Welcome to the #Shortreads Department!
This page will be devoted to listing all the free short stories I can find and that are submitted by authors and readers. I will add links as I find them. Feel free to add links to free stories in the comments.
Short Stories are the perfect way to get to know an author or a genre.
They’re also great to read when you don’t have huge chunks of time to devote to a novel, or to get a sample of lots of different authors (in an anthology), or if you’re just in the mood for brief blasts of story. I’m a huge fan of shortreads and I’m always reading a collection or anthology. At the moment it’s Venice Noir. FYI the entire Noir collection of anthologies is a #mustread if you’re into crime fiction.
If you’re a writer with free stories to share, send me your link and I’ll add it. All genres are welcome.
No e-reader or Kindle? No problem!
Use the free Kindle app on your PC or phone. If you need to convert formats from epub, pdf or mobi use my favorite free ebook converter. If you download the free Calibre app to your computer (PC or Mac) or phone you can read ebooks in any format as well as prepare ebooks for publication.
Read books online directly on the websites. Page by Page Books is one site with a large selection of classics and historical books.
Enjoy all the Free Short Stories!
If you haven’t heard of Project Gutenberg, get acquainted with them. This international project is digitizing (with volunteers) as many copyright-free books as they can get their hands on from all over the world in as many languages as they can. Their short stories page is divided by country or alphabetically. Bibliophiles will get lost in this site for hours, There’s always something to discover.
A similarly extensive source of free stories is Wikisource, which is a digital book repository. It’s slightly more dynamic than Gutenberg in that you can create your own ebook of stories to download. Their Short Story index is pages and pages long so enjoy.
Obooko is a site that offers free ebooks and kindle singles. I’ve linked to the short story page they have novels too, all for FREE!
The always excellent journal Electric Literature.com is offering 31 days of story this month.
Over at Longreads, Pravesh Bhardwaj has compiled a list of must-read short stories for 2017.
The New Yorker has been at the forefront of the development and preservation of short fiction in the U.S., In my opinion, it’s the most important publisher of short fiction in the world. Take that, Paris Review and Saturday Evening Post! Feel free to dispute this in the comments. To confirm it peruse their fiction in text or audio. The latest story is A Small Flame by Yiyun Li. Or try this one by Stephen King.
The Short Mystery Fiction Society will be featuring a free story by a member, every day in May. Check their page daily for the link. You can find yesterday’s free story here, and today’s here.
Akashic Books has an on-going Mondays are Murder short story series online that’s completely free. The stories are 750 words and are crime stories in the noir tradition, like their Noir Crime anthologies. Check out the rest of their site for interesting reads.
Check out all the short stories (and other good reading) at Wattpad, an online community for readers and writers.
This 2016 list from Bookbub is pretty extensive and has a little of everything.
World-English has a list of classic short stories.
BookRix is an ebook publisher that has free stories available for download or to read online.
If you’re into multi-tasking, plug in your earbuds and listen to these short story podcasts.
Mysterynet.com has tons of short mysteries by some of the best writers in the genre. Their Twist series is my favorite.
The U.K Book Trust promotes literacy and reading and their free stories page boasts authors like Ian Rankin and Lionel Shriver.
Open Culture.com does excellent work preserving work of cultural interest. Check out their compilation of free stories by Neil Gaiman in text or audio, or free stories by Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. There are a ton more free e-books and stories (and movies!) on this site, so click around and do make a donation if you can.
American Literature.com has a directory of short stories by genre, all for free of course.
More classic short stories at the English Library.org
The publishers who award The Cambridge Short Story Prize have a page full of links to free short stories, alphabetized by author.
Free Ebooks.net does what it says, free ebooks in multiple formats. Check out their contemporary short story page.
Short-story.net is a Wattpad for all short stories, all the time. They have all genres of stories for free and you can comment and have discussions.
The Classic Short Stories website has a large selection of free stories searchable by title and author.
Alan Baxter, author of supernatural thrillers and urban fantasy has a free stories page for readers.
Chuck Wendig also has links to free short stories on his blog.
Icy Sedgwick writes gothic stories and dark fantasy novels, and she shares free stories on her site.
Lightspeed Magazine publishes science fiction and fantasy stories.
Rachel Ritchey writes YA fantasy and adventure and has free short stories on her blog.
This list of free horror stories from Blastr.com includes several by Stephen King.
Nightmare Magazine publishes horror and has one story in each edition up for free.
UK thriller writer Stephen Leather’s book Short Fuses is a collection of four short stories and excerpts from six of his books. Yes, it’s totally free.
Horror writer Lake Lopez has a page of free scary stories for readers
The prolific Simon J. Wood specializes in short-short stories of 100-300 words in length.
Looking for a laugh? Try these humorous short stories.
This list of free short horror reads from the Chicago review of books is intriguing.
This is a list of free short-shorts that includes one of my all-time favorites, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin.
A.A. Abbott writes crime thriller and has a round up of free mystery and thriller stories on her blog.
You can find some excellent scary stories on Matthew’s blog.
Lauren Scharhag has free stories of various genres on her blog.
Ric Rae also has a page with free stories in various genres.
P.A. Priddey shares some free stories on his blog
I’m not sure if the Read a Romance site is still being updated, but there are a good number of free romance short stories for all tastes.
Erotic Romance author Olivia Cunning has free short stories on her blog.
Alanea Alder, who also writes erotic romance offers free stories too.
Graphic Audiobooks has a small selection of free short stories for your listening pleasure, and a large selection of “extended samples” – hour-long free samples of audiobook series on their lists.
Into erotica? You can get all your cheap thrills at Lush Stories and Literotica.
Listen to Genius also has a large selection of free audio short stories – mostly classics.
I know there are a ton of writers out there with free stories to share, so inbox me or @ me on Twitter with your links. All genres are welcome! This list will continue to expand through May and will be updated every year.
Oh, and it would be cool if you link back to this post on your site. ☺
Writers
Story a Day started the “extreme writing challenge” of writing a story every day in May a few years ago. If you’d like to participate head on over and grab free prompts and a creativity bundle — and there’s a podcast for writers too!
Happy Reading!
Vivian Writes 