Now if only publishers realise this...
I was astounded that John (Jarrold) told me that short story anthologies only self half the number of copies of normal novels by that author.
I thought that in today's hectic society, people would prefer short stories, to long ones, who are sure to be interrupted by daily shores. But of course if people don't finish an anthology, then they must feel like they paid for too much.
I feel like there is another idea in there:
Short stories on demand, like you would buy music on iTunes for 1 dollar a song. But they wouldn't have to be online then, you could go to a bookshop and say:
give me:
Tell-tale heart (0,25 euro)
Midnight meat train (0,5 euro)
Bay Wolf (0,5 euro)
lucid dreams(0,5 euro)
and they would say: okay, that will be (0,25+0,5+0,5+0,5+2,75 for glueing=4,5 euro) you can come back in a few hours when it's ready. And they'd print and glue it for you.
Agh well I'm not a marketting genious, but if anyone feels the idea has potential, go give it a try.
