One would think, in this age of short attention spans and constrained lives, that people would be more receptive to the short story -- or any shorter piece -- than they are. But a new outfit in Wales is trying to counter this apparent reluctance:
A NEW publishing company plans to sell individual short stories in book form in cafes and train stations across the country.
The founders of Leaf - a University of Glamorgan spin-out company - believe they can tap into a ready market of people hungry for "something to read".
Cecilia Morreau and Barrie Llewellyn want to create a platform from which writers can get short stories published and readers can rediscover the form.
The A6 books are designed to be small enough to fit into a pocket and each book will be a short story or short piece of non-fiction written by established and new writers.
As well as publishing new writing, it intends to republish great short stories of the past. The partners are inspired by the short works of Charles Dickens and DH Lawrence which gripped readers throughout Britain.
Obviously, there's something to this, especially as Amazon's trying its own method with their newly launched Amazon Shorts project (which includes contributions by James Lee Burke and Olen Steinhauer, among others.) But it's still a ways to go before the short story is saved...
I tried the link to Olen's story and they have info about him, but nothing saying what the story is about. They are going to have to fix that if they want people to buy a story.
I think its an interesting idea. Anyone know how much the authors are getting? I'm sure Amazon is taking a big chunk and with them selling at 49 cents a download there isn't a lot of money to go around. But then that may not be the point. It is a new publicity angle.
Posted by: Mary | July 27, 2005 at 10:40 AM
Yeah, the lack of a description on the story page is my fault--at the last minute my agent asked for a description, and I sent in one for the other "Amazon Short"--Half-Lives. I didn't realize they were taking "Courtship" as well. So it's in my court to fix this.
As for the compensation, the authors get 40% of the 49 cents. Can it add up? For someone like Dan Brown, probably. For the rest of us, it's a way to possibly spread our names a little more. One interesting thing is they generally demand 7 years exclusive ownership of the story, which seems like a hella long time to me.
I personally prefer the A6 concept, but you've got to give it to Amazon for getting rid of the overhead.
Posted by: Olen Steinhauer | July 27, 2005 at 01:19 PM
7 years? A far cry from the 6 months they quote on their site. Ah, well. I wonder what sales will look like compared with Fictionwise. More potential buyers at Amazon, but 100% of Fictionwise's customers are looking for e-books.
Posted by: Megan | July 27, 2005 at 02:16 PM
Cloverfield Press in LA is doing something like A6's program, calling it their "New Writer's Series of short fiction." I got a copy (through Amazon) of Miranda July's "The Boy from Lam Kien." It's lovely, though as an objet, even with "soft-cover with a handmade letterpress jacket" and "artist's illustration," it's so little and cute it suggests stocking stuffer more than literary gravitas. Maybe that's not a bad thing.
Posted by: Stephanie Higgs | July 28, 2005 at 05:34 PM