Forum / A book of flash fiction?

James Lloyd Davis
May 07, 05:03pm

Is a book of flash fiction something to consider? Publishing one, I mean. I have well over a hundred of these things so far, some posted or published, some never seen by the human eye (both cats in my house have seen them all and said, 'nreooow,' which I think means 'nice.')

Of these hundred or more flashes, maybe fifty or more might be considered worthy or at least 'ineresting.' They average between 350 to 1400 words of widely diverse subjects and styles and I thought of putting those fifty into a collection.

Is this superfluous? Is flash a viable enough form for literature, enough to consider publishing a collection? Enquiring minds want to know ...

Who would consider publishing a collection like this? I know there are some out there, and that some people here have published similar collections, but are they successful?

Susan Tepper
May 07, 05:15pm

Well Meg Pokrass just did. Her new collection Damn Sure Right is flash. Where you been bro???

Robert Vaughan
May 07, 06:42pm

Meg's is great (Press 53), also Timothy Gager's Treating a Sick Animal (Cervena Barva Press), Alissa Nutting's Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls (Starcharone Press), xTx's Normally Special (Tiny Hardcore Press), Mike Young's Look! Look! Feathers (Word Riot Press) and Jamie Iredell's The Book of Freaks (Future Tense Books) are all fine examples of diverse collections of innovative Flash Fiction available. And this is just a short list!

Marcus Speh
May 08, 09:04am

jim, even publishing with one of these publishers won't make it "successful" if what you mean by "successful" is "lots of people read it" (buy it etc). to do that, i think you're actually better off publishing it on kindle yourself ... a recent self-advertisement that i liked and that made me buy this author's book (books actually) is <a href="http://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2011/05/never-never-stories.html">here</a> - jason sanford, via the million writers award, commands a lot of clicks, of course, still, you gotta start somewhere. his books come out in a variety of ePub formats. regrettably, very few if any of the presses mentioned here so far seem to have any clue about wider electronic distribution...since they're not rich i don't get that at all...the other thing to do is to go live on amazon.com (with kindle/createspace - the book-on-demand route, that's a given) & get all your lovers, friends, relatives, acquaintances to write small (!), positive (!), meaningful (!) reviews for you. not 3, 4, 7, but 50, 100. and get an author's page there, too, like fictionaut <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Henning-Koch/e/B004K1ACQW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1304844962&sr=1-2-ent">henning koch</a> whose wonderful collection has just come out (not self but with dzanc). another great aspect of electronic self-publication is, of course, you got a lot of control over everything. e.g. you can bring your book out now, not 2013 when that press of yours with 1,5 editorial assistants finally gets round to doing it (and when your interest in stories written in 2009 is...well, smaller.) for authors like henning and myself who write in english but whose market is global, this is almost a no brainer. we're excluded from book tours but not from your computer or ebook reader or iPhone or iPad or... of course, i still have to do it myself but it's something i plan on doing later this year when i have more time.

now, this wasn't so much about "flash" as such, because it would work for any genre or format, but it is possibly more relevant for the flash format because it is much less common and introduced in the [print publishing] market than poetry, novels or short story collections...

howgh.

Marcus Speh
May 08, 09:08am

ps. i have a collection of 88 = 8 x 11 flash stories numerically superbly fit for publication in 2011, which i will publish this way unless i hear from any publisher within the next 3 months (and i'm only waiting because i already sent them off before i fully realized what i said above and because i won't have time to do anything before the end of summer).

Sam Rasnake
May 08, 12:18pm

"Is flash a viable enough form for literature, enough to consider publishing a collection?" What a question, James. Of course. And your writing? Of course.

God save the flash.

Andrew Stancek
May 08, 12:37pm

I am thrilled we are having this discussion which I think is of vital importance to everyone here. Thanks, James and thanks, Marcus. As Sam says, flash is viable. But then the question becomes what "viable" means, what "success" means. Yes, flash is being published in hundreds of ezines, usually with no payment, and being read, most frequently by writers of flash. But is it possible to publish commercially and make money from our writing? Meg Pokrass would be the perfect one to answer that question and she may not wish to share confidential information. What print run does Damn Sure Right have? My wild guess would be at most 2,000, and it could be 1,000. (Perhaps I am way off, and I apologize if I am.) Is the publisher likely to sell 2,000 copies? A friend of mine (reputable New York editor)has written a novel which is going to be published by a small publisher. She says if she Facebooks the shit out of it (no money for publicity by the publisher) she MAY sell 2,000 copies. And I think she means not just Facebook but all the social media Marcus mentions above. Another friend now has two collections of short stories (not flash) published by small presses. Under 500 in sales for each.
Is the readership out there which will pay for flash collections, for short story collections, for novels by writers who do not have a blockbuster behind them? How can we find those readers? Marcus has some suggestions. I have not yet looked at the examples he has given, such as Sanford. But it seems to me that it is likeliest we will get the readers in those ways, rather than through traditional small publishers.

