Something I've been thinking on for awhile is writing short stories that are subsets of my fantasy world. I've decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I see some definite benefits. I can use the short stories to deepen my knowledge of my world, characters, and history. I can write to keep my skills sharp while I'm reworking my series. And most importantly, it serves as a starting point for potential readers, giving them a taste of my work. This goes into the marketing aspect of publishing: having free content to give away on a website or as something to give readers for subscribing. Free stuff you can giveaway is important nowadays, so what better strategy than to kill two birds with one stone: give people a taste of your work, hopefully catching their interest and drawing them to published books, while satisfying their wish for free content.

What do you think? Are short stories a good way to gain reader interest for larger bodies of work? Have you written any short stories related to your novels, and if so, how have you used them?

I'm considering writing some short stories in one of my worlds before writing the novel series set in it, to explore the world a bit in a way that I can't while just planning. The stories will help me understand the world better, and may have other uses, such as free content.

I've seen this done a lot recently--including authors who are selling short stories or collections thereof as ebooks, particularly in between releases of novels in a series--and I think it's a fabulous idea. As you said, it has many writing benefits for the author; I myself have written a few "just for fun" short stories with the characters from my Peter's Angel saga, and it was a great way to experiment with their characters and get back into their "voices" after a break. I released them for free on my blog and HW, and they were well-received.

As you said, these short stories (I've also seen a novella or two with the same idea) can be great for use as free content on your site. I'm also seeing a huge potential market for selling such work, if you've already established an audience. Just yesterday I read "Free Four," a "short story" Veronica Roth, the author of Divergent, released as an ebook in between books 1 & 2 of her trilogy. She took a scene from book 1 and rewrote it from another character's POV. For people who enjoyed the book, it was delightful, and I had no qualms about paying a buck for it, even given how short it was.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13615258-free-four

Similarly, Jordan Smith released a short story collection featuring characters from his as-of-yet unproduced screenplay. A bit of a different concept, but still very nifty: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1734 ... er-stories

In other words, I agree--great concept! Go for it. I hope to do it myself one day.

The thing I'm running into right now with my set is that I'm not sure how to market it. It's only three stories, so how do I convince people they're worth paying for?

That said, my stories are now more published than they used to be just sitting on my hard drive. And I've sold… Six copies.

I think it's a great idea if you can do it for cheap while still putting out a quality product.