In May 2006, I got this message.

Thank you for this enquiry, and I must say, you appear to be the most published of short story writers who ask if I am interested to publish their work.

But no, sorry. I do not publish short stories.

What a strange thing to say. It essentially boils down to: “It’s policy.” The publisher as a nightclub bouncer who restricts black jeans on Friday nights just for the hell of it.

In case you haven’t realised, positive rejections are the writer’s unrequited loves.

“I like your work, I just don’t like it in that way.”

This is exactly the environment that prompted the creation of an e-commerce web site for downloadable short stories. It didn’t seem to matter what kind of success I had publishing short stories. If I was going to find an audience, I would have to do it alone.

As it happens, that audience is you.

My theory is that there’s something terribly wrong with this picture: in an increasingly digital world, as movies are reduced to trailers, as shows are reduced to clips, and as albums are reduced to ringtones, the bloated, fat, and thoroughly analogue novel continues to reign supreme in fiction publishing.

What the hell is going on? Why, when news and education happens more and more on screen, are we constantly being dictated the terms of our consumption of fiction. We are told no one reads short stories. We are told no one wants to read on a screen. So while we happily watch YouTube clips and read the news for hours on end on a backlit LCD screen, apparently we abhor the thought of curling up with that same screen.

Don’t get me wrong, I love books. I prefer books. But I also prefer vinyl records. It’s just that I don’t have a turntable anymore and, even if I did, it wouldn’t work in my car. I’m not lashing publishers for continuing to promote books, I’m just irritated that they refuse to consider any alternative choices. Still, it’s their funeral, I guess. Readers will always need writers.

The idea behind the downloadable short story is to create a beautifully laid out and universally readable PDF file that can be transferred to just about any digital device or printed out on whatever printer you have handy. Try doing that with a novel.

The shop contains some previously published and award winning pieces along with a handful of exclusive stories available only from the web site. new stories make it onto the web site after publication too, so keep checking back every now and then.