Things are in flux in the realm of literature, now more than ever. I’m not going to say that the current and growing rise in the e-book reader field is on par with the invention of the Guttenberg press, but it is an interesting time to be involved in writing and reading as shown by an experiment being performed by the French author Axel Taiari.
Taiari has just published a short story, A Light to Starve By, in what he calls eSingle form via the Kindle, a subversion of their Kindle Singles line of invite only short stories. The story was originally published in an anthology that he felt “did not get the exposure [he] hoped for.” He realized the difficulty he would have faced in trying to place this story—nearly 30 pages and over 8,000 words—in a traditional journal, but then saw the possibility to try something new. The ease of publishing via Amazon would allow access to readers who don’t even have said e-reader, via their computers and smart phones at the low price of $.99, and would also give his story, as he said, a new life without trying to place it in an anthology where “the quality isn’t always there.”
It helps, too, that this is a great story. The anthology it was originally published in began as an attempt to bring back the teeth to vampires, to strip away the baggage the beast has accumulated in recent years. Set in a near-future, noir-tinged Paris, A Light to Starve By tells the story of what happens once those fiends that haunt our nightmares are revealed to the world as being real. Vampires and werewolves are being sought by government and church-backed hunters as ruthlessly as those they hunt. A vaccine was created to allow for regular people to go about their lives. Vampires have formed clans to help in the trade of blood, farmed from humans they’ve captured and keep as cattle. The protagonist wanders through the dark Paris streets like a junkie looking for a fix, maneuvering through clan politics as something more than hunger pangs at him. The prose beautifully paints a world of ugliness and pulls you in.
It’s an interesting experiment, and one can’t help but keep a close eye on the outcome. At the very least, it’s a dollar well spent. We’ll see whether or not more writers go this route. It seems more writers are self-publishing these days, and Amazon gives one a great venue.
Visit the author: Axel Taiari
Buy the story: Amazon
I’ve heard from a lot of cool folks doing similar things via these e-readers. I hope it turns out well–that length is the misunderstood little step-kid of the literary scene, both in print and online. I actually have plans to do something like this, only with print editions of similarly lengthed works.
I agree with the point about anthologies, yeah, they sometimes queers the deal (sometimes, not all the time) because the stand-alone nature of the length has to sort of pretend it’s meant to be an installment or part of something else–even a collection of works with those lengths (6000-12000) all by the same writer doesn’t always hit the right note, ake them seem dependent on each other or “part of a cycle” or something. Short works need to be published by themselves a lot more.
Best of luck Axel.
I for one hope this market really takes off. The novella has been making a comeback for so long that it’s never really left the scene, was merely swallowed during the years by the giant epics people devoured by the truckload. The last ten years have proven that the shorter form, when packaged properly, can be just as moving a reading experience as a longer epic, perhaps even more so. This medium could prove the ultimate package for more readers to enjoy great stories without breaking their pocketbook.
These are exciting happenings.
Short stories– and likely novellas also– are an access point for outsiders in getting their words to the public.
The question remains: How to stand out?
If story “singles” are comparable to music singles, then we can look at what’s worked. The heyday of pop singles, when singles dominated the business, was with the advent of rock n roll in the 50′s and 60′s. The Beatles were the high water mark. Their music was punchy, quick, and accessible, compared to, say, laid-back Sinatra, or slow developing classical works. As Bob says, the form has built-in advantages over the standard novel. The trick is to exploit those advantages.
These ideas are a jumping off point for the idea of the new pop story. (Something that Frank Marcopolos has been working on for years, without calling it pop.)
I’m running a story opening contest at my American Pop Lit blog for the purpose of encouraging stories which grab the reader from the get-go. Everyone’s invited to enter.
The future belongs to those who create it.
Good luck to all of you.
catchy short stories that spin at 45 RPM… less than 3 minutes long for pop radio play… decide how to spread the payola so we’re guaranteed a shot at the TOP 40… let’s see now a good pop opening… ah:
“Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town
And everybody else tries to put my sloopy down
Sloopy I don’t care what your daddy do
Cuz you know sloopy girl, I’m in love with you
And so I say now
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on…”
-interesting concept
Some of my models are the “payola” guys, Alan Freed and Dick Clark, who helped break the “Big Four” monopoly of the music business, along with so many other music hustlers from Sam Phillips to Berry Gordy Jr. When the Big Four’s market share went from 85% of the market in 1955 to half that just a few years later, thanks to hundreds of upstarts selling rock n roll, panic set in. This was an unprecedented event in business history. It sent shock waves through the entire Big Business world.(By contrast, it took decades to break the auto industry’s Big Three dominance, and it was done by foreign outfits.) Arms were twisted, politicians called. Congress held public hearings to call Freed and Clark on the carpet. Dick Clark abjectly humiliated himself in order to survive. Afterward he famously said, “I had to dissolve a hundred corporations in one day.” Alan Freed was too proud and stubborn for that– and was tragically destroyed. Still, these guys reinvigorated pop music, helping to keep music as an art, as a popular art, culturally relevant.
Does literature have to be “Literature” with a capital L?