No Time for Bullshit
Curation, Phones, and the Way Millennials are Changing Fiction
Part 2 of a 6-part series about why we are building Great Jones Street.
Part 1, which is about the enemy of great short fiction, is here.
Part 2 takes on the subject of why we believe great short fiction is an asset we are investing in now. It asks the question, Why short fiction? Why now?
Curation
The word curation has taken on a larger, buzzier meaning in the age of digital media. As such it has become a cliche to use. Nevertheless, curation is important work. Here’s why.
Curation is painstaking work. To be a curator one must not only have a depth of knowledge in a given field, but also have the trust and respect of the community to make valued choices. In doing so curators also take on the role of creators.
A good curator has strong opinions, scratches an itch, and moves an audience beyond conventional thinking.
This is why we love truly great curation. Whether it’s the Chicago Museum of Art or the curators at Medium, audiences depend on great curation to package life-affirming, exciting art for our consumption.
In the book world we have critics ranging from the casual amazon reviewer to the pulitzer. But recommendations and reviews are not necessarily curation, or are they?
Think of a book or story existing within the larger context of an entire book store. Somebody chose that book out of hundreds of thousands to display. This choice may have been based on recommendations, or a close relationship with the publisher or an editorial decision by the owner. But it is the choices of inclusion and exclusion that are at the core of curation.
Why stories now? Because curation is a thing. Because stories are small, powerful, and collectible; because with a trusted curator serving a sizable audience, they can also be popular, finding their ways into millions of readers’ hearts.
Phones
I mean, c’mon. The short story has been a popular format ever since we printed things. Reading stories is as human as watching movies at this point. And reading short form content on the phone is positively booming.
Why stories now? It’s there in the palm of your hand. Perhaps you’re reading this through one right now. According to my Medium and Facebook readers stats, that’s 80% of you.
You might be surprised at how well stories track in Medium among such a mobile audience. Medium is well known for shorter reads (7 minutes or less) perhaps because mobile offers plenty of distractions. And yet our stories average 20+ minutes, and we consistently get high “read rates” where over half of the audience finish reading the stories they start. That’s 20+minutes of captivation even on a tiny screen. Consistently.
Millennials
I will spend exactly one sentence apologizing for using this term. I’m sorry. I hate bundling an entire generation into a crappy, over-used cliche-ridden term. That being said, this generation is changing things through their behavior, opinions, and size.
Millennials are the largest generation since the baby boomers.
They care.
They have not bought into the status quo.
Why stories now? Because millennials are are a huge new market force and they’re looking for new things — specifically bucking trends — and are willing to reward the best of the best with their attention and money. They also ruthlessly punish anything that falls short of their standards. Which is why they are leaving Amazon in favor of independent bookstores and why Amazon is now opening a physical bookstore in my home town, a first for them.
No time for bullshit
Better uses for our time is not limited to a single generation. I’m 41. I’ve got a wife and a kid and a dog. We go to soccer practices, baseball games and backyard BBQs. I work for my company and belong to a community. All told I have endless number of commitments and yet more asks of my time. When I kick, I do it with purpose.
I am not the only one.
Why stories now? Because they are concentrated escapes. They are powerful reminders of our humanity. Unlike the short stuff in your Facebook feed, short stories run deep. Unlike novels, they don’t take too fucking long to finish. If you spend your life in stories, you’ll find you actually do have more energy for “high quality content” and have less patience for meaningless suck.
I’d love it if you recommend this story (click the little green heart below) and follow Great Jones Street, the first subscription-based Fiction publication on Medium.
