Writing short romance stories is big business. There are a lot of people who are making money writing and publishing short love stories and so in this report, you are going to learn how to write romance short stories for profit.
It is not as hard as you may think. You do not need to write the next big bestseller. You are writing a short romance story with a word count of no more than 20,000 words.
In fact, there are many people who make decent amounts of money writing romance stories with an average word count of 10,000. They write a short love story then upload it to Amazon.
To make money you really need to ‘write to market’. That means that you write what people want to read. You are already halfway there because people love to read short love and romance stories.
Billionaire romances are quite popular thanks to books such as Fifty Shades Of Grey by E.L. James.
Here are 5 How To Write Romance Short Stories tips.
1 – Take Ideas And Inspiration From The World Around You.
As the saying goes… There is nothing new under the sun. Don’t try to invent anything new, take inspiration and ideas from the people around you, the books you read and the television shows you watch.
There is enough going on around you which can be stitched together to make a new story.
For example, just today I was talking to a guy who had reluctantly left the army, a job he loved, to move to a new part of the country with his new wife so that she could go to university.
While studying to be a veterinarian she decided that she wanted a divorce and kicked him out. He is now forced to find a new home on his own in a part of the country where he knows no one while getting to grips with a new job. He is heartbroken and emotionally lost.
Right there is a character for a story. The main character is in a new town reeling from the separation when he/she meets a new love interest. The love interest can have a history based on someone else you know or have seen on television.
I am not saying that you plagiarise and steal other people’s work, but the truth is that a lot of people have similar lives… you can easily weave these stories into something new. This could be set in the future and on another planet or on a space station or it could be set in the past.
There is more than enough real-life to inspire ideas and new stories.
2 – Work With A Template.
Decide how many words you want to write and how many chapters you want in your book and plan your story through those chapters. If you want to write 10,000 words, choose 10 chapters and aim to make each chapter 1,000 words long.
Try to make the book only that length, however, don’t be so strict that it ruins the story. If the story evolves while you are writing to the point it needs another couple of chapters then so be it.
Same with word count, if one chapter is only 850 words long and another is 1,200 then so be it. Don’t wreck the story by chopping and editing it to suit the word count or the number of chapters.
Your template is just a guide designed to help you write your book with ease.
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3 – Write A Series.
Write multiple books which follow the lives of one or several characters. Think Sex And The City with Carrie and the girls or Bridget Jones.
When someone buys a book and they enjoy it, they will want to read more. So by having more books featuring the characters they love, they will buy more. You increase your profits and you do less work because you have already figured out a lot of the characters and their history.
A series is good because you can follow on from where you left off. It is like writing a television programme where each episode is a new story wrapped within a bigger story known as a ‘universe’.
Ultimately, people love characters. So, if you write a standalone book, your next book is again going to be a new set of characters that readers are going to have to spend time getting to know.
With a series, people love the characters and they want more of what they love. So much so they will pay for more of what they love so why not give it to them?
4 – Write 3 Or 4 Books Before Publishing.
This is a tip for making more money and keeping happy fans happy. When you publish several books in a series at the same time means that anyone who reads one of your books and loves it can quickly move onto another.
Short romance stories of 20,000 words or less can be read in an hour or two. Publishing 3 or 4 books at a time means that the person who wants to read more can without having to wait for you to publish a second book.
If someone has to wait for a second book they can soon forget about you. With you being new, they won’t have the anticipation or patience to wait for the next one like children do with the Harry Potter books.
Your readers hardly know you so you need to build a relationship with them and the best way to do that is to give them a lot upfront at the beginning.
It also gives you some breathing space to write another book or two. And with the readers now having enjoyed several of your books and knowing that you are a serious writer, they will remember you and keep an eye out for your next book.
Related video: We recently interviewed Joanne who runs her own little self-publishing business in the romance niche. She shared some superb insights with us here.
5 – Read A Couple Of The Popular Books In Your Chosen Genre.
Not everyone does this, some people have done well writing from scratch without doing any research but you do have to ask… why would you go blindly into something when there are a lot of great examples to learn from?
Reading several of the best-selling short stories in your genre will give you an idea as to what people are enjoying and ultimately what they are spending their money on.
You get to see how characters, scenes, and events are described and how they evolve and unfold. You learn how specific things are written and the rules which work for other writers.
Is there much violence in these stories? If so, how graphic is it?
Is there much sex in these stories? Is it implied, steamy or graphic eroticism?
Do the characters swear? If so, how vulgar are they?
Does the story end with a ‘happy forever’ or is there a heartache cliffhanger leading onto another book?
(Top Tip: happy forever endings are the norm. Readers read to escape a hard world and they want a happy ending to make themselves feel good.)
You have to understand, if large numbers of people are buying the books you are using for research, then it is safe to assume that they expect your book to be written in a similar way.
If you do not learn how to write in a similar fashion to those who are doing well, you run the risk of not doing well. It’s that simple.
I am not saying that you have to write in their voice and sacrifice your own style of writing, but you do need to be mindful of the styles your readers like and expect.
If your own voice and style are way off that expectation then you may find that you have wasted a lot of time writing books people do not want to read. Why risk that?
In conclusion:
There is a lot of money to be made writing short romance stories. The truth is too that they are not really that hard to write. 20,000 words or less is all that you need and that can be done in a weekend, depending of course on how fast you write and if you have pre-planned your story.
For a ton of other methods to make some decent side money or even develop that into a full-time income stream why not grab our free book below!
