Today I’m delighted to welcome Craig Boyack, author, blogging friend and mastermind behind Lisa Burton (I hope Lisa won’t mind me saying that). Craig is a tireless promoter of bloggers and writers across the blogosphere, plus posts plenty of entertaining content, so hop on over to his blog and check it out.
Today Craig is visiting to talk about his latest release, The Experimental Notebook of C.S.Boyack II, now available on Amazon. It’s a collection of short stories, and a follow up to his successful Experimental Notebook I. Here, Craig talks a little bit about the reasoning behind releasing a collection of short stories, and makes some excellent points. In fact, I’m feeling a little inspired myself… Take it away, Craig!
Thanks for inviting me over today. I’m touring around with my new book, The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack II. This is a collection of fifteen short stories and micro-fiction of a speculative nature. You will find some science fiction, some paranormal, and one that might pass as fantasy. This is the second collection of short form stories, as you might guess from the title. Since they are stand alone tales, there is no requirement to read the previous one first. They are both priced at 99¢, so you might want to anyway. (I hope.)
My Muse sends me ideas all the time. They always have some interest, but I used to discard them if they wouldn’t carry a novel. On rare occasion, I might weave something into a novel, but it felt incorrect somehow.
I created yet another living document, and started keeping the ideas. Now, whenever I get stuck on a larger plot point, or I simply don’t have time to work on the novel, I hammer away at short stories.
This poses the question of what to do with them. At first I thought maybe I should use them as blog posts, but there were a lot of them. Then I noticed some people marketing them on Amazon. Some of the early examples were one short story for 99¢. This seemed a little off to me, so I kept observing.
Some authors were writing a short story to drive sales of a novel they’d published. That seemed like a really good idea. I read a few of these and the various prequels felt like they were on to something.
I’m not willing to write out backstory and sell it separately from my novels. Then I had the idea of bundling my short fiction together and offering a volume for 99¢. This felt like a better deal to me, and I occasionally buy a short story magazine, so it was familiar too. This is where the first Experimental Notebook came from.
The first one sold so well, that it was worth doing again. I will always write short form, but there is a certain effort that goes into publishing and promoting. As long as people keep reading them, I’ll keep releasing them.
I decided these volumes needed a theme so they seemed familiar somehow. The first cover had an alchemy wheel, and I decided to repeat that by using two on the new release. If I ever release a third one, it will have three wheels, and so on.
This time you get fifteen stories, an excerpt from my newest novel The Playground, and a revisit with an old friend for those of you who enjoyed Will O’ the Wisp. I like writing the characters from my novels into short stories after the fact. This way it isn’t backstory, it’s more of a where-are-they-now kind of visit.
I’d appreciate you checking it out, and it’s free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
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Reblogged this on Entertaining Stories and commented:
Today, I’m over at Helen’s place. The topic is how I came to publish short stories, and how they’ve helped me increase my productivity. Helen is a great blogger, and if you aren’t already, you should consider following her.
Thanks, Craig 🙂
Thank you.
Thanks for hosting me today. I look forward to interacting with your fans.
You’re very welcome, Craig, anytime 🙂 Looks like it’s been a lively post already, which is great!
You are on to something here!! Maybe I should take a look at some of my smaller ideas…
Do it, even if you just stockpile them. That’s what I did, but I learned a lot from writing them. My blog posts started out being 2000 words, now they come in between 400 & 600. I learned how to be concise, and it helps.
I know, right? I’m feeling the same way 🙂
Reblogged this on Archer's Aim and commented:
Great post, Craig. I loved the first edition and I’m looking forward to reading this one! Happy to share this by reblogging on Archer’s Aim!
Really appreciate the assist. Hope you enjoy the new experiments.
Thanks so much for the reblog! 🙂
My pleasure!
Great interview — and best wishes of tremendous success to Craig.
Thanks again, glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks, Jet 🙂 Craig’s a great writer, so I’m very happy to have him over for a visit.
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Thanks for sharing. It really helps.
Thanks so much for the reblog! 🙂
Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
Thanks so much for the reblog! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this.
Great interview, Helen. The book is super and thanks for having Craig on your site for an interview.
Thank you, John.
🙂
Thanks, John – glad you enjoyed Craig’s post, it was a pleasure having him visit 🙂
Always is. 😀
This book totally rocks. I had a hard time picking a favorite story in the collection, there are so many that resonated with me and had me shaking my head in wonder at how deftly they were delivered. Congrats to Cragi. And readers—if you haven’t downloaded this collection of shorts yet—get thee hence. You won’t be disappointed!
I have yet to make a start on reading my copy yet, but I’m looking forward to it! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Ha Ha Ha, thank you Mae, signed Cragi.
I find it excellent that you are unwilling to sell your back stories in segments. I like the idea with your short stories. I do the same. In fact, I write short stories alongside my manuscript and submit them. Why not?
All the best.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat
Thanks, Pat – I like Craig’s way of thinking on this too 😀
I haven’t heard of anyone submitting a short and an affiliated novel at the same time. That’s pretty inventive.
Reblogged this on Journal Edge and commented:
article source: journeytoambeth.com
Thank you for sharing 🙂