Let’s Save Short Fiction

Caveat the First: Let’s just assume I’m talking off the top of my head. Hopefully my head isn’t stuffed up my ass as I do talk, though. But, I don’t know enough about the publisher’s side of the publishing game. What I think I know is that some things are changing rather dramatically, as I mentioned yesterday, if not already changed.

There’s lots to do to preserve short fiction.

First, people need to know it’s out there. I think SFWA could be a powerful advocate here, especially since it seems so much of SFWA’s membership (including the sitting Veep) are in on the strength of their short fiction sales. Of course, as of the last how many ever years, SFWA seems to have proven itself an incapable advocate of science fiction and fantasy. They’re not too bad when it comes to being advocates of authors, but that’s secondary. (Or, really, it shouldn’t be–for there to be any authors, science fiction and fantasy need to be advocated for as well. But that’s a slightly different story.)

There’s a vision here of a modest marketing plan, where SFWA touts the strengths of speculative fiction storytelling, say by flashing screencaps of how many blockbuster movies, with a tagline like, “These all started as science fiction stories. Check out the next big blockbuster in a science fiction magazine.” Or something like that. Associations for beef and milk and cotton and cheese do this shit all the time, so why not SF? Probably because we’d get endless forum arguments on how to present SF to the world, but that kind of leads me to the second point.

Two, drop the angst over what to call SF, and all the other hang-ups surrounding the genre. Hard to do, since some of the appeal for many folks is science fiction as a haven for the freaks and geeks, and inviting in the “mundanes” might make it too much like high school again. Of course, we’re not talking here about getting more con attendance or something like that, it’s all about picking up the casual reader. The casual reader already thinks of it as “sci fi” so there’s no reason not to embrace that name, at least for marketing purposes. Get all hung up about, not only do you hamstring whatever marketing pros might get invited in to help, but the discussion will be prolonged into uselessness and anyone who isn’t familiar with the conventions of the genre’s culture will probably be appalled if they happen to catch wind of it.

Three, advertise short fiction as a sort of quickie alternative. Get a complete story in one easy sitting. It’s the now fiction, and other sorts of marketing jive, so ably lampooned by John Cleese in some Monty Python sketch I forget the name of. (”Wapcaplet, Adrian Wapcaplet’s the name.”) I don’t believe that short fiction has fallen out of favor with the public, I just happen to think it’s sort of fallen into its own navel.

I said much to that effect in Jeremy Tolbert’s discussion thread last night–short fiction has gotten so deep into the genre discussion, I feel like much of it is hard to comprehend without a manual. For example, ask a random person on the street what the Singularity is, and if they’re remarkably well-educated, you might get some mumbled explanation of a black hole. It’s not because these people are stupid, it’s because the in-genre jargon and shorthand has evolved to such a degree that the outsider is honestly lost. They’ll understand rocket ships, robots, and that kind of thing. Hell, most of that is only barely science fiction… and yet it’s still a great place to talk about the kinds of thing science fiction likes to talk about.

So there’s another thing, too. If SF wants to move out and speak to folks, to expand the readership, topicality is not a bad way to go. Web publishing offers enormous advantages there, and plenty of vectors by which to pimp the topical stuff. Everyone but short SF does it. Not that there’s not topical stuff out there, but it’s sunk down in between stories of the Singularity and the New Weird, it’s not used as a gateway. Make it a gateway.

And make it easier for people to get to. I know for damn certain that it’s almost impossible to pick up a genre mag as a casual reader, and hard enough even if you are seeking it out.

As I said yesterday, short fiction should work better in the “bite-sized media” culture of the internet. The viral nature of the internet should provide all kinds of interest in short fiction. But it hasn’t, and it doesn’t. There’s obstacles there that short fiction needs to overcome, and I don’t think donation/subscription drives are going to solve them.

Short Story Recs

As usual, I always think of a more concise way of saying a lot of stuff after I’ve posted some huge-long ramble. But I think this time I came up with something cool enough to warrant its own, brief post. Anyway, fanficcers aside (because I already know y’all make a fetish of recs):

When was the last time you recommended a genre short story to someone/your blog/etc.?

What was the last short story you read that you thought your non-genre-reading friends or family might enjoy?