Free Mini-Book (Kindle/EPUB) - Chicken Soup for the Soul

[koland]

You can pick up a free sampler edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories, by Susan M. Heim and Karen C. Talcott, on Kindle and from Sony. It contains three full stories and you can't beat the price.

Book Description
This free sampler of devotional stories will help start off anyone's new year with hope and inspiration with its three specially selected stories from each of Chicken Soup for the Soul's devotional books.

Get the free ebook from Sony.

[carpetmojo]

What the hell's the difference between a book, mini-book, novela, short story, or not worth bothering with ?

Sheesh....

[koland]

Well, it's an anthology, true, but it's three single stories, one from each of three other (much longer) anthologies.

It isn't a "sample" of a single book and it's a bit better than some of the extended samples or single story from an anthology choices, but it isn't long enough that the publisher could seriously consider selling it in a store (although I've seen them try) -- it's the tiny mini-book, stapled, bigger than pamphlet giveaway you stuff in everyone's bag at a convention or have a store hand out during a promotion.

[koland]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

What the hell's the difference between a book, mini-book, novela, short story, or not worth bothering with ?

Sheesh....

As to short story vs. novella (and you forgot novelette in between), it's generally a number of pages thing (with novella at 100 pages and novel at 200, with the 150 and up mark either a "short novel" or "long novella"). Short stories generally run 20-30 pages or less and novelettes fill between. Then again, there's the matter of character expansion, how much time passes in the work, etc.... and, of course, it's the subject of many an college level lecture (or even course) and sometimes just a marketing decisions.

As for not worth bothering ... that's an entirely different subject and can include all of the above.