This is a great video! I publish short reads under a pen name and do really well with them, but it has a lot to do with the genre/niche that I write in. My novellas also do really well, but they are in a specific genre/niche, too. It also helps that they are in a series.
This is my goal for the rest of this year. I have longer projects such as a mystery series and some women's fiction single books. However, I think my holiday Rom-Com series would be a perfect fit in the short reads category and definitely help me build a quicker backlist. Thank you so much for your quick and to-the-point videos.
You’re very welcome. Understand that short reads are mainly geared towards ebook format. If you decide to also sell as paperbacks, be sure to put something in the book description that specifies that it’s a shorter book, to avoid negative reviews.
Short reads are where I shine but I had doubts if I could gain any kind of success by writing them. You gave me the boost and the information I need to go for it!! God bless you Keith!!! 🙏🏽
Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m so glad you found the confidence you needed to push through the doubts which led to your success! I’m honored that I could play even a small role in your journey! 😊👍
This is such an encouraging video. I just learned today that selling short reads on Amazon was actually a thing and it blew my mind! I'm using this year to take my writing "to the next level" (aka hopefully getting some money for it), and this sounds like a great way to start publishing. Thank you for the great advice and positivity!
Keith this is a killer idea! I often think that I *could* write something but was put off by the thought that no one would be interested in a shorter read. Hearing that you've got some books out there that are selling is awesome to hear!
This has told me more about how I can market my short stories than about 10 other videos I've watched. Saved it in favorites and will watch it over again, Thanks!!!
Treasurewithinu yes, many people are unaware of this option. I was introduced to it a few years ago as a challenge and my short reads are some of my biggest sellers.
Oh it's definitely a thing. Some of my best selling books are short reads. And because they're quickly consumed, my readers come back for more. I have entire niches where all I publish are short reads.
Keith, I just can't thank you enough for this amazing and informative video. I'd like you to know that I have subscribed to your video. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos
Thank you for this information. I wrote a short read and consistent complaint is that readers wanted more. Next time I will write more and include short read or number of pages in title and description.
Completely understood. I wouldn’t bother putting them in the title, but definitely in the description. I’ve been burned on that a few times, especially with the print version.
I’m in the process of changing my life for a positive one and writing short stories about my life experiences. Your tips are very useful and I plan to apply them. I had to sub once I noticed the cross of Jesus Christ on your neck. He’s my inspiration to get out of my current situation.
@@KeithWheelerBooks not sure if you'll see this but I decided to write a short read - did so on dale's writing sprints earlier today. Thought I'd revisit this video too! Is there a word count to make short reads categories? I don't know why but had in my mind that 5k words was a short read
Andy W I saw that on Dales sprint video today. Kudos! To answer your question, no, there are no specific minimum word counts to qualify as a short read. A short read is anything from 1-100 pages.
I needed to hear this! I’ve been debating on whether to turn one book into 3. I feel like it’s too much for one read. This makes more sense. Thanks! (This Old Man) Book1 T.O.M. coming Memorial Day Weekend 2023!
Thank you for mentioning "$8.99 for the short-read around 28 pages." That's EXACTLY around how long my short-read is and was wondering how much to price the print version...Thanks!
I’ve actually lowered mine to $7.99 but it depends on the niche. Just be sure to mention in the description that it’s a short read. Otherwise, you may get some negative reviews.
G'day Keith thank you for the video & yes this answers many of my questions. I have been mulling over the idea of writing online in several capacities for a few years. I publish poetry on various sights and want to take the next step and bingo I found your video. Thank you for the links, I had Grammarly prior and to be frank, I got rid of it as it was extremely annoying and wasn't allowing my style to emerge, wanting to continually change every sentence to suit US English. I will give it another go ;) thanks again.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I completely understand where you’re coming from, as poetry was my early entry into writing. The good thing about grammarly and similar products is you can toggle them on and off.
Hi K again. Glad to read you are a prose / poetry fan 😁. This time around I will look at the toggle function. Any idea about creating a website without cost or at the very least a fair pricing. Right now I'm not convinced I need a website, I do have one but It's limited and I can't attract folks to it. It won't let me share the address.
