will short stories work?

[CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing]

At CinnamonTeal, we are looking for ways to ensure that creative writing stays relevant and gets noticed. With the advent of television and the Internet, good creative writing is hard to find and the folks who indulge in it are hardly rewarded. At the other end, customers cannot get enough of a nice, short story to read when they have a little time to spare and when a novel is too big to complete.

So will a short story forum work?

Here's the idea. To develop a platform where users can submit short stories of not more than 3000 words. The forum will be self-moderated so that only the best writing bubbles to the top. The idea is to first develop a pool of such writing and then monetize it so that authors feel it is worth their while. We plan to first start in English and then, gradually, move to other languages.

Perhaps, when there are enough such stories, we will also compile them into a book with profits distributed among the concerned authors.

So what do you think? Will such an initiative work? Will you all be willing to be a part of it, by contributing to it, ensuring that the best writing from all over gets the required exposure and by moderating the contents?

Please reply in your comments.

[Manish Mahajan]

Hi

I am in as well! I write short stories and am anyways going to self publish my anthology (wether it sells or not i am not too bothered currently). Would love to contribute and moderate and participate in all ways.

[Ravi Soundararajan]

I think this is a very good idea. I will be more than willing to contribute any which way I can.
ravi

[Bill Gough]

Excellent idea. It might also tie in with a magazine my wife and I are starting on the web. We'll be looking for stories and poems from all over the world - done in a language other than English. English translations will be provided, but the source document will always be written in a non-English language. There will also be paintings and prints and photos from non-English speaking parts of the world.
Here's our posting about the magazine:
"In September of 2009: Be watching for the release of our international web-zine "Mugambo waKua" (English Translation: "My Voice") a multi-lingual magazine featuring story-telling from around the world. Created and edited by Caren Moon and me, it includes interviews, short stories, poems, paintings and lots of story-telling modalities. Oh yes, our magazine will be free. Our first cover is from the Kenyan Artist & Poet, Sav Boro. More about this exciting magazine in web-page updates! Stay tuned :)"
Long story short (pun intended) I'm interested in the Short Story forum.
Best Wishes,
Bill Gough

[CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing]

There seems to be considerable support for the idea. How do I ensure that only good stuff gets posted?

[Bill Gough]

Interesting question.
I'm never sure about the 'good stuff' approach - for it seems to me that it would 'self-level' and I do notice in other writing sites that there's much writing in there which is not quite formed - but the stories which don't attract attention eventually fade when it's clear they receive few comments. Others, which I would not have noticed myself, may receive loads of comments.
Given the design in here, you could easily create an on-line magazine type format where the postings get posted after you receive them. But, I wonder in what appears to be a self-adjusting Universe, what would happen with just inviting the posts? And then having comments which would, in a way, modify the stories. If a writer agreed with comments a second version could be posted.
I've noticed that such postings do drive up the number of comments, but would be glad to participate whatever the system.
Given the magazine we're starting up - it's a concern of ours - as frequently we won't be able to read the material properly - so it will require some figuring out. I sense that it will self-adjust & so far we're talking with bi-lingual writers which will be the first approach of seeking writers.
Eventually (or so it seems to me) English will become a translating device - not for the move into English (not an aim of ours) but as a way for different writers to converse with each other on the way towards the creation of a magazine utilizing the language.
I'm not thinking of a literary use of English - but, rather, of using it as a 'language-fulcrum' - and that will, in turn, affect English in ways that will deepen English itself, although this is not an aim - but, rather, an anticipated by-product.
Multi-language is the next big wave to arrive .
These are preliminary thoughts - intended only as part of an on-going dialogue :)
Cheers,
Bill







CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing said:

There seems to be considerable support for the idea. How do I ensure that only good stuff gets posted?

[Manohar Bhatia]

Hello everyone,
It will be an excellent idea to get short stories published.Many readers are bored of reading thick novels running into 500-600 pages and there will be a market for these readers,who are interested to buy such books.I have written a book on short stories titled::::::::: "14 SHORT STORIES"... the genre is mainly adventure,crime,innovation,suspense.......... the kind children and adults can enjoy and I will be interested to be a part of this set-up.With warm regards/Manohar Bhatia

[Bill Gough]

Most of my postings have been about the theory of this.

However, over at BookRix, I've been printing e-books so my works may appears in an easy-to-read format. There's a short story (Vegetable Talk) of mine over there that I would now like to see in print & so I'll embed a link to my BookRix creations, to make it available for anyone here to read:

http://bookrix.com/_title-en-william-gough-vegetable-talk">http://bookrix.com/_title-en-william-gough-vegetable-talk

I have 7 books over there & have been using it to prepare books for eventual printing.
Right now my books are out there ; may be used under the terms described there. I keep copyright, but allow a download for someone's personal read. I suggest a donation - but haven't seen any yet!! lol.

