"Like always. I write 'em. They print 'em. Nobody reads 'em."
"I read them. All of them."
"Thanks. You're a nice person," Junpei said. "But the short story is on its way out. Like the slide rule."
Honey Pie by Haruki Murakami (2001)
You'd think that in the age of low attention spans, short stories would be preferable to the masses. On the internet there does seem to be a taste for short stories (think creepypastas, copypastas, r/nosleep etc). Yet, in the publishing world, I haven't heard of any popular short story collections coming out lately. Why is this the case?
by Silvery30
1 Comment
I 100% agree as someone who now struggles to get into books due to all the doom scrolling and need for instant gratification, I am very drawn to short stories, nearly bought a book yesterday because it was a collection of short stories.
I’m also interested in understanding why they don’t sell well.