Buy for Kindle. Buy for iOS. Buy at Smashwords.
Friends, professors, and family have told me for years that I should just take the plunge and self-publish some of my fiction. I resisted for a number of reasons. The organizations I dreamed of joining as a child–like the SFWA and HWA–did not count self-published work toward membership requirements. Any research I did into self-publishing 10 years ago when the suggestions first started said it wasn’t as reputable and there was no market for it. I was terrified of putting my work out there unfiltered without the approval of a big pro-rate magazine or publisher.
I’ve watched as the market for horror, dark fantasy, and bizarre sci-fi short stories has contracted steadily over the past decade. Every time I went to submit a new story through the usual suspects, there were fewer publications showing up for the line-up. New magazines would pop up, accept my work, then fold after their first issue (when I was slated for the second or third). Digital only publications, as a rule, believe that just being kind enough to publish your short story on their WordPress site is payment enough; it’s really not.
I can’t live being afraid of showing off my work anymore. The immense popularity of Kindle, Nook, and eBook apps means that stigma over self-publication is gradually fading away. Even the Horror Writers Association is allowing self-published works to be considered for their annual Bram Stoker Awards now. That is when I knew I needed to finally put my work out there on my own.
Take Out & Other Stories: A Collection of Weird Fiction is my first ever short story capsule collection.