Susan Gibb
May 08, 01:01pm

It's the numbers, the possibilities, that we're interested in yet most are reluctant to give the figures of how many copies are sold and if it's a reasonable opportunity to consider publishing.

We do depend upon each other to support us and yet there's no way we can buy all the work of our friends and fear to buy some and not others.

Amazon, et al, is at least the best way I would think to reach the reading audience beyond the writers.

David Ackley
May 08, 01:56pm

Another point not yet mentioned is that the electronic formats comprise a sort of critical ghetto, unlikely to attract the attention, much less the favor of either reviewing journals or critics. There is such a thing as a "critical success" implying but not necessarily something less than commercial success. Reputation means something in the world of publishing, but outside the electronic media itself is relatively unattainable by us who publish in places like Fictionaut. There is maybe one exception, The Best American Short Stories collections which do choose from the likes of the estimable " One Story," but otherwise its a cold world out there for us, critically speaking.

Jane Hammons
May 08, 05:21pm

In asking the question, I think you've answered it. If you don't read books of flash fiction, why would you want to publish one?

Honestly, I rarely buy single-authored books of flash (in part because so much of it is easily available and free online), though I do buy anthologies (often to teach from).

Books of what could be considered flash fiction that I love are the obvious ones: Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, Tim O'Brien's The Things The Carried, and Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son. One narrator, stories connected.

So what I think is this (I've been thinking about this for a long time) and I've read other writers of flash say similar things (or maybe the same thing; maybe I'm plagiarizing!) is that the audience for flash fiction is mostly writers.

This makes sense to me (case in point the popularity of it on fictionaut--I know people think this has to do with length, but I'm not so sure that's all it is): in flash you can really appreciate the craft, like under a microscope and almost immediately (um, in a flash . . .), whereas with long stories, novels, and novellas, what I love about them comes to me slowly (often in sleep) and lingers, sometimes forever. I'm probably insulting writers of flash; I don't mean to. As you know, I write a lot of it. And because I read widely (and as a writer), I read a lot of it.

If you really want to put your energy into creating a book of flash fiction, you should do it. As for the viability of the form: will it die? Seems unlikely. Will you make a bunch of money? Seems unlikely. Will you gain a great reputation and following? Could happen. Could that lead to something else--publication of a novel? Maybe. But only if you write it!

The old axiom: Write what you want to read. Perhaps this applies to publishing as well?

James Lloyd Davis
May 08, 06:56pm

This is great feedback. Thanks everyone.

Marcus, the idea of electronic publication is a viable method, definitely made more so by the Kindle platform ... and ... the ease with which an individual can suddenly publish with minimal capital investment.

The merchandising, marketing aspect is a considerable hurdle to overcome and requires both time and abilities that most of us either do not have or which would inevitably distract a writer away from valuable "writing time." I have no doubt that an intelligent, opportunistic young 'geek' with marketing savvy could see a valuable opportunity in providing services in that respect, if none has done so already.

As David points out, there is what he so perfectly calls the "critical ghetto" and a true isolation from traditional publishing that presently surrounds the concepts of both electronic publishing and self-publishing (which not too long ago was derided and called "the vanity press.")

I do see a vacuum for the market and the industry that will eventually be filled by people with both the ability and the desire to create an entirely new model for publishing, but that's another topic entirely and one that has already been widely chewed on elsewhere here.

No, I think perhaps the word I should have used in place of 'viable' is 'acceptable.'

Jane is right. If one has the desire to do something they should count the cost and just do it if that floats their boat.

Writing novels is my prime directive right now, but there are all these little flash-bangs laying all over the floor that need a home ...

I love the feedback. Looking for more.

Jane Hammons
May 09, 03:13pm

Check out Red Lemonade http://redlemona.de/

Meg Pokrass
May 09, 04:05pm

Soon we will have an interview of Richard Nash at Fictionaut. He is the developer of Red Lemonade, the site Jane just linked to.

I have no numbers yet for "Damn Sure Right" or I would give them to you, honestly. I have not asked my publisher and know I should do so. He will tell me soon I believe. I am not quitting my day job!

