The new writers’ workshop. Photo credit: DigitalDeconstruction .

Netflix, Kindle, and short stories that come out of vending machines in France: the way that people consume their fiction is changing. Aby Mathew, for example, was jogging one morning when he thought up a short poem inspired by Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier. Like many do with short pieces of writing, he posted it to Facebook and Twitter. He got little response from his friends.

His friend Salmon Kollaparamban liked it, though, and posted it in his Whatsapp group. There, it got a good response, and Aby was intrigued. What if there was a space where people – writers of short fiction and people who were interested in reading short stories – could get together and comment on each other’s stories? Sites like Wattpad and Scribd already exist for longer fictional works and audiobooks, but flash fiction writers were still taking to Facebook and Twitter.

Sites like Wattpad and Scribd already exist for longer fictional works and audiobooks, but flash fiction writers were still taking to Facebook and Twitter.

Aby, along with Salmon and Ameen Rashad, decided to create that space with TaleHunt. It’s app where users can post stories under 250 characters. A bit like a YikYak for storytelling, writers post their stories or poems. Readers can upvote or comment on the stories, with the five stories with the most likes getting featured every day.

TaleHunt, which went live in January this year, is available for Android and iOS. Posting looks much like composing a longer Twitter post, minus the hashtags.

There isn’t much oversight for the content that goes on the app, but Aby says that with such a dedicated group, problems with editing are rare.

As of this week, there are about 10,000 users on TaleHunt. Around 25 percent of them are writing and 75 percent are reading.

The expansion of short stories

Aby doesn’t identify as a writer. “There is a storyteller in all of us. We all love to tell stories,” he says. “All people have a story.”

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which have many people with diverse interests, TaleHunt is a place for writers who already have the same interests. That makes it easier to find stories and find people who want to read new writing.

TaleHunt’s founders Ameen, Aby, and Salmon.

TaleHunt’s business plan at the moment is under construction. It’s experimenting with letting authors who have published on Amazon write short stories on the app. The stories can then link to their published work at the bottom. Tapping that would take readers to Amazon. The link function is currently only available for writers on the app and is free for now. After a test run, the founders will consider charging in the future.

“Companies are interested in promoting their brands through short stories,” Aby adds. “The stories will be promoted if they are good.”

There is a storyteller in all of us.

Besides that, the most pressing item on TaleHunt’s agenda is figuring out what to do about stories that are not submitted in English. It currently only supports English stories. Although it’s based in India, the majority of its stories come from Indian writers in the US. Meanwhile, India has 22 major languages, and Aby says that the app is getting submissions in Spanish, Chinese, French, and German.

“Our earlier plan was to go to multi-language in one and a half to two years,” explains Aby. The volume of submissions they’re getting has pushed them to try to move that timeframe up to six to eight months.

In the future, TaleHunt will also more clearly curate stories by genre, such as romance or horror.

Flash fiction and the internet

TaleHunt has a staff of six and has only been around for about a third of a year, but if it can solidify its footprint a little more, it might be onto something. Sites like DailyLit already take books or short stories in the public domain and split them up into bite-sized chunks to be emailed and read by subscribers. Subscribers can read part of the novel, then request another one when they’re finished, or simply wait until the next day to receive another installment.

Morning Short does the same, like a DailyLit for short stories, while Daily Science Fiction has a collection of short stories for scifi lovers online, also available as daily inbox emails. Poop Fiction aims to provide smartphone stories for those who’ve taken their bathroom reading into the smartphone age. Stories are curated by length of time.

For those skeptical of how successful such short fiction can be, it’s worth remembering that Ernest Hemmingway is credited for the famous six-word story “For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” which is well under 250 characters.