emptomb Harlequin and Ballentine are separately planning to give away or sell digital novellas or short stories as promotions for longer novels that they tie in with. For the ones that are not given away, price points mentioned are $1.99 to $2.99. In most cases, these stories come between two longer works and serve to bridge them together, such as Steve Berry’s “The Balkan Escape” that will come before his 9th novel, The Emperor’s Tomb.

This serves a niche that it is not really possible to cover in print, given that books have a minimum necessary length.

"Realistically, it would be hard to get something like this in print," said Matt Schwartz, vice president of digital marketing and strategy for the Random House Publishing Group. "But the e-book format is very flexible. What this does is offer an affordable entry point into Steve’s world."

Of course, there’s nothing new about using e-books promotionally. But most of the e-books sold or given away have been just that, books. It may be that shorter works will be more successful, on account of those people like David Miller who are more willing to read a short story from a digital device than an entire novel.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Absolutely a great marketing model. E-publishing has revived a lot of old formats. Shorts and novellas will have an opportunity to attract readers. It’s like what happened when iTunes came out. Why buy a full CD when you only want one or two songs. In book terms, why buy an entire anthology when you only want a few stories.

  2. The difference between some famous writers and every other writer is that the famous writer makes you pay for short stories in an established universe. The rest of us give it away to our fans and future fans. The rich get richer, etc.

    This article isn’t about anthologies, but I know that some anthologies are being broken apart for a la carte story buying. I’m in an anthology from Imajinn, and I’ve been told that BY FATE’S HAND is being broken apart for those who only want specific stories.

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