The experience of having a book is something invaluable. Having the support of a community like Press 53 (my publisher) is also invaluable. It is may be my only dream come true, so I am emotionally biased.

Meg Pokrass
May 09, 04:06pm

wait, I just remembered that I don't have a day job!

James Lloyd Davis
May 10, 02:35pm

Day job. Scary concept.

Anyway, heard about this on NPR this morning. Wanted to share it. About a new kind of publishing company that serves the writer better'n most:

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/10/136144912/publishers-navigate-the-open-road-of-e-books

Andrew Stancek
May 11, 11:55pm

This week I signed up to a site by a prominent author who among other things gives inspirational messages/pep talks about writing. I suspect somewhere in the sign-up I was told I am not allowed to redistribute this material, so I want to be careful and fair to everybody. I think a lot of what the author/owner says in today's email applies to this thread. I will excerpt a few of the most relevant points here and if anyone feels they want the rest, send me a message and I will give you the address for the free sign up and you can then get the complete text.

"Last week I had my agent look over a movie contract, and in one clause that dealt with retained rights, my agent said, “We can’t sign this contract. It doesn’t allow us to sell enhanced books, and that is the entire future of publishing.” ...the entire publishing world is in trouble...With the rise in sales of e-books, an author can now go out and sell his own books. The market is expanding. Some authors are genuinely making millions in this new market. By putting out a novel in e-book, I reach a much smaller market, but I might also cut out my publisher and my agent, with their high overhead, so that I make a much higher profit on a per-book basis....rely upon trusted “electronic publishers” to select books...I expect “enhanced books” to become the dominant art form for novels in the next few years, replacing and outselling simple e-books on the bestseller lists, and even outselling hardbacks and paperbacks within a couple of years."

Bill Yarrow
May 12, 04:44am

Enhanced interrogations. Enhanced books. What's next?

James Lloyd Davis
May 12, 01:21pm

What's next, Bill? Enhanced biographies for authors. That's what's next, but don't wait! Get in on the trend today!

Beef up your bio for book sales.

I'm starting a service called "BioBus." For three low monthly installments of 59.90 each, I will creatively enhance your biography to enhance the sales of your books. We'll begin with electronic enhancements to your photo, then completely overhaul the facts of your life and the content of your CV to project the kind of image that is guaranteed to increase your book sales ... and ... to launch you toward literary rock star status.

Order the service today and we will include the Deluxe Contract Service for three months at absolutely no additional charge. The Deluxe service includes an attractive actor or actress to serve as your literary avatar at book signings and local TV interviews ... plus ... one free manuscript, your choice of a flash fiction, poem, or short story, written by a member of our talented, anonymous, but award winning staff, quality work that is guaranteed to get you noticed.

Get on the BioBus today.
Call me!
Operators are standing by.

Andrew Stancek
May 12, 02:19pm

Hilarious, James.
Are you perhaps (only very slightly cynically) suggesting that the author whom I am quoting above is trying to make money out of his venture? Perish the thought!
You are a funny, funny man.

James Lloyd Davis
May 12, 05:02pm

Ummm ... no, Andrew.

Just trying to make a few bucks on the side. Phones are ringing off the hook and I haven't even advertised the number.

To quote the famous and inelegant P.T. Barnum, "Give the public what it really really wants and they'll give you what you deserve. And if that ever really happens? The getting-what-you-deserve part? Get out of town quick."

Or something like that...

Get on the BioBus!
Limited subscriptions available.

David Ackley
May 12, 05:29pm

I read about 'enhanced books' on the link James provided. The concept sounded familiar: then I remembered the medieval illustrated manuscript; and childrens' illustrated books; and comic books aka The Graphic Novel. So now we have these with a link to Youtube. BFD. These are basically books for people who don't like to read. I'll continue to write for those who do.

David Ackley
May 12, 05:33pm

Like your BioBus, James. Just in case, sign me up...

Mike Lynch
May 13, 03:00pm

Have you tried Book Country? It's a sort of writing community for genre fiction writers developed by Penguin. Although BC bills itself as a "genre" fiction site, you can post pretty much anything there. Seems weird at first, but if placing one of my stories on the "comic fantasy" shelf will net it a few new readers, I'm totally ok w/ that. :)

Maybe you could use Book Country to create a book out of a bunch of flash pieces, and see how readers respond. Could serve as an ok testing ground. Or maybe a teaser for an e-book release? Just a thought.

Here’s a hyperlink: http://bookcountry.com/
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