If there’s one thing that unites most publishing and literary types it is their love of the short story. Yes, that’s a massive generalisation. But I’ve mostly found it to be true. Also I needed a snappy statement to kick this post off with. Anyways, I’ve lost track now of the amount of times I’ve read articles bemoaning the difficulties of selling short story collections, expressing disappointment about the lack of short story collections being published, or debating the cause of the general public’s apparent disinterest in the format when compared with a novel. Of these, the industry can affect two of them.
Last week saw the launch of Storycuts (a new Random House digital short story platform) and a Bookseller article about Bloomsbury’s assertion that 2012 is going to be the year of the short story. Also in recent months Shortfire Press has been steadily developing its list and readership. All good things, yes? Yes. Each of these three demonstrate publishers coming around to addressing what I believe to be the root causes of why the short story has a terrible time of it in British bookselling.
Firstly Bloomsbury. They are to publish one book of short stories every month from January to May 2012, many of them by relative unknowns or debut authors. In fact only Jon McGregor could be said to be a ‘name’, with his forthcoming collection This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. When I worked as a shop floor bookseller I was always dismayed to note the rapid decrease in supply of short story books from 2002 onwards. Indeed towards the end of Borders I recall ‘Short Stories & Collections’ becoming less of a section and more of a shelf, comprising of a couple of Grantas, two or three Penguins and a book about shopping compiled by India Knight. Look in the rest of the fiction section and things were no better. The only short story books on offer were written by established novelists and seemingly published only to fill a gap between novels. Where were the short story specialists? I knew they existed, I had seen them, in America mostly. And there were British ones as well, unfortunately many of them forced to ply their trade in collections published by tiny houses without the distribution or sales force to get into the big chain stores (in fact things were worse at the Waterstone’s I worked in than they were in Borders, with no section for short stories whatsoever). By publishing dedicated collections, by dedicated short story writers Bloomsbury are giving the short story a chance. Lavishing upon the form that bit of attention that could move it from something read by New Yorker subscribers into book group territory.
For sure, the public might remain resistant. After all, for most casual readers short stories don’t really feature. But by putting the same oomph behind a few books as a publisher might with a novel that publisher is at least giving it a go. And really there is no reason why it shouldn’t work. The short story is perfect for many. Something to pick up and put down, that quickly establishes a compelling narrative, gives a beginning, middle and end, and then promptly leaves. Why, it could even take the place of half an hour’s worth of television…no? Oh…okay then.
To that end the two digital initiatives I mentioned earlier both seem to be using this idea of the short story as the form for our time. They market stories as things to be read on smart phones and tablets, a quick hit of lit on the tube for those fed-up with the Metro. It’s working on breaking down that barrier that has formed around the short story (created, I believe, by publishers and readers in equal measure) and giving it not quite equal but certainly comparable attention to that which the novel has been the beneficiary of for so long. Most importantly though these platforms can get people interested in some great authors whose best work is not to be found in their novels (see Lorrie Moore, pretty much right up to A Gate at the Stairs).
I mentioned at the start of this post about the public remaining resistant. Dubious about change as the British so often are. After all, these websites and books are being spoken of favourably only by people inside the publishing industry. We’re still waiting for the reading public at large to show the same enthusiasm for the short story and for a while it could be a hard sell. The books might not shift, it’s possible. I just hope that on this occasion we as book sellers at large take a lesson from how things were fifteen years ago and give the books time. Leave them on the shelves and tables for months not weeks, and if the first three month’s figures don’t make for pretty reading, do not give up on the short story because it hasn’t had an immediate impact on readers’ buying habits. Naturally Storycuts and Shortfire are highly unlikely to give up, being as they are dedicated platforms. It’s the publishers I worry about. I remember that it took me ten years and four bookshops to finally see a copy of one of the aforementioned Ms Moore’s books on the shelf of an average suburban store. It would be lovely to think that the mainstream’s wait for the next great working in the form will be a little shorter.
