Publication Notes --April 2008

Probably the most significant news (perhaps the only news) is that two of my stories are now available on Sniplits. Click here and you can go directly to my page there. One of the stories, "A Little Accident" is one of the featured stories. "Puppy" is shorter and a little cheaper. (They charge based on the length of the story, all good prices for a story that is easy to download.) If you are reading and love to listen to stories, please consider buying one or more from this site. I'd, of course, be pleased if you got one of mine, but I think there is something there for pretty much every taste.

Looking forward to summer. Should get a little writing done and hopefully see a few more things out there.
Press release for Sniplits.
New on-line publisher offers DRM-free digital audio short stories
Sniplits’ beta test site offers downloadable MP3 audio shorts, author fan clubs and community forums
Batavia, Illinois – 1 May 2008 – Anyone with a digital music player, smart phone or laptop understands the hunger for new content. Now, with the beta site launch of Sniplits.com, there’s a new source for entertainment on the Internet. Sniplits is publishing audio short stories, packaged as DRM-free MP3 files and playable on virtually any device capable of playing digital music.
The Sniplits website has launched for beta testing with 85 audio short stories ranging from about two minutes in length to nearly an hour. The initial batch of stories represents the work of approximately 50 authors, and Sniplits will add additional stories and Fan Club pages as the site ramps up. The stories sell for $0.48 or $0.88 each, depending on length. In addition to mainstream and literary short stories, Sniplits offers mystery and suspense, speculative/science fiction and fantasy, romance, horror, adventure, sports, western, historical fiction and young adult stories.
“While they may be brief, there’s really nothing small about a short story,” says company founder, Anne Stuessy. “The best short stories are packed with compelling characters and storylines, with suspense, romance, heartbreak, humor, shivers and surprises. The need to make every word count, means that they can pack an astounding punch.”
“Our goal is to provide listeners with audio stories that are perfectly-sized for any pause in their day, from under two minutes to nearly an hour,” says Stuessy. “A ten-minute story might be perfect while waiting for an oil change, while a 30-minute story might be just the thing for a dentist appointment or lunch break.”
Sniplits publishes new as well as established authors and, unlike many markets, pays them for their work.
“It makes me crazy that we’re willing to pay millions to athletes right out of college or even high school, but expect our writers to pay their mortgages with little but the satisfaction of having written a good story,” says Stuessy.
Sniplits pays an advance of between $15 and $150 for stories between 100 and 8,000 words, and authors have the potential to receive royalty payments on net sales of their stories of between 30 to 50%.
“Unfortunately, the economics of print publishing today make it difficult for most short story publishers to offer much of anything in the way of compensation. Still,” Stuessy says, “many of those literary, university and genre-specific publishers play a – perhaps the – critical role in developing writers, and they do it very well. We’d like to support their work, and grow the audience for short stories in all formats, so we enable authors to link from Sniplits’ Fan Club pages to their work with print publishers. We also decided that Sniplits will not necessarily require first publication rights, but will only ask for audio rights and the right to distribute stories electronically. That might enable an author to have his story published in a literary print magazine, for example, and still have an audio version published by Sniplits.”
In addition to offering audio short stories, Sniplits plans to build out what it calls its “Open Mic” community, where members can connect with authors and each other. It includes Fan Club pages for authors and discussion forums. While anyone can visit and shop Sniplits, only Sniplits Members are allowed access to Fan Clubs where they can ask authors questions. Membership is also required to participate in community discussion forums. Membership is free and members are not required to purchase stories. Membership benefits include a free story each week.

Sniplits and the stylized logo are service marks of Stussi, Inc.