Category Archives: News

News about the site.

NEWS: March 7 Pay What You Want Sale

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March 7 is my fiancée’s birthday, so in celebration of that, I’m holding a Pay What You Want Sale for Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One. Until midnight PST on March 7, you can pay any amount you want to download the Volume One ebook bundle, which includes the ePub, .mobi (Kindle), and PDF formats. After this, the price will go back to $3.99.

So throw me a penny, a dollar, or heck, why not a grand? (I kid!) Take advantage of the offer, enjoy the book, tell your friends, and leave a review on Amazon, while you’re at it.

NEWS: Get 15% Off 50WS:V1 in Print

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I received an email from Lulu.com the other day letting me know that they’re holding a sale, so I thought I’d pass the offer on to all of you.

Until March 15, 2011, enter the coupon code IDES305 and you can receive 15% off a print copy of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One. That means you can get the book for just over $10, plus shipping, which is a really good deal. And it doesn’t cut into my profits at all, since Lulu is the one offering the sale, so it’s a win-win!

Remember, if you buy a print copy of the book, you can receive the free ebook, as well, by forwarding me a copy of your receipt email.

NEWS: Valentine’s Day Contest Recap

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I posted some thoughts about the Valentine’s Day contest over at TimSevenhuysen.com, including what I liked about each of the stories that were posted today.

In total, 22 people submitted 29 stories for the contest, and I really enjoyed receiving and reading them all. I hope you’ll all submit more stories in the future, both for other contests and for weekly guest stories.

Also, as a special thank you, if you submitted a story for the contest I’ve emailed you a thank you note which contains a 50% off coupon for the Volume One ebook bundle, so if you use that coupon before February 21, the bundle is under $2!

NEWS: Free Ebook With Print Purchase

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People have been asking about packaging the ebook bundle with print sales. I didn’t think that would be possible, since Lulu doesn’t let me see any personal details for customers, but @davefp came up with a way to make it work:

If you have purchased Volume One from Lulu and would like an ebook copy, forward your email receipt to Tim@FiftyWordStories.com, with your address, etc., removed, and I’ll send the ebook bundle to that email address.

This offer stands for all past and future print orders. If you’ve already purchased both the print and ebook versions and would like a refund on your ebook, send me an email.

The reason I hadn’t set up any kind of print+ebook bundle before is that I didn’t think it would be possible to verify people’s print purchases, but your Lulu receipt should be identifiable enough to make this work. If this offer gets abused by people trying to grab a free ebook without making a print purchase, I’ll revisit things, but I want to make the offer available, because I think it makes a lot of sense.

Thanks to Dave for the implementation idea, and thanks again to everyone who has bought the book!

NEWS: Volume One Now Available in Kindle Store

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For those of you who have been waiting to buy Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One directly from the Kindle Store and may have missed the announcement earlier on Twitter, I thought I’d give you a heads up that the book has passed through the publishing phase and is now available.

You can buy it in the US Kindle Store or the UK Kindle Store, or in other countries’ Kindle Stores, as well.

NEWS: Volume One Officially Goes On Sale!

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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!

NEWS: Store Launch Week

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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

  1. Download the ebook bundle (containing the book in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats, along with the cover) directly from this site, after purchasing via PayPal;
  2. Click through to Lulu.com to order the book in print via my Lulu storefront; and
  3. Click through to the Kindle Store, where you can buy the ebook in mobi format and download it straight to your Kindle (or the Kindle app on your iPhone, etc.).

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.

NEWS: Valentine’s Day Contest

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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:

  • Your story must be composed of exactly fifty words, not including the title.
  • Your story must have a Valentine’s Day theme.
  • Your story must include the phrase “always and forever”.

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!

NEWS: Book Format Availability

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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.

NEWS: Special Monday!

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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.