I've got new fiction out today!
And you might be able to get it for freeee...
Hi! I wrote a short story and you can read it (or listen to it!) today. It appears in an amazing anthology called Never Tell alongside new work by the supremely talented Caroline Kepnes, Rachel Howzell Hall, Liv Constantine, Loreth Anne White, and Ivy Pochoda.
My creepy little tale is called The Other Side of the Road, and it’s about a couple that thinks they’ve found their peaceful forever home when they move from the city to upstate New York…but the neighbors have other ideas. Prime and Kindle Unlimited members can read it (and the entire collection!) for free, and everyone else can pick it up for $1.99. Early readers have been digging it, and I hope you love it!
That’s it for updates, so if you’re like, GOT IT, thanks for your attention and carry on. For those who are curious: Many writers have asked how this came about and what the process was like!
I told my agent I was interested in writing an Amazon Original Short since I’d seen so many authors I admire doing so, and I’d heard through the grapevine that the pay was decent. It’s nothing near a book advance, of course, and it’s a one-time fee sans royalties…but I’d maintain film and TV rights (to hopefully get it optioned down the road), and hey, there aren’t that many opportunities in fiction to do a one-off project between books. (Amazon Publishing also does Audible Originals and scripted “audio originals,” like a radio play—and I said I was open to all.)
My agent eventually brought this opportunity to me, and I worked with an editor to get the story in good shape, and then an editorial director who ushered it through all the normal stages: copyediting and proofreading, plus coordinating with audio, design, marketing, and publicity teams on the release. They’ve got this down to a science; I was in very good hands throughout.
The whole thing was super fun! Many writers have said it’s harder to write a good short story than a novel because you need to do so much in so few pages (my target word limit was 7,000, vs. 90,000-ish for my books)…but I didn’t find that to be the case at all, lol. I love parameters, and it was a cool challenge to keep the story spare and tight, making it feel rich and layered with as few details as possible. I wrote the whole thing in one feverish weekend! I hope you enjoy reading it because I had a blast writing it. Let me know what you think!
Congrats, Andi! Can't wait to read it. Two questions for you: 1) Did Amazon come to you with the theme, and you then came up with the story premise? 2) Did Amazon put the authors together, or did one of the contributing writers?