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Comment by JKCalhoun | Hacker News Reader

I've had great ideas for novels ... until I started to write them. Then I realize there has to be a middle too. And it has to be interesting to read.

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I do wish it was easier to publish and get short stories in a similar way to novels. Like, I don't need a 300 page tome every time. But even anthologies of short stories by new authors (as opposed to Sci-Fi classics) seem to be out of style.

There’s a whole market for short fiction actually if you look. Magazines, anthologies, etc still exist. Where do you think “the best American science fiction and fantasy” anthology sources from every year? Check out SFWA (science fiction and fantasy writers of America) qualifier list for short fiction, duotrope, and the submission grinder.

(Caveat: publication is competitive at these magazines/anthologies. Good luck to you.)

I'll look into it, thank you.

Internet makes it fairly easily to publish your short novels on a personal website. You are not going to make a profit or be marketed but at least your work is now out-there. Reading qntm's ones [0] got me to buy his self-published books.

[0]: https://qntm.org/fiction

I agree that internet makes it easy to self-publish short stories. And sure, if you are using it as promotion it makes sense. But I was specifically referring to short-stories as a viable commercial enterprise.

Just write dozens and publish them 10 at a time. In fact, two of my favorite authors growing up did exactly that, Andy Griffiths and Paul Jennings.

I think the future for this is online publication. On a personal blog, or a shared website.

A bit like stories such as Sherlock Holmes’ were initially published in episodically in newspapers.

Many platforms now offer subscriptions options, so it definitely could work.

That still leaves the discovery & editing issues though.

Any thoughts on that?

In the west this is still growing, but in Japan at least, it's way more common, at least regarding 'light novels' (kinda of like YA?). I'm not sure about earning money through subscriptions, but there people who write to those sites (similar to Wattpad) often struck a deal with a publisher to adapt the 'web novel' to a 'light novel'[0]

Edit: I know that for webtoons (korean comics) subscription is turning into a reality, at least in English markets. Not sure about how's it in Korea though

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/6hgw1w/konosub...

That’s how Andy Weir did The Martian. It’s also how Isaac Asimov wrote the first two or three Foundation novels.

The Screwtape Letters (C. S. Lewis) were done that way.

Lots of prior art. Also, it makes the books easier to read.

https://365tomorrows.com/

yes, yes, yes. the middle. if you can't keep a reader from taking a bathroom break until page 140, you can't write a novel.

There are a lot of novels that would beg to differ.

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