In April, when Orca Books published four short novels in its new Rapid Reads series, the scoffing started immediately: 20,000 words isn’t even a novella, maybe a long short story; it’s an old mousetrap, and not even a better one; stick to what you know (children and young-adult books), don’t dumb-down adult fiction. Makes you wonder why an industry in such trouble, like Canadian publishing, can be so petty.

Rapid Reads are genre fiction by Canadian writers with a one-two marketing punch – aimed at adults with reading problems or for whom English is difficult as well as at those looking for a one-or-two-sitting read. The stories by established writers use strong mature themes, usually mysteries with one plot line, short sentences and not a lot of clauses.

Brenda Chapman. Photo by Mike Levin.

The criticism is melting away under a summer of strong sales, especially in the United States. Ottawa writer Brenda Chapman feels it never was valid; some of it even got her edge up. “Ideas don’t have to be dumbed down. (Simpler) writing is often more clear, especially if it’s written by a best-selling writer like Gail Bowen.

“When I was teaching (adult education) we didn’t have novels with lower language levels. That was a problem.” After Chapman started writing her own books, mostly young-adult novels, she always had an affinity, and a skill, for short narrative, which any writer knows is far-more difficult than long. This year Orca contacted her about contributing to Rapid Reads. It wasn’t a hard sell, especially with a minimum $5,000 advance and 10 percent royalties for 15,000 words.

Chapman had more to tell about the characters from her 2008 short story Evening the Score, which won the Audrey Jessup Award, and she knew there had to be a murder. The result, written in about two weeks in late July and early August, was The Second Wife. It offers domestic violence and death in short, simple order, compared to In Winter’s Grip, her about-to-be-published first full-length adult mystery, which takes a little longer to add suicide and sexual harassment to its mix. 

“(Short fiction) is a great focus, lots of fun, and, I feel, very valuable. I’ve already got a sequel in mind,” Chapman says. The Second Wife is scheduled for an April 2011 release.

It’s easy to understand how people can see Rapid Reads as an assault on adult literature by employing the dreaded “common-denominator” ploy. This might make sense if the number of people reading books of any kind was actually increasing, which it isn’t.

Like the resurgence in graphic novels with relevant themes (see Von Allan’s The Road to God Knows…), offering short, simpler prose doesn’t mean content has to suffer.