In the Publishing industry there’s often lots of talk about how collections of short stories don’t sell and it this reason alone why many larger publishers, editors and agents avoid such fiction. On the business side of things for the big houses, their financial requirements are not flexible at all. And Agents obviously make money of the sale of a book to the publisher and short stories are harder to sell, to big houses. This makes it more difficult to get published widely.

And yet, this is how many contemporary writers get there names known, through several short stories in the various literary magazines and then a collection to seal the deal. But there are certainly smaller houses; Independent publishers willing to take a chance on new voices and publish great new art.

And yet others argue that now is a perfect time for the short story to seek a resurgence. With handheld technologies providing decent venues for short fiction pieces, could the short story become more popular than it is right now?

Do you read short stories? I’m always on the lookout for short story collections and find that the power of the short story is greater than a novel, while the novel is more immersive.

Discussion is happening at The Rumpus

We’ve got a few collections featured at this years festival.

Mr. Sherman Alexie’s new book: War Dances is a highly anticipated collection of stories.

Brian Christopher, who recently read at Powell’s, will be joining us at the Festival to speak again about his book of stories titled So Many Things That Want to Burn alongside Suzanne Burns, whose book Misfits and Other Heroes, has been getting solid reviews and I believe also recently spent a little time at Powell’s. –By the way, keep your eye on DZANC books, the publisher of Suzanne’s book. Their an independent publisher out of Michigan that has been publishing some truly solid books and don’t shy away from Short Stories.

Come celebrate the Short Story with us at Wordstock!

Spencer Cushing – Marketing Coordinator has been reading: Portland Noir – Edited by Kevin Sampsell

-”The atmosphere in this book, from the cover to the stories is palpable. Filled with Portland Literary Luminaries and edited by the Don of Portland’s lit scene, this is a solid and fun book of stories. You’d never think that most modern cities had Noir in them, but you can look at any underbelly with the right lense. A great hometown collection.”

Includes Authors: Kevin Sampsell, Gigi Little, Jess Walter, Jonathan Selwood, Jamie S. Rich, Zoe Trope, Ariel Gore, Karen Karbo, Chris A. Bolton, Justin Hocking, Floyd Skloot, Monica Drake

Some in the publishing industry have called this Fall’s Book release schedule a ‘Hail Mary’ for publishers. They state that because of the economy publishers are bringing out the big guns to get some good names on the bookshelves (Brick and Mortar & Virtual). Though there may be a tiny bit of truth to it, I however think that we are merely at a wonderful convergence of a ton of great authors having books ready and publishers getting them in on a good season for release. As devils advocate you might say such a flood of great titles would actually hurt the market, as people who only read a book or two this season (Yes, as a Book Nerd I find such a concept foreign) would have to choose which book they want out of all the ones vying for their attention.

But again, as a Book Nerd, I think we are in a wonderful time for readers everywhere and even new readers to catch a glimpse of some of the Rock Star authors.

While this Fall Forecast from Yahoo is a fine start, I believe that our Wordstock line up is going to make for a literary fireworks display at the festival this year. Here’s just a few from the ginormous list of outstanding authors with new books showing up at Wordstock.

Sherman Alexie – War Dances

Richard Dawkins – The Greatest Show on Earth

Marie Mutsuki Mockett – Picking Bones from Ash (Debut Author)

Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan

Chelsea Cain – Evil at Heart

Pete Dexter – Spooner

Jeannette Walls – Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

And that’s not even a fraction of the great authors coming to the show. Join us and find out the others won’t you?

So if you have signed up to volunteer for Wordstock in the last three weeks, you may have run into an invisible glitch on our volunteer signup form. Please consider filling out the form again and making sure that you are on our list. We are so incredibly grateful to all our volunteers who make this festival great!

Wordstock 2009 is right around the corner, and we hope you’re ready to join us as a volunteer at this year’s festival! If you are interested in helping our cause, please fill out our volunteer application form:

http://www.wordstockfestival.com/websiteContent/volunteerSignup.html.

(You can also access this form from wordstockfestival.com. Just click on the “Get Involved” tab on the right of the homepage, and then click on the “Volunteer Signup” tab on the left-hand side of the page.)

Volunteer options include escorting authors to their readings, managing stages, providing information to visitors, selling Wordstock merchandise, and much more. Please feel free to sign up for more than one shift, a whole day, or the entire weekend.

Without volunteers, Wordstock would not be possible. We hope to see you this year. If you have any questions, please e-mail the volunteer coordinators at volunteer@wordstockfestival.com.

Sign up to today!

Are you a Young Adult fiction author that has what it takes to compete against other authors and create the best piece of YA fiction this side of Narnia? Well, reink those pens, flex those fingers and warm-up the keyboard, because your competition is on its way. We’ve received word from Harper Collins that they are putting together a new contest that will test the meddle of fiction writers everywhere. Are you the next Scott Westerfeld?

Here’s the info we’ve got:

“HARPER COLLINS WRITING PROJECT”