Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

I have written a short story just over 5,000 words. it is too long to submit to magazines and there is honestly nothing to cut so was wondering if donig it as an ebook would be an option. say for 99 cents.

Well there's the old saying - quality not quantity. Personally I'd be a bit hesitant to spend 99p on a 5,000 word story when I can get novels for the same price, but it mostly depends how good it is. I believe Amazon have put restrictions on how short ebooks can be, but I think 5,000 is still acceptable.

The restriction by Amazon is 3,000 words, so you're good... I sell many short stories starting at the 5,000 word mark, but I usually try to have them tie into a longer piece as promotion, or a serialized set of stories like I did with "Miami Spy Games," with a dozen stories continuing the tale.

Armand Rosamilia
Miami Spy Games: Russian Zombie Gun

You could also look into submitting it into Writer's Digest Contest. Most of their contests have to be 4,000 words or less. The prizes are worth it if your story is great. I know that you said it is 5,000 words but look at their guidelines for each contest.

thanks for all the comments. Actually I did consider doing more shorts and releasing it as a collection since the end of this story hints at more to come.

I would personally be hesitant to put up a short story for $0.99. Readers are unforgiving if they feel "ripped off" and keep in mind, many full length novels sell for $0.99.

I would write a few more, and put out an anthology.

I've been selling two story packs of 7000 words or more for $0.99 and I haven't yet received any negative replies, but I will say sales are slow. So you could do that, or as you said, bundle it with more to make an anthology. (I plan to bundle a series of shorts into a print version at some point.)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DY98OYI and here is the link to the finished product :-)