Clippings of: The Market for Short Stories

As I continue in my search for a literary agent, to represent my book of short stories, I have been collecting articles from the media, about this genre. From the thickness of my file of clippings, it seems to me that short stories are definitely in vogue   So this post is going to be about findings from these clippings.

1. To begin with here are a few lines from the article titled : In Praise of the American Short Story (by A.O. Scott)

- But if the golden age of American magazines is long gone, the short story itself has shown remarkable durability, and may even be poised for a resurgence Wells Tower’s “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” provides the most vivid recent example of the way a good story, or a solid collection of them, can do more than a novel to illuminate the textures of ordinary life and the possibilities of language. And the short story may provide a timely antidote to the cultural bloat of the past decade, when it often seemed that every novel needed to be 500 pages long and every movie had to last three hours — or four years, if it took the form of a cable series.

-  And just as the iPod has killed the album, so the Kindle might, in time, spur a revival of the short story. If you can buy a single song for a dollar, why wouldn’t you spend that much on a handy, compact package of character, incident and linguistic invention? Why wouldn’t you collect dozens, or hundreds, into a personal anthology, a playlist of humor, pathos, mystery and surprise?

- The death of the novel is yesterday’s news. The death of print may be tomorrow’s headline. But the great American short story is still being written, and awaits its readers

2. Here is another article titled: The Atlantic Will Sell Short Stories On Kindle (by Motoko Rich). A few lines that assert the resurgence of short stories in the market are as follows:

- Let the iTunes-ization of short fiction begin.

-  The Atlantic’s editors plan to offer about two Kindle stories every month.

-  “Whether it’s authors or publishers, I think there are a lot of short stories that now can be released as individual titles,” said he. (He implies Mr.Russ Grandinetti, the vice president who handles Kindle content at Amazon).

3. Here is an article about story telling in public: Going Solo Gets Crowded (by Alex Williams). Here are a few lines from it that assert the growing popularity of short stories:

Since they began in 1997, storytelling nights hosted by the Moth, a nonprofit, have helped aspiring writers try out new material in a nurturing environment. But lately, storytelling has exploded into a thriving genre all its own, a new avenue to prominence for writers and, increasingly, for actors and comedians. In a sense, storytelling has become the new stand-up — a way to be noticed by the literary agents, actors and directors who increasingly populate the audiences.

The Moth — the dominant name in the live storytelling scene — has expanded its number of shows to 85 this year in New York and Los Angeles, from 26 in 2006. The group now holds four open-mike slams in different New York venues each month, compared with once a month in 2006, and has expanded to Los Angeles, where it holds two slams a month. Attendance is surging, to a projected 15,000 this year from 4,000 in 2006, organizers said. Events continue to sell out, even at larger venues. In the next two years, the Moth plans to expand to at least 10 cities.

Long a farm league for “This American Life,” the storytelling public radio show, the Moth rolled out its own show this month, broadcast on more than 70 public radio stations, said Lea Thau, the Moth’s executive director.

And here I am, looking for a literary agent, to represent my book of a dozen short stories. The good news is that now there are many news options to make this book a reality. May be releasing just one story in a magazine or reading it on a radio station, may lead to new pathways Only time will tell.

Ratna

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The death of the novel is yesterday’s news. The death of print may be tomorrow’s headline. But the great American short story is still being written, and awaits its readers.

- A.O.Scott

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