Why should I pay for fiction when there is so much free stuff on the net?

Its true there is a lot of fiction available for free on the Internet. But if you’ve done any searching around different sites you will know that free doesn’t necessarily mean high quality. You can spend hours looking for something engaging to read – trust me I know because I’ve done it. I’ve spent more hours than I care to calculate searching on one site after another looking for a good read.

Time – we all have it and we all use it in different ways. One thing for sure is that there never seems to be enough of it.

Isn’t life too short to spend hours hunting for something to read?
Especially when all you want to do is read great fiction.

We value your time and know a way we can help you.

We know that you’d prefer to spend your limited time reading great short fiction rather than looking for something decent to read. Why not let us do all the hard work of finding engaging stories and sending them to you?

Imagine receiving a brilliant new short story in your email inbox each week. Picture this: Its 7.30 am on a Tuesday morning. You check your email and wham! Another short story from your friends at espresso FICTION. You pulse picks up the beat. You become excited. You’re eager to discover what we’ve got in store for you this time. But, you need to get off to work or school or playgroup. You don’t have time right now. You head to the office, work diligently all day and keep your boss happy. Or you are so busy with running here and there, that you don’t get a chance to get back to your home computer. However, you can’t get your mind off your email box. You’re curious. You want to get back, sit in solitude and read the story we’ve sent to you.

As an added bonus we interview each week’s author to give you a behind-the-scenes look into their lives and the fiction they create. And you can chat to them through our discussion board. Our authors watch our boards as closely as readers do.

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I already get too many emails, why do I want to pay to get more?

Email has got a bad name over the last few years. Cleaning up your inbox has become a constant on many people’s to-do lists.

But not all emails are created equal. Not all emails want something from you.

Some, like our weekly story email, are about giving you back something you lost as your life sped up. A weekly hit of fiction can give you an escape from your day-to-day routine. It’s an easy way to take back some ‘you’ time. It can be a good way to relax, to create some richness in your busy life. Let a weekly story from espresso FICTION be the treat that revives and relieves stress.

Email is a convenient way to home-deliver fiction to you so that you get it on time every time. You know that it will arrive every Tuesday. No need to worry about postal delays or holidays.

You get each week’s story the instant it becomes available.

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When am I going to find time to read each week’s story?

If you find it difficult to make time to sit in front of the computer and read each week’s story then your best option is to print it out (printing it on scrap paper is a good way to conserve paper).

You can then put it in your handbag or backpack or in your car so that you always have something to read when you are out. Or you could place it in a strategic position around the house - beside your bed or the toilet or on your coffee table or by the door so you can pick it up before going to sit outside. Place each story somewhere easy to access for that spare 15 minutes when you need a break.

Stephen King in his book ‘On Writing’ stated that he usually reads around 70-80 novels each year. That’s a lot of books. And he considers himself a slow reader!

Do you know how long it takes the average reader to read an average sized novel?

12 HOURS.

Stephen King fits in so many novels by making sure that he always has a book with him wherever he goes – be it the gym, bank, post office, doctor’s surgery, waiting in line at the checkout or anywhere there may be a queue – and by working it into his schedule. For him this sometimes means reading over meals and watching less TV.

Now some books are heavy to carry around and some require a lot of concentration to get into and that’s where short stories are perfect. They give you a satisfying shot of fiction without the need to hoist a book around with you. A few folded A4 pages are easy to carry.

Take the easy way when it comes to fitting in some quality reading time into your day. Because all our stories can be read in 15 minutes or less, you no longer have to spend 12 hours slugging it out with a novel to get pleasure from fiction.

Surely you can find 15 minutes once a week to do something you love. Right?

If you can’t then maybe you need to take a hard look at where your life is headed. In 2002 in the US, $17.2 billion was spent on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, a 10% increase on the previous year.* Don’t become a statistic on some health tally.

Why not let a little bit of fiction back into your life?
Enjoy the stimulation and escape that only fiction can bring and get the right side of your brain buzzing.

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Who is espresso FICTION aimed at?

espresso FICTION is for busy fiction lovers who find that they don’t have as much time to read as they used to. And they miss it.

espresso FICTION subscribers place a high value on their own time. They are happy to seek help where it is available. They know they can’t do everything themselves and aren’t going to run themselves ragged trying.

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What is your definition of a good read?

The thing with short stories is that they have to grab you right up front. From the title on each word must be carefully chosen to make you want to continue, to compel you to keep reading to find out what…is…going…to…happen.

Good stories are about quality writing and a compelling plot. Unlike novels which have more space to roam around, in short stories every word must count toward the whole. There is no room for padding.

Limited space also means that the best short stories are told from the perspective of one main character and involve a conflict in their life that is in some way resolved during the course of the story. Let’s face it there is no story without conflict. But conflict need not involve violence or an argument. It can be far more subtle than that and still be an engaging read.

The other key ingredient for an entertaining story is that it must end satisfactorily. Good endings are those that flow on or are derived from the story so that they are credible. They aren’t contrived or forced. This doesn’t mean an ending can’t surprise the reader. In fact they should be surprising in some way. But what you should find is that clues to the ending are laced through the story but don’t become apparent until the story climaxes.

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*'Cost of Stress'  by Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money Senior Staff WriterMarch 21, 2003.