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Another thought
Jun. 16th, 2009 08:24 amThe short story market, not so grate askhully, according to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sandramcdonald, which is really sad. Because I think it actually could be thriving right now.
As I said in my last entry, I think the industry is creating a set of market conditions that is driving readers away. And it's not the readers, ultimately, who suffer from getting driven away. They turn to alternate sources. Free downloads or illegal downloads. They go elsewhere to find their wares. They get theirs.
The people who get hurt most are the authors, and along with them the equally overworked, underpaid editors, copyeditors, and other such literary support personnel who make their living off of books or magazines. Somebody somewhere needs to get pissed at their publishers, and by "somebody", I mean a large enough swath of writers, editors, and such that it would force the publishers and the people who own them to pay attention.
I'm telling you guys, seriously. If somebody did for books what iTunes did for music, short stories would make a stunning comeback. In fact, I'd wager that if short stories could be made available very cheaply (maybe 1.99 a pop), you'd see them out sell novels and longer fiction in some instances.
Short stories as a form, though they're not my preferred form, have their appeal. They're quick, they're low investment (for the reader), and they're like the portable, fun sized snacks of the literary work. Now, this isn't to say that they aren't serious forms of literature. Of course they are.
But I can imagine how people might start reading more of them if they could imagine themselves being able to get through an entire story in the time it takes to take the train from home to work, or during the little bit of lunch time they manage to get, or in the car (if they're not driving), or anywhere that they might have free time.
I think this isn't happening right now because the places where short stories are available (internet sites, magazines, and short story collections in books) aren't all that appealing. Sure, books are portable enough, but people just don't buy short story collections. And I don't blame them. I stopped buying full albums years ago because most bands barely manage to produce two or three songs per album that I think are worth my time.
And since iTunes has been around, I can cherry pick those songs for myself. I can say "ooh, I like this one!" and buy it for a nice, fair price and listen to it on my jog/walk/forced exercise death march in the mornings. Everyone gets paid, everyone's happy.
I'd probably get more into short stories if I knew I could go to one place where there were lots of them available to me that I could buy them individually. As it stands, short story pickings are kind of a crap shoot. You go to a website/magazine? Well, maybe this month the stories are good. Maybe this month they suck. Everything is scattered around, and there's no one definitive, complete source where I can go browsing to sate my desires.
As it is, I stick with the longer forms because it's easier to find a large browsable collection of them in a somewhat convenient place (ie, a bookstore or library).
sandramcdonald, which is really sad. Because I think it actually could be thriving right now. As I said in my last entry, I think the industry is creating a set of market conditions that is driving readers away. And it's not the readers, ultimately, who suffer from getting driven away. They turn to alternate sources. Free downloads or illegal downloads. They go elsewhere to find their wares. They get theirs.
The people who get hurt most are the authors, and along with them the equally overworked, underpaid editors, copyeditors, and other such literary support personnel who make their living off of books or magazines. Somebody somewhere needs to get pissed at their publishers, and by "somebody", I mean a large enough swath of writers, editors, and such that it would force the publishers and the people who own them to pay attention.
I'm telling you guys, seriously. If somebody did for books what iTunes did for music, short stories would make a stunning comeback. In fact, I'd wager that if short stories could be made available very cheaply (maybe 1.99 a pop), you'd see them out sell novels and longer fiction in some instances.
Short stories as a form, though they're not my preferred form, have their appeal. They're quick, they're low investment (for the reader), and they're like the portable, fun sized snacks of the literary work. Now, this isn't to say that they aren't serious forms of literature. Of course they are.
But I can imagine how people might start reading more of them if they could imagine themselves being able to get through an entire story in the time it takes to take the train from home to work, or during the little bit of lunch time they manage to get, or in the car (if they're not driving), or anywhere that they might have free time.
I think this isn't happening right now because the places where short stories are available (internet sites, magazines, and short story collections in books) aren't all that appealing. Sure, books are portable enough, but people just don't buy short story collections. And I don't blame them. I stopped buying full albums years ago because most bands barely manage to produce two or three songs per album that I think are worth my time.
And since iTunes has been around, I can cherry pick those songs for myself. I can say "ooh, I like this one!" and buy it for a nice, fair price and listen to it on my jog/walk/forced exercise death march in the mornings. Everyone gets paid, everyone's happy.
I'd probably get more into short stories if I knew I could go to one place where there were lots of them available to me that I could buy them individually. As it stands, short story pickings are kind of a crap shoot. You go to a website/magazine? Well, maybe this month the stories are good. Maybe this month they suck. Everything is scattered around, and there's no one definitive, complete source where I can go browsing to sate my desires.
As it is, I stick with the longer forms because it's easier to find a large browsable collection of them in a somewhat convenient place (ie, a bookstore or library).
