How much do short stories sell for? (2023)

Do short stories make money?

Today's short stories make money and hold their value. Per word, a story can make more money than a novel. Not only does it take less time to write, a Kindle Single often sells for the same price as a novel-length e-book, and it can be repurposed many times.

How much you make from selling a short story depends a lot on where you sell the story. A typical range for a short story can be anywhere between $5 and $1,000, but it's possible to make even more if you find the right publication or channel.

Literary market is the broad umbrella term for the venues in which a writer can submit, sell, and have a piece of their creative work published. In terms of short stories the main literary markets are literary magazines, anthologies, contests, and non-literary publications that feature short stories.

Generally, the price for short ebooks is between $0.99 and $2.99. A price that is higher than this is not going to be attractive to book buyers. If you want to make money when self-publishing short stories, you have to offer good value. It's always better to sell 100 ebooks at $0.99 than none at $4.99.

Getting paid to write short stories takes a lot of legwork and dedication, but it is possible. By submitting your stories to online and print publications, considering self-publication of some stories and developing your craft as a storyteller, you can start making money with your fiction writing.

A short story length is typically around 5,000 words in length but maybe as long as 7000 words. Stories that range from 500 to 1,00 words are classed as flash fiction (here's a great example). Stories less than 500 words are considered to be micro-fiction.

Length and Perceived Quality

Readers expect shorter books to be priced cheaper. With fiction and some creative nonfiction (e.g., memoirs, personal essays), this means that ebooks shorter than 50,000 words are generally expected to be priced under $2.99.

7. One Story. This platform specifically accepts fiction for stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words. It pays you about $500 for each submission you make.

There's a wide variety of short story markets out there, including ezines, literary magazines and literary journals (yes those still exist), and anthologies out there that take submissions. The “professional” level of these publications varies widely, as does the pay rate. Don't expect to get rich off of short stories.

How many pages is a short story?

There is no maximum length, but the average short story is 1,000 to 7,500 words, with some outliers reaching 10,000 or 15,000 words. At around 10 to 25 pages, that makes short stories much shorter than novels, with only a few approaching novella length.

Whether the writer is experienced or just beginning, having written a short story or short story collection can aid in connecting with agents, as well as give a strong foundation for publishing larger works.

How much can authors expect to earn from their books? A first-time author with a traditional publishing deal might expect an advance of $1,000-$10,000 and 5-18% royalties once they “earn out” their advance. Self-published authors do not receive advances, but their royalties can reach up to 70% for ebook editions.

Longer books sell better on Amazon, but short reads sell too, and earn more per page. So you could focus on writing short books, write them much faster than long books, and still make money.

Self-published authors can make between 40% – 60% royalties on a the retail price of a single book while traditionally published authors usually make between 10%-12% royalties.

A good ghostwriter costs between $40,000 to $70,000. Pricing per project depends on the ghostwriter's experience level and the genre of your book. Based on 2021 data from Reedsy, ghostwriters charge upwards of 30 cents a word to write memoirs, while manuscripts for children's fiction can see a rate of 24 cents a word.

Getting your short story published is often more difficult than actually writing the story. Even with thousands of literary magazines accepting short stories for publication, you still have less than a 10% chance of getting your story published any time you submit.

Once you have written enough short stories, they can be placed together into a collection and sold as a regular book or ebook. Collections don't typically sell at the same level as novels, but they're also eligible for their own slate of award nominations.

The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words, but they can be anything above 1,000 words. Flash fiction is a short story that is 500 words or less.

What Makes a Good Short Story? The four elements necessary for your story structure are character, plot, setting, and tension. Balancing these elements is the first step to making your creative writing amazing.

What is the minimum word for a short story?

However, the word “short” can mean different things, but generally speaking, a short story can be anywhere from 1,000–15,000 words, but most publications only publish short stories between 3000–5,000 words. Anything less than 1000 words is categorized either as a flash fiction or a micro-fiction.

Almost every single writer, and filmmaker dreams of turning their story into a screen adaptation. Netflix may generate an idea internally and hire creatives to develop those ideas further. Netflix employs a team of creative executives and buyers, who receive pitches for content.

We recommend hardcover for any philosophical, psychological, or business-related books. They will cost you a bit; however, generally, a hardcover book of 200 pages will cost around 15 dollars. The price will vary if you're looking to print in cloth and if you want a dust jacket.

Most average-sized trade paperback novels fall into the $13.95 to $17.95 price range. That being said, this range is true for most books—always do the research into comparable books and price your book accordingly.