Marketing the short story

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…