How to Write Short Stories: Audio short stories and podcasting
Humans have listened to stories for far longer than they have read the words themselves, so audio fiction is a great way to reach more readers and add another income stream. Short stories are also the perfect length for a commute or to keep someone entertained while doing chores, as they can finish the whole work in a single session. A story of 9,000 words is around an hour of listening at normal 1x speed.
Narration options
While I work with professional human narrators and also use my own voice clone through ElevenLabs for full-length fiction, I self-narrate my short stories as well as my non-fiction books.
The reader connects with me through my real voice, and I get the opportunity to read my stories aloud and bring the experience alive, but without the long process of attempting a full-length novel.
If you want to try human narrating your own audiobooks, there’s more information in my book Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies, and there’s more on AI narration in chapter 4.1.
Audiobook distribution
There is no length requirement to distribute an ‘audiobook,’ so for short stories, you can use the same platforms as full-length books.
I use ACX for Audible, Spotify for Authors for Spotify, and INaudio for other platforms and libraries. I also sell audio shorts on my JFPennBooks.com store and many are available for free on YouTube @jfpennauthor. You can monetise YouTube channels with ads, or it can just be another way to reach new readers.
There are more details on specifics in my book Successful Self-Publishing.
For Spotify and YouTube in particular, you can set up playlists that link your stories together. You can find mine at jfpenn.com/spotifyshorts and jfpenn.com/YTShortStories.
Fiction podcasts
Short stories are also the perfect length for a podcast episode and there are professional, paying fiction podcast markets you can submit to, as well as other podcasts that are more for marketing. All are competitive so listen to the show and only submit if your story is a good fit.
One example is Escape Pod for science fiction, which publishes original and reprinted short stories of 1,500 to 7,500 words in both digital and audio formats and pays a professional rate.
Remember that audio rights can be licensed separately, so check your contracts carefully, as covered in chapter 2.5.
Questions:
- Would your short stories work well in audio?
- How will you handle the narration?
- How and where will you distribute the audio?
- Is there a fiction podcast that’s a good fit for your story?
- Have you licensed the audio rights already or are they yours to use as you like?
Resources:
- Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies — Joanna Penn
- Successful Self-Publishing: How to Self-Publish and Market Your Book, Fourth Edition — Joanna Penn
- ACX (Audible); Spotify for Authors; Voices by INaudio (wide distribution, formerly Findaway Voices); BookFunnel (direct delivery)
- Escape Pod fiction podcast for science fiction submission guidelines: escapepod.org/guidelines/short-fiction
- List of short story podcasts: podcast.feedspot.com/short_story_podcasts
- Create a playlist on Spotify: support.spotify.com/uk/article/create-playlists
- My short stories on YouTube: jfpenn.com/YTShortStories
- My short stories on Spotify: jfpenn.com/spotifyshorts
