The Save Our Short Story campaign was initiated in 2002 by writer Margaret Wilkinson and quickly gathered an army of supportive spokespersons. A research project funded by Arts Council England and the Scottish Arts Council was set up to establish the state of the short story in the UK. Book Marketing Limited investigated publishing, sales and lending figures for short stories, as well as publishing outlets. As part of a larger literature research project, BML also looked into reading and buying patterns across the country.

Jenny Brown Associates carried out the next phase of the short story research, from July to December 2003. This included original research with over 70 writers, agents, publishers, event organisers and retailers to discover attitudes to writing, agenting, publishing, marketing and selling of short stories and short story collections.

As well as achieving significant media coverage and a general raised awareness of the plight of the short story in this county, the campaign took some direct action to get writers writing and readers reading new stories. Endangered Species, an online anthology edited by Val McDermid, comprised 24 brand new short stories from writers including Helen Dunmore, Ali Smith, Ian Rankin and Jackie Kay.

The stories were emailed each month to a large number of subscribers. A number of these stories are archived on the website of story, a new organisation which subsequently took up the campaign in the wake of Save Our Short Story. The core partners of Storyvboard are those either directing the campaign or actively involved in key elements of the campaign.

They are:

Booktrust
Scottish Book Trust
Prospect Magazine
NESTA
Small Wonder Short Story Festival

The story website can be found at www.theshortstory.org.uk.