Death of the Short Story, Buzz Balls & Hype, Jun 2007


	Death of the Short Story, Buzz Balls & Hype, Jun 2007

readforpleasure

6-30-2007 5:47 AM

329 views

tags:

writing, stories, author, rfp

readforpleasure says:

Henkin makes a great point: short stories are perfect for the short attention span. So why aren't they selling?

I often try a new author by reading her short stories. I know that an author's short stories may be very different from a novel, as the different lengths require such different approaches. But often reading the short stories is an easy intro to someone's style.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/c0b1cdc1-6626-4e2f-a3ad-3623b4247600/53C947E9-EACF-4B03-8DBF-448A7252ECEA/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html" href="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html" style="font-size: 11px;">mjroseblog.typepad.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html"><P>Part 3 of Letter to an MFA by <A href="http://Joshuahenkin.com">Josh Henkin</A> </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html"><STRONG>Short Story Collections</STRONG></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html">Most of my graduate students write short stories.  Stories are tailor-made for writing workshops in a way that novels aren’t.  But publishers aren’t interested in short stories.  I say this as someone who loves the story form, who has written many stories himself, who is often perplexed by the lack of interest in stories since they seem perfectly suited for short attention spans.  And I would never tell a student to stop writing short stories.  I haven’t stopped writing them myself.  But no one should pretend they can do anything for a young writer’s career.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html">Take the case of the recent Pen/Faulkner awards</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html">Four of the five finalists were story collections.  But only one of them—Edward P. Jones’s All Aunt Hagar’s Children—sold more than 25,000 copies</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html">Amy Hempel and Deborah Eisenberg, two of the other finalists, sold 10,000 to 15,000 copies each</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html">Far more typical is Charles D’Ambrosio, whose book of stories</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/06/letter_to_an_mf_2.html">sold only 3,000 copies.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/53C947E9-EACF-4B03-8DBF-448A7252ECEA/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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