If I'm not serving looks, I'm reading and writing books.
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I'm Publishing a Book of Short Stories & Flash Fiction

A bouquet of lavender and an Apple studio display showing a collection of short stories and flash fiction by Melina Maria Morry

For years now, my fiction stories have been the top performing posts on my website. (Along with three blog posts about dating a trust fund baby, small Canadian brands you need to know about, and the stereotypes that come with growing up half-Peruvian.) Which is why I’m planning on publishing a book of short stories and flash fiction! It’ll be called “Thirteen Emotions” and will mainly focus on my set of 13 short stories about various emotions, from sadness to love.

My short story about grief and losing a loved one had about 13,000 impressions on Google in the last three months. It’s crazy. It was one of the first short stories I ever wrote, inspired by the death of my father. Trust me when I say I cried writing it, editing it, and it took a while for me to be able to read it without shedding at least a tear or two.

But my question is: Should I publish a physical book of short stories or strictly an eBook?

An eBook is obviously the most cost-effective. However, I just love the look and feel of physical books. I can definitely go to “print on demand” route, so whenever someone buys the book, a copy will be printed and sent to them. Or I can also print a stack for myself to sell through my online bookstore. I was thinking maybe 31 copies for myself to sign and it’ll be a limited-edition run of personalized books.

If I don’t do something with my short fiction stories soon, I think I’ll be missing out on a major opportunity.

In the last 3 months, my “grief” story had the most clicks at 1,018, followed by my short stories page with 458, and then my short story about maybe or maybe not murdering your cheating husband with 318 clicks on Google. You can find the data in the chart below.

My Most Popular Short Story Pages

The next most popular stories on my website are: What I Miss About You, The Million-Dollar Guilt Trip, and The Phosphorus Skinny-Dip. You can find them all here.

I started writing these stories after being laid-off from my job during the pandemic. It was a great way for me to find purpose every day and keep my creativity flowing. Many of these stories were originally published on my website in 2020 or 2021. Then, I just kept it up. Although, there was at least a year or so that I didn’t publish a single thing… except my twins.

So, I’m thinking of publishing this short story collection soon. Like, soon enough for you to grab a copy before you jet off on a summer vacation. Which copy would you be more drawn to: an eBook or paperback? I promise they’ll both have a cute cover.

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