Paywall, paydirt

The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011 has been won by American author Anthony Doerr, who pockets £30,000 for his story ‘The Deep’. If you were running the ‘world’s most valuable short story prize’ and you also had the editorial pages of the Sunday Times at your disposal, you’d print the winning story, wouldn’t you? In its entirety. I mean, you wouldn’t print an abridged version, would you? Not when the story’s only 6000 words. That would just be a bit crap, wouldn’t it.

Never mind. You can read the full version on the Sunday Times website, which you’ll find behind its paywall.

In the same place, under the heading Fast Fiction, you’ll find a number of short stories. Could they make them sound any more disposable if they tried? Could they fuck. Has the Sunday Times actually paid every single one of those writers for their stories, which we have to pay to read? The lesser-known authors as well as the famous names? Has it fuck.