The idea came to me after talking to a few people who wanted to publish short stories online to Amazon but weren’t sure where to start or even what they wanted to write about.
Publish that short story online
So, I’ve come up with a way help everyone through the process with this Short Story-a-thon.
Here’s how it works:
Friday-Idea Creation
The idea of the event is to start off on Friday night and gather ideas for our stories. For that, I’ll be taking everyone to a few different locations in downtown to people watch and idea gather.
So Friday is all about movement, observation, and note-taking. Then we’ll come back to FatPipe ABQ to wrap up, have some snacks, and anyone can stay for a while to start writing.
Homework: Everyone has to come up with a paragraph about their story before Saturday morning. This is so you can either hire a graphic designer or have an idea what your book cover should look like. (more on that is below)
Saturday-Lot’s of Work
Saturday will be the long hard day it’s. It’s a lot of work to write and edit, plus you really need to get it input on your story from readers to become a better writer and to write a better story. So, Saturday will start off bright and early. We will write, edit, and review each other stories. I will also have a couple of editors on hand that I will hire to help edit grammar for the participants.
I’ll have coffee and snacks available during the whole event. And, lunch is on your own, but I’ll bring in a food truck, Cheesy Street, if there is enough interest.
To break up the day a little I will also address Cover art as well as share a list of graphic designers so you can hire and are willing to design a cover within 24 hours.
I will also talk a little bit about how to use Canva if you don’t want to hire someone for your cover.
Sunday-Publishing Your Short Story
Then Sunday is going to be the fun publishing day. We will eat cake while I show everyone how step-by-step we publish our short stories online to Amazon. I will also share a list of contests.
I’ll also share some template information to include in your short story for copywrite.
If you publish to Amazon you’ll not only get a chance to make money off your creativity, but you’ll also receive a fun ducky pen.
A Contest Too!
Plus I’m going to have a contest. The top stories (number to be determined later) will receive a stamp in their story that says they are plot duckies approved. And those stories will also be listed on the plot duckie’s website with a link to their respective Amazon pages.
Ready to sign up Albuquerque? Get your tickets here. FYI: $40 for all three days or you can sign up for an individual day.

If you bring a donation to this event on Friday night or Saturday morning for Albuquerque Reads, you’ll be entered to win a free cover design from Leslie Reilly! (Leslie designed the cover for my first novel – Toy of the gods)
The donation must be either funds ($5 or more per person) or new/gently used early elementary books!