The Flash Fictioners' Corner Booth

LonnieG

New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
74
Reaction score
4
Location
SoCal
Eamonn,

Congratulations. Care to share the market, or is that inappropriate?
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Awh thanks guys for that!
 
Last edited:

JustSarah

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Messages
1,980
Reaction score
35
Website
about.me
I decided to give this style a try, since more often than not I tend to end up with 500 words or less.D:
 

pernickety

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
175
Reaction score
14
Go for it JustSarah. It's always nice to try new things.

I'm delighted that I piece I wrote has been shortlisted in a competition--Writers&Artists. Even if I didn't put it up here, I have learned a lot here and intend to return soon.
 

LeadHead

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2012
Messages
309
Reaction score
52
Location
UK
Welcome JustSarah! The more the merrier.

Congratulations pernickety! Best of luck with winning it.
 

WendyN

8-armed cyborg tree
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
1,904
Reaction score
181
Location
in the mountain's shadow
Quick question about subbing flash fiction, and this seems like the place to ask. I'm doing some [very preliminary] research on flash fiction markets, and have been poking around flashfictiononline.com's guidelines. When they ask for a "cover letter" is that intended to be like the query that you would submit to an agent for a full-length novel, or are they looking for something different? Am I overthinking this?
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Hello everyone!

I've great news I'd like to share!

I've put a collection of ten Flash Fiction stories together and created a Kindle version entitled, Take one before bedtime.

It will be free on Amazon from Friday until Monday, it'd be great if you had time to download it.

I didn't go overboard with the acknowledgements as I wasn't sure who would be comfortable with their username being used outside of this site, but I'd like to thank you all here again. Without your advice, comments, well wishes, I would never have been able to keep writing from week to week, not to mind publish a collection.

My aim with this collection is to have some more writing available to readers who have bought/will buy my first novel, and hopefully build up some fans prior to the release of my second novel in December.

Thank you all again, I really appreciate your help.

Also, a special mention to Sophia and JVC, thank you for getting this Flash Fiction sub-forum going and for keeping it ticking over :)
 

pernickety

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
175
Reaction score
14
Eamonn,
That looks great. You have been busy!
Unfortunately I don't have a kindle, and no nothing about other formats, but best of luck with this.
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Eamonn,
That looks great. You have been busy!
Unfortunately I don't have a kindle, and no nothing about other formats, but best of luck with this.

Thanks Pernickety!

Sure you know all the stories already :)

Hope all's good with you.
 

jvc

Fearsome Dragon Mod
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
14,639
Reaction score
4,616
Location
Hiding from a teeny tiny spider
Good luck with your flash collection, Eamonn. I don't have a kindle, so can't download it. I don't know about anyone else, but I would be interested to know of your progress with the collection of short stories. I have often wondered how well these collections sell on Amazon.
 

LonnieG

New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
74
Reaction score
4
Location
SoCal
Hi Eamonn,

The grizzled old warrior does not become such without the sting of the blade. Congratulations. Your first.

Lonnie
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Good luck with your flash collection, Eamonn. I don't have a kindle, so can't download it. I don't know about anyone else, but I would be interested to know of your progress with the collection of short stories. I have often wondered how well these collections sell on Amazon.

Hi JVC - I'm gonna put it as free for five days, starting from tomorrow, and after that I don't expect too many sales, even at $0.99.

I'll let you know how it goes after the freebies!

Cheers.
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Hi Eamonn,

The grizzled old warrior does not become such without the sting of the blade. Congratulations. Your first.

Lonnie

Hi Lonnie!

Thanks very much for the comment, I appreciate it.
 

LeadHead

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2012
Messages
309
Reaction score
52
Location
UK
Cool! I do have a kindle so I will definitely download it.

I've also got some travelling coming up and need more reading material so I may take a look at your novel too.
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Cool! I do have a kindle so I will definitely download it.

I've also got some travelling coming up and need more reading material so I may take a look at your novel too.

That would be great Leadhead! The collection is free from midnight tonight Pacific Time!
 

Sophia

Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
4,540
Reaction score
1,751
Location
U.K.
Great work, Eamonn! I downloaded it this morning from Amazon.co.uk, using the free Kindle for PC application. The collection is perfect for reading in free moments throughout the day. Thank you!
 

pernickety

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
175
Reaction score
14
Sophia,
Thanks for posting that. I did the same so I'm proud to be the owner of my first AW-buddy's book. I'm also likely to have a new addiction (ebooks)

Eamonn,
I recognise some of the titles alright! Will look forward to dipping in this weekend.