Thanks for the valuable information, Keith! I am ready to publish my first short read, but in my KDP dashboard, I don't see the option to upload a short read. Am I missing something? Please reply ASAP! Thanks!🙏🏾
There’s not an option to upload a short read. It’s just a normal ebook. “Short reads” are amazon categories for ebooks that are between 1-100 pages. As far as KDP is concerned, they’re just ebooks. I hope this helps. Thanks for watching and subscribing!
Correct. Upload them as a normal ebook and then find the short read categories your book fits into and ask KDP to add it to them. Some of the agents may say they can’t, but that’s fine. As long as you put it on their radar, it’ll usual be placed properly.
Thank you for your clear message. I have a short personal essay of 3,500 words I want to publish on Amazon. Do I get its cover made just like a regular ebook?
Thanks for the great video. This is something I am definitely thinking of pursuing. However, just one point. Wouldn't it be easier to have someone beta read first before publishing, given that it's a shorter book? I think this might be a better approach before uploading. But that's just my opinion.
Hi Keith, I stumbled upon your channel and it didn't take that long to sub. I never heard of Short Read as passive income. You helped me figure out that my long poem is a short read, but am I selling it as an ebook? Is that how I m I publishing it? Pls forgive my ignorance. Also what is your thoughts on BookBolt?
So glad you found the content helpful! Yes, you can sell it as an ebook. A kindle short read is an ebook only category. That said, you can also sell it as a print book, just make sure you disclose in the book description that it’s a short book, so you don’t get bad reviews from people expecting a longer print book. (I learned this the hard way!) Book Bolt is pretty good. I’ll probably be doing a video on it in the near future.
I have yet to find a "short story" on Kindle that isn't a rip off. I'm not paying you $4 for 10 pages of story and 20 pages of ads for your other works.
It’s very true that, unfortunately, there are some authors trying to milk the system. That said, there are many more that are putting out great content. If you’re looking on Amazon, I suggest checking out the look inside feature. This can give you a sneak peek on what you can expect within the rest of the book. Also, if you’re searching through the kindle short reads categories, you can adjust the category your searching to be a longer book.(ie 60-90 mins). Something you can do to help other future buyers, if the product is NOT a good value. (Ie there are more ads than content, etc) then leave an honest review. Also, there is a “report abuse” button below every product, if you think the product is breaking amazons terms of service.
Karen Ray my pleasure. Sounds like you’re already on the right track. You can then follow it up with a workbook, if you want. The possibilities can snowball very quickly!
thanks for the tips, kind sir... I just created my kdp account, also google play book. I have 1 finished short story, about 40+ pages. 3 stories that still developed, and 1 planned novel. the problem is when I published it, how to promote it?? I'm still a newcomer
To start with, KDP. It’s easy to use, allows you to run ads directly to Amazon and there are a ton of tutorials on how to do it. That said, after you’ve published a couple on kdp, I suggest going wide to both broaden your reach as well as not put all your “eggs in one basket”. I have a video where I discuss some of the platform options and which one may work best depending on your needs. Yes, D2D allows short books. That said, only the Amazon platform can decide whether or not to put your ebook in the short reads categories.
Please define "pages" by approximate word count per page. I use Times New Roman 12 point on standard 8.5x11 printing pages, which probably isn't the length you're referencing. Thank you.
Unfortunately, it's difficult to cite word count as the number of words per pages differs. You see for ebooks, depending on the device being used as well as the settings the user has defined(ie. font size) the number of words per page can differ quite a bit. That's why they just list page count and not word count. I hope this helps explain things a bit better.
1:55-2:45 😎👏👏👏. I have been struggling with the notion of thinking a novel has to be *ginormous* . I'm beginning to think I may have more success in this niche. I have a supernatural fantasy novelette I want to get out there. Are you aware whether or not it's a good fit for that type of fiction?
Into historical romance, I do research for the times and eras and just enjoy creating my characters. Short stories have always interested me since reading True Confession mags and such as a teen. Just a feel good story. I do have some other topics I want to tackle as well. Hopefully it will be doable. Thanks for the tips!
If you’re publishing through KDP, the minimum page count is 24 pages for paperback. If you’re open to other platforms, Lulu offers saddle stitch(stapling) binding, which means you can publish a book with as little as 8 pages.
Honestly, it depends on the device and the settings the user has set on the device. Since a short read is anything under 100 pages, I typically just wrote the story and Amazon will assign it to the short read class it finds most appropriate.
