Singles and Kindles: e-readers and the Rebirth of the Short Story

A guest post by Jayne White

When I wrote my review of The Best British Short Stories2013 I mentioned that I’d got back into reading short stories after I became a K*ndle convert last year. Since that article was posted I’ve been seeing short stories everywhere I look; Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize, The Story: Love, Loss & The Lives of Women: 100 Great Short Stories (ed. Victoria Hislop) was published - a very impressive collection; Deborah Levy and Sarah Hall appeared together at the Manchester Lit Festival to discuss short stories; Salt have released a new edition of Short Circuit - a collection of essays on the art of the short story which is key reading for students and teachers of writing alike. We’re coming to end of National Short Story week as I’m typing this and I’ve been reminded that the Workshy Fop asked me if I’d like to comment further on the way I think the rising popularity of e-readers have contributed to bringing short stories out of specialist magazines and into the broader market.

The first question I asked myself when I started reading around for this article was ‘How are larger publishers catering for short story readers?’ Obviously, it would be a huge task to analyse every publisher in the yearbook, but looking around I’ve found a few examples of publishers aiming for this market.

Random House Storycuts launched in November 2011 proclaiming ‘The future of the short story is here!’  The new digital brand included individual short stories and short story bundles taken out of their collection.  The stories are offered in a variety of formats and authors include John Grisham, Ruth Rendell, Julian Barnes,  AS Byatt, Alice Munro and Jilly Cooper. Interestingly, the collection doesn’t seem to have expanded since the launch so it’s hard to say whether the project is complete or if it might grow once they’ve accumulated a few more anthologies to unpick.

The Penguin short story offering is a little more confused.  On the one hand they’ve got ‘Penguin Shorts’ which are a small collection of online essays, stories and audio readings relating to authors they’re promoting.  Their blurb reads ‘There's scarcely a better use of your time than diving into a draught-excluding behemoth of a novel, but unfortunately due to the demands of the modern world there's not always the time for Tolstoy.’ I’m not sure promoting the short story as a ‘needs must when the devil drives’ is a good tactic, but it is free content after all. These are web pages though, rather than downloads, so whilst they're suitable for tablet e-readers, they might tax someone reading on a more single-purpose e-reader. Penguin also publish a range of ‘Penguin Specials’ which are downloadable e-books, but are predominantly essays, article and memoir rather than fiction. I’ve got a clutch of tiny paperback penguin 60s on my bookcase from when I was a daily commuter in the 90s. I can’t help feeling they were a better effort and an example of Penguin being more ahead of the game.

Pan Macmillan have a Short Reads range. I’m not going to link to it, because it doesn’t range much further than Jeffrey Archer and hence has no place here. If you really feel the need to visit, there is one offering from Bret Easton Ellis that we might tolerate.

So much for the big boys! Let’s go somewhere a bit more lively - see if we can find a pulse!  My first stop has to be Galley Beggar Press. The Workshy Fop has reviewed a number of pieces from them recently. They’re publishing a wide variety of short stories and novellas for £1 each with new titles being added every month. They’re looking into setting up a subscription facility so you can have new titles sent automatically when they’re available.

Next up is Manchester based Comma Press. Firmly established as short story specialists they’ve a long list of kindle singles available through Amazon and ‘watch this space’ notices for other platforms. They’ve also launched Gimbal in association with Literature Across Frontiers. This is an interactive literary iPhone app which allows you to choose a city, travel through it as a character and discover stories along the way. It’s especially recommended for commuters seeking escape from their regular journey.

I can’t do an article of this kind and not mention Kindle Singles. These are promoted as ‘compelling ideas expressed at their natural length’ and are available free as library loans to Amazon Prime customers and priced up to £1.99 for buyers. The most notable thing about them as far as I’m concerned, is that the series isn’t only commissions or submissions via established publishers, self publishing authors can apply to have their book included as part of the series too. If a self-published book is accepted; it stands shoulder to shoulder with those written by established authors. In the interest of balance I also visited Kobo to see what they were doing with short stories. However, when I searched for short stories I found a disconcerting number of cover images of underdressed women and it rather put me off. If anyone else would like to comment on Kobo’s strengths and weaknesses, please let us know.

So what’s happening next?  Back in April the launch of ‘Read Petite’ was announced.  It was due to go live in Autumn.  However, it’s not there yet and we’re forecast snow next week.  Read Petite is a new venture with four partners, including Tim Waterstone and Martyn Daniels.  The idea of it is that it’s going to be ‘A Rich Reading Experience For Time-Poor Readers’. Readers will subscribe to have unlimited access to the content. As far as I can gather we know little about the content other than it will include both short form fact and fiction from published authors only. I’m fairly sure it’s still in development as Martyn Daniels has blogged about it recently, but the website is a holding page. I’ve signed up for mailings and emailed them directly, but I’ve not had a response. There’s no sign of social media activity other than a digital squatter on their twitter account name who seems to be sulking about the lack of attention they’re getting. Hopefully they’ll sort out their schedule and whatever issues they’re having soon and we’ll be able to see what these industry heavyweights have devised between them.

The publishing industry has changed enormously over the last 5 years or so. I think the availability of shorter fiction works through e-readers is a positive change. I’m not just saying that because it means I no longer have to resort to undemanding novels which can be picked up and put down when I’m travelling. I think they’re important in helping newer writers establish a relationship with their readers. If I discover a new writer through their latest book, I automatically want to look at their other works rather than wait 2 or 3 years for the next full scale novel. I like to look at their more experimental pieces too and see their skills developing. I think the advent of the internet has raised our expectations of being able to get hold of what we want, when we want; so why shouldn’t short stories be archived somewhere easily accessible rather than languishing unnoticed in an old magazine? I like the idea that short stories can now live on longer (delivering income to support the author) and that an early novella can now see the light of day.

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