Advice on Table of Contents arrangement

Hello,

I'm putting together a collection of my short stories, and I am not sure which option of two would be best for organizing them.

So far, several are stand alone, two are related (one is the sequel to the first), and then there are 5 that are tightly related, revolving around the same character, theme and grand plot arc.

I could do this one of two ways. Either:
Group all 5 stories together as a sort of novella, either in the center or at the end of the book. The two related stories are either at the beginning and end, or beginning and the last story before the block of 5.

I have been told that grouping all 5 stories together would not look good. The implication is that these are the important stories and the rest are just there.

Or:
Break the 5 into pieces and sprinkle them throughout the collection. Have the two part stories as the first and last.

However, several author collections I've seen have a long novella length story (or two) in their collections. Is the difference that in my case, they are individual stories? Would it be best to just combine them into one long story?

I would prefer to clump rather than separate because 1) Most of the stories are in third person PoV, but the 5 stories and a stand alone story are in first person. If I break the 5 into pieces, then a reader could confuse the stand alone first person story as one of the 5, because the PoV is the same. 2) At this time I have 10 stories. If I put one story in between each of the 5, I still wouldn't have enough to properly separate them and allow for the two sequels to bookend the collection.

Should I separate? Should I clump the 5 together? Should I turn the 5 into one long piece?

Old Hack said:

Short stories are very specific, peculiar things.

If they're good, then they are perfect just as they are. You won't be able to just "turn the 5 into one long piece" without losing much of what makes them special.

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I don't really agree? They're a serial. A series relating to the same thing. In essence 5 chapters of one long story, but each one serving as an episode. It's just that I was writing and releasing them one at a time.

I already know how I prefer it (to clump). This is about how it would look to others.

You could, of course, release them as two collections: the five related stories in one, the rest of them in the second.

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I doubt I could get the 5 alone printed- the word count would likely come under 20K and that's not worth printing. Furthermore, the publisher charges $10 for any book with a word count of 40-60K. I'd prefer a potential reader get as much for $10 as they can, so I want to get as close to 60K as possible. Thus the 5 help with a bit of padding. Finally, the first 3 of the 5 have been posted online, and I'm hoping that the fact I'm finishing the series with 4 and 5 will draw in readers who read the first three and want to see how it ends.