Oh, Holly, you are the Oscar Wilde of blogging. Here's saying that in
reference to your wit, and not that you'd likely end up in a gaol. ahehehe.

Here in the U.S., short stories and poetry are not what you'd call a commercial success. I find that amazing, given that so many readers have the attention span of a small insect with a three-day lifespan (that includes me, many days). I LOVE short stories and poetry – I love writing them and reading them. But they don't seem to sell well.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, if you have a day job and aren't worried about where your next meal will come from, you shouldn't focus too much on commercial success. Write what you enjoy writing. Write what holds YOUR interest long enough to finish it. Most likely, there will be readers out there who share that interest, and readers can always tell if you put your heart and soul into your writing, or you just threw some words on paper. If you have to choose between telling a good story or writing great literature, opt for storytelling. No one will say “he wrote great literature” until you're dead, so where's the fun in that? But they may say, “Man, that's a GREAT story! I couldn't put it down!”