If you’re anything like us, then you’ve heard writers complaining for years about the demise of markets for short stories. Now, all right, yes, it is true that the heyday of hundreds of printed fiction magazines is over. Only the very strongest such as Space & Time Magazine have survived, but I strongly disagree that there is a lack of demand for shorter works of fiction.

Remember this truest of facts … nothing disappears without being replaced by something else. That’s evolution, dudes.

The novel still outsells single author short story collections and multiple author anthologies in printed form, just as always. But a savvy writer realizes that short stories (5,000 words or less) and novellas (5,001 to 59,999 words) appeal to more multi-media markets for fiction than the novel. For those who haven’t noticed, we are living in a multi-media age, one that seems to become a bit more “multi” with every passing day. In order to sell more short fiction you have to think in terms of appealing to editors in other mediums that might be willing to use your fiction.

To create top selling short stories a writer needs to think of a short story in terms of an episode. Write a series of short stories using the same universe and main characters. And, despite the popular notion to the contrary, these stories do not need to be written in chronological order. Unless, of course, you were thinking that Robert E. Howard’s Conan wasn’t a popular character.

What working in a chronological progression does allow you is, at the end of a group of, say fifteen to twenty short stories, is to create a very exciting book that can be published as a “novel.” By way of personal example, we did this with our forthcoming “novel,” Where Angels Fear. We first sold the stories to many different magazines, websites, and anthologies. Then we wrote more unpublished stories to fill out the story arc and sold them as one complete work of art — one with a beginning, middle and end. Just like any other novel. Each short story or novella appears as a titled chapter, leading to that most wonderful of situations, selling the same short story twice.

Episodic fiction can also be sold as a comic book series. You have to rewrite the short stories as comic book scripts, but then you could sell the short stories to a book publisher as a comic book tie-in. C.J. did this with his hit Moonstone Books comic Lai Wan, Tales of the Dreamwalker, which is now an anthology from Marietta Publishing as well as a comic book series.

Also: don’t forget the very popular Manga publishing companies and the best selling graphic novels that dominate the comic industry today. Any novella you’ve done is most likely the perfect length for a graphic novel.

Television producers are always on the lockout for new TV series, as well. Short stories or novellas can be rewritten as screenplays for television. Author Wendy Webb wrote a series of comedy mystery novellas for Marietta Publishing (Last Resort, Bee Movie, and Mean Cuisine). Each is subtitled “A Beluga Stein Mystery.” Wendy sold these to Fox TV as a series. Talk about selling something twice!

A good long novella is the perfect length to convert to a movie screenplay. Novels are actually too long for the standard two-hour movie.

Another point to consider is the fact that the gaming industry is now bigger than the movie industry. Like Hollywood, they are always in need of talented writers to create role playing games and video games. Most of the larger hit games have book series to tie-in the game and inspire game masters. Many game tie-in book publishing companies are actually owned by the game companies such as Chaosium, Black Library and Lucas Books. Gaming companies publish short stories, novellas, and novels depending upon the game. Two great examples of bestselling gaming book series are Halo and Warhammer.

The bottom line is to think outside the box of print media. In many ways, it is actually easier today to start a writing career than ever before, thanks to the never-before availability of Internet publishers. Their online magazines may be just the ticket to the building of both your credits and writing skills. Then you will be ready to submit stories to the cream of the online crop — Baen’s Universe and Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.

You have to start somewhere. The “where” is not important.

Getting started is.