Several years ago, I had an idea. It started with a question."If I printed individual short stories, would anyone buy them?"
Short stories were typically sold as part of a collection. Either you bought a book filled with assorted stories by one author covering numerous different topics and genres, or you bought a collection of stories by numerous authors covering one topic. Either way, you were paying a lot of money for a lot of stories, when you really only wanted a few. Thus, the short story didn't sell very well.
Why not sell them individually? It had been done before, up until the 1930's. They were called Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls. People read short stories back then.
Could it be done again? The idea was simple. Spend a little money, print a few copies of a story, and drop it in a privately owned store and see if it sells. If it does, awesome. If not, I lost a little money and learned the answer to a question.
So I printed 40 copies of Pyro, a first-person narrative about a kid who loved fire, and let it rest on the shelves of a comic store in Lake Charles. I didn't expect much. Maybe a couple of buys over the course of the month, maybe a dozen.
When it sold out in under a month, I released another story. When that one matched the success of the first, I ran a third. Thirteen months, three authors, two book signings and a the best selling table at a local convention, I had my answer.
Would anyone buy a single short story?
YES!
They would. They did. And once again, very soon…
They WILL!
The TEN DIME NOVEL, what began as a $25 question became a $600 return. Soon, the POCKET NOVEL will be released. The test run was a blast and far exceeded my expectations and hopes. That was just the tip of the iceberg. The testing is done. The trial period over. The beta version tested. It's time for the real deal.
I'm not going to worry about small printing projects. It's time launch the publishing company. The world is obviously ready, and I intend to deliver.
