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By Joanna

image Are e-books really “killing literature”? E might be just the thing to revitalize a beloved, but neglected genre—the short story, with such masters as Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry. Consider all the positives:

Price, in the cases of more modern works: Fewer words, less money needed to read them. I had a friend who lived on an extreme budget, and her big shopping indulgence was the iTunes music store because she could go there, spend a dollar on a new song, and feel as if she had satisfied the shopping urge, but without spending big bucks. Might the short story benefit from this same effect?

Time: People love to read, but they find that ten-inch-high stack of neglected impulse buys to be overwhelming. Might the short story be a way to bring people back to reading great literature? It’s the same principle as the iTunes-as-frugal-splurge example above. Just spend a buck on a new story, and feel as if you’ve satisfied the reading urge, but without spending big time.

Variety: It is simply not economical for publishers to print short stories except as anthologies or collections. But in the e-world, anything is “printable” and salable. You can buy just one short story if you want to. And more importantly, publishers can sell just one, something they never could do before.

Form Factor: Many people complain that it is not comfortable to read an entire novel on a laptop screen, or worse, on a tiny cell phone. With a shorter format, though, the form factor is less of a bother. This might inspire people who may not otherwise read on a laptop (or a cell phone or a PDA) to get into e-reading.

Technological Convenience: Smaller e-book, smaller file. As more people turn to PDA or phone-type devices to read, they may not want to spend their device’s limited storage on a large novel or reference work. A smaller short story e-book may be just the thing to get them reading on their device.

As e-babel and DRM concerns turn many people away from the more “mainstream” genres that publishers are especially stingy with protecting, could we see a revival in some of the lesser-pushed genres—poetry, articles, short stories? Share your thoughts.

Moderator: Amazon Shorts, of course, is one place to for short story readers to start. Also consider the free fiction in E, available directly from publishers such as Small Beer Press (Creative Commons-licensed files promoting for-sale P editions) or through sites such as Feedbooks and Manybooks.net (both Creative Commons and public domain). Online-literature.com might be one possibility for those who want to read short stories directly online rather than as files. What are your own suggestions? – D.R.

 
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