Great video as usual, I am about to finish a book of a group of short stories that will be around 30k words... After listening to this video, I guess I can split it to 4 short read books, what do you think?
That sounds like a great idea. It honestly depends on if you plan on building a brand around it. If these 4 stories are all that you’re going to have, then it may be better to just do 1 big anthology. Where if you plan on continuing to put out short stories, then breaking them up and turning them into a brand could be very beneficial. Publishing 1 book a month can help feed the hungry readers. It also depends on the niche. Some niches just don’t do well as short reads. The readers prefer longer books.
@@KeithWheelerBooks Thank you for your reply, Yehh I plan to continue writing short stories as I do like to write them... So I guess I can split it to two or three book and continue writing from there... I am not that expert in niche identification but I write in Romance (not erotica) and inspirational
If you have PublisherRocket, it makes niche research so much easier for me. If not, you can do the search yourself on amazon in incognito mode. I have a few videos that show how. Just search the channel for niche research.
Hi Keith, I’m hoping to self publish my debut novel in the next couple of months here. After my editor returned my developmental edit, they told me my inciting incident did not occur soon enough. So, I got to word cutting. I realized that a HUGE word count between my opening and my inciting incident was flashbacks fleshing out my MC. Thus, with a heavy heart, I eliminated about 8000 words and rewrote his backstory throughout the main story, though much less thoroughly. I certainly sacrificed some depth but in return, the story reads smoother and I get to the inciting incident around the 12% mark as opposed to the 20% mark! That said, I feel that backstory is not only intriguing, but important to the development of my main character. With some tweaks, I’m thinking I may turn those flashbacks into a companion “short read” and let the main story flow along linearly. Any advice? Is this something you’ve seen done before?
@@KeithWheelerBooks fantastic! Now, that said, can I base a subplot of book 2 on a character from the short read, assuming the audience has read the short read?
You could have experimented on moving back and forth between the flashbacks and the current plot, sort of like what we saw in Deadpool, where you could have possibly retained those amazing flashbacks in the same work. Just a humble suggestion !
thanks a lot for this amazing vid by the way I have three questions if you plz: 1- do you recommend check box KDP SELECT for short reads? if yes or no WHY? 2- I'm looking for categories for children's ebook in short reads sections but couldn't find them? so how do you find them? 3- through uploading my ebook as short reads how to choose the category of short reads? or should I ask amazon to add it later? how? THANKS
When it comes to KDP select, I typically check out the other books in the niche to see what my readers are use to. If most are in KDP select, then I join as well. As for children’s books, by definition, they’re typically under 100 pages, so they’re all “short reads”. Just focus on finding relevant categories for your book based on its topic. As for adding in short read categories, I’d wait until you get a couple sales, then you can ask KDP to add you to short read specific categories.
Personally, I don’t see a reason to make them exclusive. The main reason to have your ebook on KU is for the page reads and short reads have so few pages that the KENP page reads is pretty inconsequential.(in my experience) I’d rather go wide with a short read.
I have published three flash stories on a previous website, and three low content journals on KDP, and I am itching to get my first short read out, but I have no idea how to create either the interior or exterior. Can you tell me how to produce such a book?
Good day Keith, what do you think about an idea of publishing 1 novel ( 90k words) in 4-8 parts. So my plan is to publish a 10-20k (full of action with cliff hangers) chapter of my novel every week or month. What do you think is it possible and if it is what price shoud i put? Also do you recomend paying editor on fiver or can i do it without editor? Thank you for the great advice i was watching other youtubers and they were saying bad things about selfbublishing so your video gave me a lot of courage.
Thank you for reaching out and for the kind words. First, let me reassure you. I am both traditionally published as well as self-published and, for the most part, I prefer self-publishing. Now, with that out of the way, let me get to your question. It sounds like what you want to do is launch a short read series. You can absolutely do this. The key is to make sure that each book has its own story arc.(that also feeds into the overall story arc) I would definitely suggest hiring an editor. It doesn’t have to be from Fiverr, but you absolutely want an editor. Nothing can stop sales in their tracks and decease series read through than poor editing.(except for just a boring book lol) I’d greatly suggest developing a regular launch schedule, so your readers can come to anticipate when the next installment will be coming out. I hope this helps and be sure to keep us posted on how it goes.
