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I am not sure if ebooks will revive the short story, but I hope so. I think the decline of the short story, by and large, is a market driven phenomena. Historically the primary market for short stories were magazines that were dedicated to publishing fiction. The problem I think is that this format rewards neither the successful author nor the magazine the way that novel form does. Magazines tend to have a shelf life of anywhere from one to three months (depending on how often the magazine is published). As a result most short stories will never be in print longer than that. In practice, I expect, that most short stories are read by the dedicated readers of the magazine. Authors get paid a fixed rate for their story regardless of how well the story is received. At best they can hope the story will be picked up for an anthology.
In contrast, it is hard for them to ignore the millions of copies that latest Stephen King novel sells. Granted everyone knows that the vast majority of novels never sell anywhere near that many copies, but it seems to me that the blockbuster mentality permeates publishing. Midlist authors who can produce a steady stream of income for a publisher are often neglected while the publisher courts someone they believe will write the next best seller.
That being said, I do have hopes that ebooks will change the publishing model that I believe has ill served both authors and readers for the last 50-60 years. Ebooks mean that there is little practical difference between stories in a pulp and in an anthology. Also in theory at least stories that start getting recognized can be sold independently (Something that was never economical with paper for short stories). And if the stories are sold independently, they can probably have nearly the same presence in an ebook store as a full length novel. Certainly they already often do in the Public Domain book sites.
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Bill
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