It’s official: Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One can now be purchased in print from Lulu.com and as an ebook bundle directly through the FiftyWordStories.com Store. It should be available as a Kindle-only ebook file through the Kindle Store soon, after it passes through the product approval process.
If you have any questions, read the Store FAQ, which I’ll be updating as we go along.
I’ll be kicking off Launch Week with our first special guest story, by MCM, a little later today, so stay tuned!
Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One goes on sale tomorrow!
That means that this is Launch Week, and Launch Week means that I’ll be posting a story from a special guest every day, Monday to Friday, to celebrate! I’ll be featuring stories from MCM (1889.ca) and Woody Tondorf (Elevator Show, The Morning After), among others. There’s some great writing coming at you this week.
Release Details:
In preparation for the book release, I’ve spent the last couple of days putting together the FiftyWordStories.com Store. Today I brought the store to life (with a few hiccups; sorry if you were trying to access the site while I was tinkering with things), and you can see the print and ebook versions of Volume One lounging tantalizingly just out of reach. The products will go live tomorrow, which means that you’ll be able to
If you aren’t sure whether to download the ebook bundle from the FiftyWordStories.com Store or buy the Kindle version from the Kindle Store, the difference is that if you buy the bundle, you get the two other formats, as well, but you have to manually sync the mobi to your Kindle instead of downloading it directly to the device. I earn almost twice as much revenue from direct purchases vs. Kindle Store ones, but the choice is yours. If you buy from the Kindle Store and contact me afterwards, I’ll email you the ePub and PDF, as well.
Finally, if you know me in person and would like to buy the book in print, I may be able to save you a few dollars if you’re willing to wait until I have enough orders to get a “bulk” discount (and reduced shipping rate). If you’re interested in going that route, or if you have any questions or find any bugs, send me an email at tim@fiftywordstories.com.
FiftyWordStories.com is holding a Valentine’s Day contest. Here’s the scoop: send in your Valentine’s Day-themed fifty-word story, based on the prompt given below, and you could win a copy of the Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One ebook!
The rules are as follows:
Stories will be judged on their overall quality and creativity, and on how well they use the provided prompts. Make every word count, and think unconventionally: I want to smile, sigh, laugh, or have some other kind of emotional reaction.
The three best stories, as judged by myself, will be posted to the site on February 14, 2011, and the writer of the best story will receive the Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One ebook bundle (containing all three available file formats) via email.
Send your entries to tim@fiftywordstories.com, with “Valentine’s Day Contest” in the subject area. Include the story, a title, and a brief biography (one or two sentences) in the body of your email. Limit three entered stories per person. Entries close on February 11, 2011, at 11:59 PM Pacific time.
If you don’t have a lot of spending money lying around, this could be your chance to get your (electronic) hands on over five thousand words of microfiction. So get writing!
In addition to selling Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One in print, I have also announced that it will be available digitally, as a PDF and an ePub.
Now, due to some helpful guidance from a friend of mine, I’ve created an edition of Volume One that will be supported natively by the Kindle, and will be available to buy from the Kindle Store. That ups the digital availability of the book at launch to three different formats (PDF, .ePub, and .mobi), so no matter what kind of e-reader you have, or whether you just want to read it on your computer screen, you should be accommodated.
The .mobi format of Volume One will sell for $4, the same price as the other digital formats.
Every Monday, I post a story submitted by a reader. These stories have proven to be very popular. In fact, four of the ten highest rated stories from the past 365 days were written by guests.
But today is going to be a bit unique: instead of a single guest story, I’ll be sharing three stories!
Here’s why: on January 11, in a span of about ten minutes, I received more than fifteen story submissions from a Creative Writing class at Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It blew my mind and made my day. I’d love to share all of the stories I received, but that would probably overwhelm the site, so I had to just pick a few. It was really hard for me to pick just three, but I think everyone will enjoy these stories, while I selfishly keep the rest to myself for now.
Thank you so much to the class and the teacher for sending your stories my way! I hope you all had fun with the assignment, and I’d love to see more stories from all of you in the future!
P.S. I’ve been trying to get in touch with the teacher of the class, but I haven’t managed to so far. If you see this, send me an email at tim@fiftywordstories.com! I’d love to hear more about what led your class to undertake this challenge together.
It’s finally ready!
After months and months of hints, teasing, waiting, and delays, the release date for Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One has finally been set. The book will be available on January 31, 2011, and will cost $12 (plus shipping) in print, or $4 electronically.
Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One is a perfect-bound, six-inch by nine-inch book containing 58 pages of original content.
Volume One contains 100 of the best stories I wrote on this site during my first year of work (February 22, 2009, to February 22, 2010). But I’m not just selling you a bunch of stories that you could read for free: most of the stories in the book have been improved in some way, whether that means the adjustment of a few words, a change in title, or a major rewrite. I’m really pleased with the improvements I’ve made to the stories contained in this book, and I think you’ll notice an upgrade in writing quality, as a whole. The book also includes bonus content in the form of some of my best nanofiction (stories written to fit within a single Twitter post), as well as a “Tips and Tricks” section that contains a plethora of pointers designed to help you write your own microfiction, based on my experience over the past two years.