@@KeithWheelerBooks By 'sketch' I don't mean 'a rough/unfinished writing/drawing' but a humorous short scene/skit (I can show you an example by email). I thought they may also be included as 'short reads'. If not, it can be a book and/or ebook?
Great advice! I will be publishing a few short reads because I want to explore fairy tale retellings, and since I've never done one before, I didn't want to spend months on a concept that might not work.
@@KeithWheelerBooks Yes, I've heard the expression "garbage book" in the past, it seems as if there would be some general traits that readers will not appreciate. Maybe I can ask what are some things you don't want to be doing in your writing that you know readers don't like? I'm sure there's a reader for all sorts of books, but hearing that expression got me thinking. Thanks
The main thing is you want to have quality content. Poor grammar and spelling is a great way to get bad reviews. Other than those I’d suggest looking at the other books in your genre and check out their reviews. Check out the good reviews to see what the readers like as well as the bad reviews to see what the author did wrong. You can then avoid those issues in your book.
That’s completely up to you as the author. When it comes to ebooks, words to page ratio is hard to calculate because the use can set the font size, etc. I usually do 10-20 pages per chapter. But it also depends on the genre.
Amazing video Keith but how to get sales for your book. I have written a short read it's amazing my parents friends, relative's have said it's awesome but my sales on kdp are not growing. What can do suggest me something Keith guru!!!
There are a couple things that could be hindering your book sales. 1. Is the book cover on point and well positioned for the niche? 2. Are you using strong, relevant keywords that aren’t super competitive? 3. Is your book description engaging and enticing enough to get the customer to click buy? 4. Have you had someone(not friend or family) to look at your book and/or cover? Sometimes friends and family are too nice. If we want to sell books, we don’t need nice, we need honest. Also, have you checked out our FB Group? There are plenty of authors willing and able to provide honest feedback. I hope this helps!
There are a couple things I do to get people to opt into my email lists. Majority of the time I offer them some exclusive content(ie, first chapter of my next book, maybe a checklist or a smaller book that relates to their genre.) it all depends on the niche that I’m working in. I hope this helps.
Is this still viable in 2022? I'm currently writing my debut book, and I feel like my style of writing is best suited for short reads, but I'd like to know if doing this is still valid in this day and age.
A short read is just a category that amazon denotes based on the page length. An ebook that is 100 pages or less can be classified by amazon as a short read.
They also recently created Kinde Vella, considering the age of this video you probably covered that in a newer upload. Have you found it useful to use a keyword like "short read" when publishing a short read with KDP? I usually focus my keywords at common titles (comps). I'm also a self published author. I noticed the cross necklace and wonder if you're a Christian?
Yes I do have a couple videos on Kindle Vella. Though Vella is more designed for an episodic series than a typical short story. Short read isn’t necessarily a strong keyword. Typically, you’ll want your keywords to be more of a long tail keyword phrase. Something that will mimic what a potential customer would type into Amazon to find a book like yours. And, yes, I am a Christian! 😊👍
@@KeithWheelerBooks sorry , i was just saying that all the explications that you gave about short stories are concerning books for kids, also...thanks..
Still unsure how to submit books for the Kindle Short Read section. Poss to give steps or have you got a vid already showing how to do this? Thank you!
Officially, it’s suppose to be something KDP automatically puts you into and it can’t be requested. That said, I have requested it many times and majority of the time they do it for me. If you check out my video on how to request your 10 categories for your book, it’ll show you how to submit the request.
@@KeithWheelerBooks thanks for that. I know the people who write sex scenes and stuff like that in their short stories can earn income but I wasn't sure there's a market for clean romance.
Yes there is actually a whole category on Amazon for clean, wholesome romance. And, if done correctly, it can be very profitable because there’s less competition. It’ll come down to finding the right types of stories(sub genre)and creating a series of good quality short stories with good covers. Now, when I say “series” it doesn’t actually have to be a series. They can be stand-alone books or even a numbered series.(where they all take place in the same world, town, etc, but each story is self contained.) Think of Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, etc And don’t get discouraged if you don’t see a lot of sales at first(or even any) this is a marathon not a sprint. I hope this helps.
