The DEATH of the Short Story (and More) and Persistence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzJiYmo_f40

This is the link to a short video by a working/selling science fiction novelist who still gets small ideas that need their own story, the short story. Science fiction might be more friendly than mystery to the short story and its cousins, the novella and novelette. The author relates the travail of a writer who submitted a story to Analog, one of the seminal SF monthly literary magazines. The author sold the story to them and related an Eight month contract signing ordeal that resulted in her pulling her story back. It was about a $250 sale. What was so damn complicated?

A British company recently purchased Analog and its sister publication, Asimov SF. A typical author contract is generally pretty simple - it's a $250 sale, not six figures. The traditional $250 contract, which concerned itself with the editor's suggested changes, possible cover art, and possible one-time anthology rights, typically returned all rights to the author within a short span of time, like 90 days after publication.

The company that bought Analog is in the "Media" business. Their business model is to attract literary properties and then to package them for film and TV. Their new author contract is intended to cover every possibility for wringing out every penny from the packaged deal. 

The new, extremely media-aware contract insists on permanent rights for anthologies, film and TV adaptations, comics, and for future media outlets no one has thought of yet! And for the possible future merchandising of toys, collectibles, and trendy items. The value to the original writer: still $250.  The author objected to many of the clauses, good for her. The publisher seemed surprised. The contract was meant to mine interesting stories - people actually sent them on their own! - for their exploitative, multimillion-dollar hybrid media development plans.

Analog is withering away. The last issue I saw was pretty thin.

Short stories are an art form. Many writers can't get their pens around a story that is focused on such a narrow concept. The SF magazines are floundering because so many of them took a hard left, politically and specified things like proper pronouns and stories featuring "underrepresented" people ahead of meaningful SF.

Will this penny-squeezing attitude come to Mysteries? To longer forms, novels?

 ~

Hemingway famously said, "...writing is rewriting." The novel or short story isn't done when you put the final period at the bottom of the page. Hemingway liked to be away for a month before he got back to a "finished" novel. He was looking for better ways to say things, more precise, sharper words. He rewrote sections, titles, and characters many times. Until his inner editor said it was right.

Edison, who didn't invent the lightbulb, said he tried "10,000" different ideas for the filament of the incandescent light bulb. One of his best ideas was carbon-coated bamboo strips. That bulb would last over a thousand hours. The modern, successful tungsten coil filament lightbulb was developed by two European scientists, one Hungarian, the other Croatian. Edison said his experiments were also successful because they showed 10,000 things that didn't work.

Hemingway showed equal persistence. He didn't like the original ending to "Farewell To Arms" and he was frustrated that the "right" ending was eluding him. He rewrote the last chapters 42 times!

Rewrite until it just can't be any better.  

42 - the answer to the Ultimate Question, too.