Short Stories? Like, Gag Me With A Spoon!

Yes, that was Nicolas Cage in 1983.

Happy New Year!

I tend to be oblivious to popular trends.  So I missed out during the early 80s and wasn't one of the manic geeks obsessed with the Rubik's Cube.

No, it took another twenty-five years for that to happen.

A new website called, YouTube (pronounced, yoo-tyoob,) allowed you to upload, view, and share videos.  It opened my eyes to a new and bustling world of the Rubik's Cube. A resurgence had been long underway.

Back in 2003, the World Cube Association held the World Rubik's Games Championship and the Rubik's Cube's popularity skyrocketed again.

Okay, skyrocketed may be overstating it a little, but when one of the geeks from the quasi-reality show, Beauty and the Geek, solved the Rubik's Cube behind his back, it was clear the cube was back in the mainstream.

Now if you talk about the short story, most people will say they have gone the way of the towering shoulder pads and over sized jackets of the 80s.  Some say the short story is dead.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

Is a frenzied resurgence of the short story just around the corner?  There is certainly potential with these major elements:

• short attention spans
• fewer newspaper and magazine sales
• seekers of high quality, low cost reads
• Amazon.com

Sadly, I don't think we're going to see a resurgence soon.  Here's why.  Everyone is competing for our time.  As readers, we still look for quality reading, but in the quickest and easiest manner.  We could track down dozens of anemic literary magazines, or we could simply go to Amazon.com.

But the Amazon machine is broken.

As long as Amazon is a stomping ground for the 99 cent eBook, short stories cannot have the massive success they once had and still deserve today.

Take a cue from iTunes.

The music industry adapted and began selling 99 cent songs so consumers could impulsively fill up their MP3 players.  But there is a clear delineation between a radio single and an entire album.  You don't see albums selling for 99 cents.  And you don't see 1 penny songs for that matter.

Should a short story have the same value as a novel?

There should be a clear delineation between the price of a short story and an eBook novel.  If readers buy a short story for 99 cents and like it, they will, and should, pay more for your novel.

The short story is not dead, but readers like me are waiting for the next revolution.  I would love to see talented short story writers be able to earn a living like Charles Dickens.  I think the potential is there for it to happen, but not without some changes.

What do you think?  Is 2012 the year of the short story?