There will be three ways to buy Volume One:
1) You will be able to order a copy of Volume One in print for $12 plus shipping via Lulu.com. There will be a link to my Lulu storefront from the FiftyWordStories.com Store.
2) You will be able to purchase and download a Volume One ebook bundle directly from the FiftyWordStories.com Store for $4. This bundle will include all three available ebook formats (PDF, ePub, and mobi), as well as a high-quality image of the cover. I’m not going to force anyone to pay multiple times to get the ebook in multiple formats.
3) You will be able to buy a Kindle-viewable version of the book directly from the Kindle Store for $4. I realize that it seems a little strange to offer this when you can buy all three formats bundled together for the same price, but a lot of people feel comfortable buying from the Kindle Store, so I want to make that option available. I recommend buying the bundle, not only because you get all of the formats together, but also because I receive more money that way, instead of surrendering a large part of my proceeds to Amazon. However, if you contact me and I am able to verify that you bought the book from the Kindle Store, I will send you the other formats, as well.
This book represents months of work in story selection, rewrites, formatting, layout, and cover design. I’d estimate that I’ve put close to a hundred hours into Volume One, not including the original time it took to write all the stories. I’m so close to pushing it out the door, and I’m really proud of the final product! I hope you enjoy it.
I’m planning a bit of extra fanfare for Launch Day, and I’ll keep you updated on what that’s going to look like during the lead-up to January 31.
I’ve been tinkering with various elements of the site over the past week or so, as you may have noticed. A few new social media tools are available on the site, so you can more conveniently tweet your favourite stories or share them on Facebook or StumbleUpon. The more you share, Like, tweet, or comment on stories, the more other people will take notice, so I really appreciate it.
I’ve also created an official Fifty-Word Stories fan page on Facebook, so you can get site updates and participate in calls for story prompts or any future contests in more ways. Head over and “Like” the page to get the updates and share the site with your friends.
Finally, I created a Top Stories page that lists the 50 highest rated stories that have ever been posted on the site. The tab in the sidebar only shows 10 stories, and only includes stories written in the past year, so I figured this would be a good chance to expose readers to popular stories from before they found the site. I hope you enjoy this feature and work to get your favourite stories voted up the list!
I’ve been working hard to get the fifty-word stories book ready to go on sale, and it’s very, very close! In fact, it’s so close that I’m able to give you a preview of the book’s contents right now.
To check out the free preview of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One, click here. You will need the free Adobe Reader program to view the file, which includes the book’s Table of Contents and Introduction, as well as the first few stories.
Bear in mind that the contents of the book may still change before the book is made available for purchase. This preview may not be a perfect representation of what the end product will look like.
Comments are welcome!
Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope and pray that you had time to relax and enjoy family and friends, and to remember what Christmas is really all about.
Christmas means, for this site, that another calendar year is nearly over. This year I finished my first year’s worth of stories, took a hiatus, came back refreshed, and have been going strong on Year 2, which started July 5. I’ve been fueled by all of the comments, star-ratings, suggestions, title submissions, and retweets supplied by everyone who reads the stories on this site. Thank you so much to everyone who provides me with feedback and reader interaction! It’s a huge encouragement, and it’s the reason I write.
I had hoped to have the Fifty-Word Stories book out this year at some point, but unfortunately a variety of circumstances have prevented that. I’m expecting to have the book ready some time in January or February, though, so even though it won’t be a Christmas present, you’ll still have a chance to get some microfiction in paper form for your shelf, your coffee table, your bathroom, your ceiling, your front door, your fireplace, or wherever else you may want to put it. The draft copy I received has been getting pretty positive reactions, especially from people who haven’t been following the website for the past year-and-a-half, so I’m feeling pretty good about how this is going to turn out, and I think it will make a good gift, for yourself or for people you know.
I have some other thoughts and plans for the coming year, including another Mere 50 Words guest-submission contest, live-writing events, site enhancements, a possible return to nanofiction, stories from special guests, and as much reader-interaction as I can make available. I want to break out of the box a little and make this a unique and interesting year.
I’m excited about 2011, and I hope you are, too! Keep on reading, and I’ll keep on writing…
It’s true! The 50-Word Stories book has taken a step closer to actually becoming available.
Crazy. I know.
I’ve been so distracted by other things and busy with school and life that I’ve been negligent in moving the book forward. But today I sat down and hashed out some details, found the files I’d been using, and decided it was about time I made this happen.
There’s not going to be a fancy cover design with a half-hidden story written on the binding or anything clever like that. I had some ideas, but in the end, I’ve realized that one of the biggest reasons I haven’t gotten the book done yet is that I had all these little ideas and tweaks that I wanted to get just right, and I was getting discouraged by any imperfections that I saw. So taking a cue from the Cult of Done, I made up my mind: forget about the imperfections, forget about whether the cover is pretty enough, forget about whether people are going to nitpick the final product; just get it done.
So to that end, I’ve finalized the (very simple) design at Lulu.com and ordered a proof copy. Once I have that and am satisfied with it, I’ll open up sales. I don’t know if I’ll sell 2 or 20 (maybe 2 is optimistic!), but regardless, I’ll be able to say I put the book out there.
And I’m planning to make a downloadable PDF version available for free, as well.
Finally!