I'm about to finish a short story (9000 words). But since I already have another two (7000 words and 6000 words), I was wondering whether I should publish the work as a mini collection of short stories. I thought about this because I've never seen a famous author publish a standalone short story.
I'm a new author and I'm planning to publish the ebook at Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing.
What would be my best choice?
There's no need to choose. Do both. Put the individual stories up as singles, and put the collection up also. Just make sure people know what's in the collection.
Steven King has published some standalone short stories. "Ur." "Riding the Bullet." Probably some others I can't think of at the moment.
For Kindle versions, I'd agree with the other posters that doing both is the easy way out. Maybe a little more trouble, but not all that much. If you find that one or the other has only a tiny number of sales, then maybe next time you don't bother. And hey, maybe you could let us know here.
For a printed book, I think you'd want to publish the collection. People rarely buy a printed book that has just one short story because it would presumably be about 20 pages long and look awfully thin.
Imagine that you have three potential readers, Alice, Bob, and Carol, and three stories, X, Y, and Z. Alice would pay $3 for X, $2 for Y, and $1 for Z. Bob would pay $3 for Y, $2 for Z, and $1 for X. Carol would pay $3 for Z, $2 for X, and $1 for Y.
If you offer X+Y+Z as an anthology for $6, you will get three readers for each story and $18 in gross sales. If you offer them separately for $2 each, you will get two readers for each story and $12 in gross sales.
This is why newspapers bundle up news, sports, and arts into one edition instead of selling them separately, and why cable-TV providers don’t let you subscribe to channels on an individual basis.
From everything I've read on the subject, the collection will sell better. The stories will necessarily be cheaper, and can easily get lost in the "bargain bin." But Dale Emery has a great point -- there's no reason to choose. Make sure you link them all to each other, so people can see how buying the collection is a great deal.
Note that short stories are much more difficult to sell than full-length novels. My company's just published a collection of stories in a popular genre by some pretty well-known authors, for a decently low price, distributed through mainstream channels and it's sold under 500 copies in six months. If you're after sales, write full-length fiction. If you're fairly prolific, perhaps consider giving away a short story for $0 as a sweetener for some more meaty offerings.
