritLIT is poised to entertain and influence budding writers and devoted readers for years to come as its author list continues to expand along with its membership. This year’s festival runs April, 16-19th.

For more information and the schedule of events, visit www.gritlit.ca.

To arrange an interview or for other media inquiries, email Mike at mpoeltl@gritlit.ca

Author Ideas 101 - Flash Fiction and Short Story Compilations

Whether you've written a few novels, or have yet to complete your first, you likely have a slush pile of unfinished, barely started or merely outlined story ideas. I propose that these incomplete thoughts are worthy of further consideration, and if not in the form you originally proposed them to yourself, than perhaps as a piece of flash fiction or a short story?

If you're anything like me, you have scenes and dialogues - that in a moment of inspiration - you had to jot down. Sometimes these moments turn into minutes or even hours. You may not be working on a story that will be suitable for this flash of genius, but if the scene has a beginning, middle and ending, or can be expanded upon, you might just have yourself a tidy little short, or work of flash fiction.

I have been surfing through my own pile of start-ups and see merit in each of them. Some are honestly a paragraph - a witty piece of banter between two people - where others are stories which developed on their own with no clear end in site. Revisiting them, I have managed to find an end in some, expanding on others to complete a piece of flash fiction, or simply edited a short story I had written years before.

My point is that these stories caught in moments of inspiration weren't for nothing. Inspiration brings life to any thought, and when we write that thought down it becomes a story. So why wait for the right novel to include your unique dialogue and character piece? Do something with them now!

I'm currently working on a number of stories from my slush pile; even one which features characters from my trilogy. A look at life for those I didn't kill off. Just 4-5,000 words. But enough to tickle anyone's interest who'd read the trilogy and wondered about a fourth book.

This practice can also be helpful in moments of writer's block. Revisit a train of thought you never completed. You know you have them in that folder marked 'Unfinished' on your desktop. People love a story they can finish quickly on a trip into work or and afternoon in the sun. A compilation of these stories just makes sense.

www.mikepoeltl.com

You can give a Kindle with a full compliment of ebooks!

This holiday season, why give a kindle or ebook reader without the recipients favorite genre already installed and ready to read? Surprise them!

Do they love post-apocalyptic stories? There are countless opportunities to include this genre into their Kindle. And sure, you could offer the Hunger Games Trilogy for a bunch of money, knowing they've likely read it already, or you could offer them an indie author trilogy for a quarter of the price. Something they've never heard of in the mainstream, like The Judas Syndrome. This is a ready made trilogy which has received several five and four star ratings. Book two and three of the series are equally loved and will cost you under $10.00 for the set.

I think the added surprise of not only receiving the ereader but also realizing it is full of books targeted to that person is a fun and inspired idea for holiday gift giving.

Remember, indie authors have a lot to offer and for a fraction of the cost of traditionally published authors. We were all indie authors once. Even those blockbusters that turned into movies were once authored by someone with no representation and zero edits...

Give a an #indieauthor a shot this Christmas, and give a dozen books rather than just one or two when wrapping up your Kindle.

Michael Poeltl