Survey

When I first started pursuing publication, it was in the form of short stories. I knew I wanted to write novels someday, and had started quite a few (mostly melodramatic Western stories of epic proportion), but short stories was the way to go to learn the ropes.

I still like wading through the Writers Market books. Fascinating stuff. All the possibilities, all the magazines just waiting to send me a rejection letter. For the record, I did make it in two magazines, and two more were pretty close. Oh, and I was in two more in addition to those, but they were freebies, so I'm not sure they count. :-)

But over the years, there were fewer and fewer adult magazines asking for fiction, especially romance. It's hard to sell short stories--to magazines or as a collection for a book.

I'm curious why you think that is. Our attention spans are supposedly getting shorter. We're supposed to write tighter--no long descriptions or story build-up. We want snappy dialogue, want to dive right into the action. So why the demise of the short story? Or is everyone reading them online?

So now I decided to take a poll. If you had your preference, would you pick up a really good collection of short stories (in a magazine or book--whatever), or would you choose a novel? And why?

And if you leave a comment to tell me your opinion (here or on facebook), then I'll put your name in a drawing for a rather different prize: a copy of GRIT magazine from years ago, containing my very first published piece. Hey, if you don't want to read about the matchmaker, you can always read about tractors or something. :-)

P.S. Last time I checked, GRIT didn't do short stories anymore, either.