The Corean Chronicles
The Story -- Endangered Literary Form?
When I proposed the idea of my collection of short stories --- Viewpoints Critical -- my editor observed that, first, I wouldn't get and/or make nearly as much from the collection as I would from even my worst-selling book and, second, that collections were invariably a very hard sell for a publisher. For the record, despite some outstanding reviews of Viewpoints Critical, he was right.
But all that got me to thinking. Why is this so? Why are people more willing to buy long novels than collections of stories? Why are the sales of fiction magazines, both in the F&SF genre and elsewhere, continually declining? Now, some enthusiasts of on-line short fiction publication cite costs as a reason, and given paper and distribution costs, I wouldn't dispute costs as a contributing factor, but circulation was declining before the cost increases became as significant as they are now.
In the 1920s, F. Scott Fitzgerald was paid as much for a single short story in a popular magazine as the annual earnings of an average lawyer. Even a half-century before Fitzgerald, short story writers could sometimes actually live off their earnings [if poorly]. Today, it's physically and financially impossible for a short-story writer to support himself or herself, even at the poverty level, on earnings from short fiction sales alone.
It's been asserted that part of the problem is that paperback books made reading novel length works far cheaper, and that the rise of paperbacks corresponded with the decline of fiction magazines and even of magazines that weren't exclusively devoted to fiction. It's more than that. "Women's magazines" used to print more fiction. Some that used to provide short fiction now print little or no fiction at all.
Beside, theoretically, paperback books already provide story collections and anthologies of better quality to readers, and far more cheaply than would be possible by subscribing to a number of magazines, but readers aren't buying all that many collections or anthologies, and it's certainly not a matter of cost.
Could it be that a short story requires a different kind of reading skill, one that is in decline in English-speaking populations? Or does writing shorter fiction well require a creative skill that is in short-supply among modern authors? Both... or some of each?
Or is it that a nation and a world that has come to value size and "more is better" in everything from food to transport automatically equates a thick book with satisfaction and has difficulty appreciating smaller "gems" of writing?
Whatever it is... one thing is clear. You won't make anything close to a living just by writing short stories... even if you win lots of awards and praise... and even if you can find a publisher who will publish them as a collection.
There are of course exceptions. There are some really nice short stories out there. But it's not worth buying and collecting mags in search of those gems. I'll wait for them to be republished in an anthology.
If an author I respect publishes an anthology, I will purchase it. Sometimes I'll pick up an anthology based on the topic, so long as there is at least one author on 'my list' that has contributed to it.
Perhaps that limits my exposure to a lot of good writing. But then, that is life on a budget. Kids do have to eat, after all.
With short stories, I always feel that I take pains to learn the characters and their motivations - not to mention their surroundings - and then the story ends. The best part, where I understand how the characters and the rules work, is only one or two pages. And then a new story starts, with new characters, places and rules of science/magic.
You might see it akin to climbin mountains; longer books are like climbing to the top and having a splendid view; anthologies always feel like small hills, one after another. It's uphill battle, but without the glorious view.
I did buy and read Viewpoints Critical. I found some of the stories thought-provoking, others confusing, and one or two outright odd. I bought it because you wrote it, no other reason.
"With short stories, I always feel that I take pains to learn the characters and their motivations - not to mention their surroundings - and then the story ends"
For me it is not so painful learning about the characters and their surroundings. It is more about missing them when the story is done. I tend to emotionally attach myself to the characters and to have them snatched away so soon is painful. I do enjoy short story collections that continue to re-use the same characters in radically different story lines. I get the variety of a short story this way and get to see my new friends adventures.
This would point to people having time to indulge in novels where, possibly, in the past this would not have been the case.
The literate of the 20's would have been more relativly rich than the average reader of now and thus the renumeration of short story writers higher in the 20's.
It's only a guess but sounds plausble.
Short stories require me to shift gears and look for something different: a unique viewpoint, a thought-provoking or humorous plot twist, etc. I bought Viewpoints Critical a few weeks ago and found it to be one of the best short story anthologies I have read. One thing I like to do with short stories is to read the first two sentences and see how well they pull me into the story or how much information they convey. "He calls himself Charlie Cable. That is/is not his name." These two sentences did both: I was intrigued, and I knew that someone gave himself a name that somehow is not his name. This type of writing is rare in novels but necessary to short stories.
I appreciate what you (and your editor) did, but I'm not surprised that sales are low. What surprises me is that novel sales still are strong. Typical teenagers and young adults spend most of their free time watching TV, playing video games, or surfing the web. Some read no fiction at all. As this young generation ages, I believe that book sales will continuously decline. Even worse, one class of fiction is being read by our youth: TV and movie fan fiction. Imagine a typical 16-year-old writing short stories or screenplays featuring the characters of some ridiculous teen TV drama. Then imagine millions of teens and young adults reading that dross. Uggh.
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