Can I ask you how easy it is to put a book up on Kindle? I'm sure there are threads here and will look for them. But how long did it take you to get a handle on it. (I want to dedicate a story I wrote to a friend and thought it might be a nice present for her to download it for free obviously!)
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
@Sophia: Thank you for downloading!

Can I ask you how easy it is to put a book up on Kindle? I'm sure there are threads here and will look for them. But how long did it take you to get a handle on it. (I want to dedicate a story I wrote to a friend and thought it might be a nice present for her to download it for free obviously!)

Putting the book up on Kindle is the easy part, it's the formatting that takes time, as I've an account with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). I used a guide by Guido Henkel, just google "guido henkel ebook formatting".

The first time I did it(formatting) for my novel, it took me two long evenings to get it right, as I was playing with styles and settings. With the Flash Fiction collection, I had it from Microsoft word to mobi (format for Kindle) in about an hour.

The series of articles by Guido are excellent, but it helps if your good at html and things like that. If you're not, I can help you out when the time comes.

That's a really nice idea as a present. And the advantage is that you can email the kindle version directly to your friend.

Thanks for downloading my collection :)

Give me a shout whenever!
 

pernickety

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
Messages
175
Reaction score
14
Thanks Eamonn,
Might give it a go. It's only one story and I have 2 long evenings to spare! Will let you know how I get on.
 

LonnieG

New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
74
Reaction score
4
Location
SoCal
Eamonn,

I loved The Boys on The Beam. Those two pictures hang in the office where I work, along with the "photo shopped" version with the women eating their lunch. I work for a structural steel fabricator/erector so I have seen the pictures many times and knew right off what the story was about.

Why did you choose the pictures to write about? Do you have some history about the shooting of the pictures?

Here is the link if anyone would like to see the pictures.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-lunch-Rockefeller-beam-publicity-stunt.html


Thanks for the good read.

Lonnie
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Eamonn,

I loved The Boys on The Beam. Those two pictures hang in the office where I work, along with the "photo shopped" version with the women eating their lunch. I work for a structural steel fabricator/erector so I have seen the pictures many times and knew right off what the story was about.

Why did you choose the pictures to write about? Do you have some history about the shooting of the pictures?

Here is the link if anyone would like to see the pictures.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-lunch-Rockefeller-beam-publicity-stunt.html


Thanks for the good read.

Lonnie

Lonnie,

The reason I picked to write about it was mainly due to one of Sophia's prompts- "Demolition" - but I veered slightly off course. Also, my brother had actually just bought a large print of the men eating lunch pic so it popped into my head at the time.

Great to hear you enjoyed it.
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
A quick update on the Flash Fiction Collection:

I expected downloads to be pretty meager, but it started well - I had about 40 downloads between Friday and Saturday. When I happened to check it on Saturday, I was in the top 5k free books on Kindle. It's nothing to write home about, but it's good to have some downloads.

Just checked it there, I've 60 downloads at the moment, and there is one day left. It's hard to know what to expect with free downloads for FF. (Compared to others' novels getting downloaded 1000's of times in five days. )

Still, I'm happy with it, as it's something I had written already as part of the weekly challenge here on AW. And, when people check my profile on Amazon, I'll have more to show.

Thanks to everyone here who downloaded it, I really appreciate it.
 

jvc

Fearsome Dragon Mod
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
14,639
Reaction score
4,616
Location
Hiding from a teeny tiny spider
I think you've done very well. Great job. You should write a St George's day story for the 23rd, I think. Maybe with a dragon. ;)
 

Spell-it-out

I'm gonna give all my secrets away
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
86
Location
Ireland
Thanks JVC!

Sorry to say, but I don't know enough about Dragons :D ... Or St. George for that matter. I'll do one about St. Patrick and some snakes first, then I'll work on your request ;)
 

LeadHead

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2012
Messages
309
Reaction score
52
Location
UK
Hi everyone! Just popping in to say I'll be back in a couple of weeks and will dive head first back into writing again. I hope everyone's work is going well and I'll try to catch up with reading it when I get back :)