Okay, here’s another question for you folks, while we’re brainstorming. We were thinking of putting together little selections of my Jump Space sci-fi stories and releasing them as mini ebooks. Keep in mind that you can read them for free on the web! But this would let you have the convenience of reading them from your e-reader device, nicely formatted, etc.
Does this sound interesting? If so, should I do:
a) only already published stories (presumably vetted by excellent magazine editors) or include some original stories too?
(NOTE: If I include original material, I’m forgoing the chance of publishing it in a magazine, so that’s $300 – $500 not in hand, plus the visibility of the magazine bonus. On the other hand, people like original material, and it’d be an extra reason to buy something, since those aren’t up on the web already.)
b) put them out in little sets of 3 stories (about 15,000 – 20,000 words) for $1.99
c) put them out as a set of 5-6 stories (about 30,000 – 40,000 words, or half a novel) for $3.99
d) something else?
What are people doing, what seems appealing to you? Bujold, for example, is releasing her Penric novellas directly, about 125 pages, for $3.99. I need some market research here!