Quite by chance, I discovered that my short story Shot to the Heart, which originally appeared in Xcite paperback Sex, Love and Valentines last year, has been re-released along with 4 others from that anthology as an e-book - with a new cover and my story taking title place :-)
New blurb!
Buying a Valentine card for someone else in front of your boyfriend might not seem like the wisest thing to do. But Nikki’s act prompts Oliver to show her the reason why hearts appear on those cards – and it involves a trip to the fanciest department store in town. In the lingerie department, stripped to her panties, Nikki discovers what it really means to be pierced by Cupid’s arrow.
Available for a mere $3.69, the mini-collection also includes Charlotte' Stein's short story Dirty Boy.
More details and download available here.
Now, wouldn't it have made sense for Xcite to have told me?
13 comments:
Did you tell them that? You should. I don't suppose there's any chance they'd pay you either, is there?
Yes, Xcite have a new strategy for at least some collections - 20 stories or thereabouts in a print edition and the same stories repackaged as four five-story e-books. Somewhere back in the dim mists of last last year you probably had an email from them announcing that they were going this way with a lot of their collections - I think it was a couple of weeks before the email announcing they were making all the changes to their websites. Velvet Tripp, my partner, had the same thing with her story 'Tropical Paradise' which was part of the 'Sex at Work' collection but also used as the title story in a small e-book.
I confess I haven't sent any short stories to Xcite since they started paying flat fees rather than royalties for shorts. As far as I'm concerned it means the primary point of submitting shorts to them would be exposure, so it's only worthwhile when I have other relevant royalty-based products for which the short would work as an advertisement. I will, though, start working on a novella for them as soon as I've got the current novel done!
I believe that every Xcite print anthology, going all the way back through the line, has now also been repackaged into sets of mini e-books like this. So anyone who has a story in one of the print anthos also presumably appears in a mini e-book. Sometimes you can spot them by searching on your name in Amazon or Goodreads.
Oh, except I don't think I've seen mini e-books made from the anthos edited by outside editors (e.g., Ultimate Burlesque, Sex in the City: New York).
Jo, Xcite bought the rights to the story for 5 years for a flat fee, so I'm not on royalties for this new publication. I'm happy to see it get more exposure - and I think the new "female-friendly" covers at Xcite are probably a good move - so I just wanted to pass the word on!
Gosh, Fulani and Jeremy - you know a lot more than me :-) And good luck with the future novella Fulani!
Jo, Xcite bought the rights to the story for 5 years for a flat fee
Yeah, those have been the terms for all the anthology stories I've sold to Xcite, going all the way back to their first books.
Flat-fee is usual for print shorts, isn't it? I've only seen e-stories offered on a royalty-only basis. (And, for some reason, Black Lace short stories re-sold to Germany.)
Sorry, we've gone all "trade" here, haven't we?
I get a little auto-mail from one of the 3rd party vendors, AllRomance, when one of these comes out - but I think that's because I have an account there.
It was probably my fault the discussion went all trade-oriented. Flat fee is usual for shorts these days and Xcite were, actually, unusual in offering royalties until last year. All it means as far as I can see is that the real money is in novellas, novels and single author collections, and short stories thus become a strategic way to get your name out and are thus most useful if you have other royalty-paying fiction that readers can be directed to.
Yes, Fulani, I totally agree on your analysis - it just ain't possible to make a living out of short stories. But they're great for getting a public profile, and for mixing/meeting other authors. I'm doing a public reading, later on this year (fingers crossed), on the back of a short story contribution I made to an anthology. Long live the short!
Long live the short!
LOL.
You were doing long-form when I was still in short pants (publicationwise).
I love writing short stories. Felix would rather write a novel than a short story but I love the way you set it up and deliver the goods and then it's done. That's all folks. Like dropping into someone's life out of the blue for an adventure and then getting the hell out. See ya!
On the topic of short stories, not a bad royalty payment from Random House for one story in Lust At First Bite, hmm Janine?
I could have done with a lot more of that sort of action.
Sigh.
Post a Comment