Over on The Fort Wayne Review of Books there are some statistics on short story collections.
My guess is that more people read novels than write them. For poetry I think it's the other way round. Short stories have the worst of both worlds - like novels, few people write them and as with poems, few people read them.
The big publishers know this. In the USA, 2025, there were only 20 new English-language short story collections published in hardcover by the Big Five Publishers and their imprints. Only 4 of the authors were white men and they were all over 65. Of course there are paperbacks, translations, and smaller publishers, but all the same it's depressing.
And there's more bad news. Every year since 2004, the New York Times has published its list of 100 Notable Books. 12 short story collections were mentioned in 2008. The trend has been down ever since. None were mentioned in 2025.
My story collection "By All Means" (ISBN 978-0-9570984-9-7), published by Nine Arches Press, is on sale from
My poetry pamphlet "Moving Parts" (ISBN 978-1-905939-59-6) is out now, on sale at the
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