It's taking time for me to move all I plan into print. I do not aim or target my books for a specific audience, (I've never worked that way in any of my creations) rather I assume that most readers are like me - they like to read a wide variety of books & don't have any religious super-structure that also dictates or influences what I read or how I write.

"Vegetable Talk" is one of a number of stories/poems about the same small boy (his lost sister, Grace Smith shows up in other works of mine).
I am creating any number of individual creations - but they all connect to an 'in-progress' much larger meta-work which will eventually be web-based with physical objects within my matrix in the ways described in other areas of the matrix I'm in the process of creating (i.e. in this example, as a printed short story) as part of the iconic-props that appear in other areas of the grid-work.

As a pragmatic example, if a character of mine reads a short story in one book, I create that story and also bring it into the world so the reader may have the kinesthetic experience of reading/holding the book. And yet, like life, all of my created-objects may also be experienced in the form described at their birth, as themselves qua themselves.

This particular story I'm now submitting, also relates to the use of curtains in my stage-plays and in my most recent novel, "Midnight At The Mockingbird Motel" (over at Lulu.com at: http://www.lulu.com/content/2500608">http://www.lulu.com/content/2500608 )

As another example -" The 17 poems of Grace Smith" are referred to in my One Act Play - "The Celestial Guardian" - they appear as poems in "Onion River Review" so they could move into the world in physical form, and again, with an expanded life of the Grace Smith character in my print book "Poet In A Pontiac" as well at the stageplay of Poet In A Pontiac & the Sonic Theatre version at Book Rix.

The meta-work is holographic in construction - there may be a tonal link of one work to another and that tonality is also transportable
.
I've been working on this project since the 70s - but it's only over the last decade that it's achieving the overall construction I'd envisioned.

This short-story-poem "Vegetable Talk" s a part of the meta-work, and yet exists on its own.

I'd love to see this in print as a short story - and such an anthology as being discussed here would be ideal, but I'm also planning a series of chapbooks, no matter what, - for free-floating short stories, long poems, and sketch-poems of mine. As cheap-to-print physical chapbooks.

In short my short Story "Vegetable Talk" may be now read at:

http://bookrix.com/_title-en-william-gough-vegetable-talk">http://bookrix.com/_title-en-william-gough-vegetable-talk

Cheers,
Bill

[John Irvine]

Yes, I, too, believe this to be a great idea. And perhaps you might consider a similiar forum for poetry. I have an illustrated collection of both shorts and poetry in the speculative genre which I'm close to publishing, so a bnoost for both categories is a great move.

John Irvine
NZ

[Bill Gough]

Hi John,
After some time away from this topic, just thought I'd return to see what's happening. I wonder, is there anyone who wants to begin tying together these elements? The idea of the strange-attractor for the stories-poems, might turn out to be speculative. A gathering of such stories - told from different cultural points of view could be a very interesting gathering.
And is there a potential publication at the centre? Seneca the Elder said, 'Without a port in mind, no journey is favourable." I think this port of speculative-fiction-poetry might turn out to be an excellent one to assist the winds of creation :) It's a good idea working in the speculative realm with poetry - essentially the Arthurian legends are a good example of how the form works & continues - with power - through the ages. (It's retro-spec fiction - lol.)
I've wondered about poetry in particular. If the world is a movie, play, or piece of fiction - it's clear that this cluster of generations has opted to perform in a Sci-Fi film, as just one example. (Beam me up, Scottie - I want to hear trans-galactic poets in full voice-equivalent.) Where is the poetry found when dimensions bump, connect, and permeate each other?
Until we enter the mix of Myth & 'reality' - with eyes wide open and the space-suit of our defenses left in the old locker - we will lose sight of the light at the end of the recurring Kali Yuga tunnel.
You interested in combining forces? There's always a story in an anthology that won't quite 'fit in', or that's so perfect it becomes the perfect portal into the book of our own that we also offer. It's what attracts the reader to the writer in any genre. With your own collection in progress, you'll recognize such a poem or story at once.

What of a 'giveaway' book - we could each choose one story-poem from another collection of our own - the story/poem would be in the book that would be priced to cover costs only - designed to cover printing & shipping. This would be done in the hope that it would lead from e-book to printed book. We'd end up with a book done by many writers - and that's an easier project for an individual writer in the collection to promote.
Anyway John, just thought I'd ask what you thought about this extra focus. If others are interested, it would be a great deal of fun to see what each of us sees & hears when we speculate. The emerging pattern or theme of the book would be truly emergent in the way that a butterfly is. Many slow and speculative moves; then a place where the mud in the bowl settles enough for us to each write our name in such a way that we are represented by the tonality, content and connectivity as the new creations combine, or our old creations combine in such a form that they become, even for the source writer, something new.
Mutating context as well as content encourages the leap into the unique.
Cheers,
Bill


John Irvine said:

Yes, I, too, believe this to be a great idea. And perhaps you might consider a similiar forum for poetry. I have an illustrated collection of both shorts and poetry in the speculative genre which I'm close to publishing, so a bnoost for both categories is a great move.

John Irvine
NZ