Why no short story collection?

A few readers have asked me why I don't publish a short story collection. They point out that various books and magazines have contained enough of my short fiction to easily fill a fairly hefty book, so what's the hold up?

The flip answer is to point out that I don't publish books; I just write them. Other people publish books.

The more honest answer, however, is what my publisher said: doing so could hurt my sales. I believe she's right. Here's why.

I'm very much in the early stages of my career as a novelist: first novel out, second one due in a few weeks, third still in progress. The book chains and even the sales force are watching to see what sort of trajectory I take. Do my sales climb? If so, at what rate? If not, am I stuck on a plateau, or are my numbers falling? Their hope--and mine, of course--is that my sales grow (and grow and grow and grow).

Now, put a short story collection in the mix. For almost all authors, and certainly for all the ones on which I have data, collections sell worse than novels. So, if my publisher put out a collection of my stories, my trajectory might appear to the casual observer to be downward.

You might reasonably point out that it would take only a few moments of analysis to note that the collection should not be on the same trajectory chart as the novels, but that's a few moments more than many bookstore buyers are willing to give to my personal situation. After all, they're swamped with book options, and their time is limited.

An alternative is to seek a small press to publish a collection, but that has two problems: it would cut out my publisher, which I don't want to do, and it would take effort on my part, which I'm not currently willing to expend.

So, my hope is that one day I'll sell well enough that both someone will approach me about publishing such a collection and doing so won't hurt my novel sales.

Until then, my short fiction will remain uncollected.