So, on the one hand, readership of SF/fantasy short stories through the traditional magazines seems to be declining year on year, in general. 

On the other hand, there are still plenty around. I counted more than 100 pro and semipro markets for SFF last time I checked. 

On the gripping hand (we are talking about SFF here), there’s a revival in people reading short fiction, snatching moments when they’re waiting in line or waiting to pick up the kids from school to read on their phone, tablet, or ereader. Amazon have a special section of their ebook store based on how long it will take you to read something. 

Maybe (I thought last night) we need an app that will connect SFF (and maybe other?) readers with stories.

Sign up the magazines, which act as curators of content, and maybe some of the anthologies, too. Allow authors to put their own stories in directly, if they’ve previously sold the story to at least a semipro market and the rights have reverted.

Enable the users to choose what to read by magazine/antho, or by author, or by editor, or by length, or by (user-generated) tag, or a combination.

Charge a small monthly subscription, and track which stories people read, and pay the source magazine/anthology/author proportionately (kind of the Kindle Unlimited model).

Yes? 

With the payment I received yesterday, I’ve now passed $500 in total earnings from short stories. But I’ve also already earned 40% as much this year, with that one payment, as I earned in the whole of last year. 

Getting up into the pro rates really makes a difference. 

Wrote about 6000 words of a short story on Friday, and finished off the last 700-odd this morning. It’s about a princess cursed to turn into a wolf at night, and features an older female protagonist. 

Not sure where I’ll send it once it’s been revised. It’s maybe not literary enough for Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It could be another one for Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, perhaps.