Have you written lots of short stories but can’t seem to finish that novel? You may want to consider collecting the stories into one book, also known as an anthology.

In a day when people devote less time to reading (yet there are more readers than ever), short stories offer a preferable alternative for many readers.

Stories in your anthology might have a common thematic thread in their setting or characters or family, in the year(s) they were written, and if published or not. Still, none of that is necessary for publication, though it can make your book more marketable by appealing to a niche audience – an anthology of your space opera short stores, for example, often will have stronger appeal to a specific group of readers (those who like space opera), than a general collection of short stories will have to a broad group of people.

In traditional publishing, usually an anthology would not be released unless at least a couple of the stories had been published in magazines. That provided a selling point for your anthology and generally still applies to self-publishing if this is your first book.

Don’t let non-publication in a magazine prevent you from self-publishing your short stories, however. A growing number of ebooks these days are merely short stories or novellas. So rather than an anthology, consider self-publishing the short stories as standalone pieces or maybe in groups of twos or threes. Printed paper books, however, almost certainly need several short stories in them to be salable.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.