Netscape for Books

It's happening again. It's happened before, and it'll keep happening.* Companies and industries fail to innovate, and everything comes crumbling down.

But not without a fight.

There's a fun new study that more or less slaps independent writers on the wrist and says "Have fun on food stamps. If you want a real paycheck, remember who keeps the lights on."

“The new lesson from this study is that the chances of having a financially viable writing career may be best for hybrid authors and traditionally published authors.”

Hey, cool! Thanks for the info, Mr. Dinosaur!** To us, and other super smart people like Brian O'Leary, this feels like another not-surprising example of established industry players defiantly standing still while the new world passes them by. Hope Netscape's treating you well, jerks.

So, let's pretend you haven't made it past the pearly gates at Random House, like everyone else. Have you considered independent publishing? Other formats? Done your research?

“Independent authors are electing to sidestep the supply chain, publish without identifiers, and test new forms and new platforms that look nothing like a book.”

Feels like a revolution to me.

So maybe your novel isn't ready yet, but there's never, ever been a better opportunity to experiment with a variety of formats. I'm sure you've heard about Kindle Singles, but have you tried The Atavist for non-fiction, The NewerYork for your crazier, experimental works or The Fog Horn? (blushes)

There's absolutely zero chance we can offer the sort of wealth that a traditionally published New York Times Bestseller implies. But we do offer $1000 for published short stories. And we feel like that's a hell of a start. The money's green, son.

So many new opportunities to make your mark. Don't fear the future.

Every word counts. Use the tools available to you and get paid.

We're ready when you are.

*Oh, and Final Draft? You're next.
** This is not to imply the dinosaurs died because they failed to innovate. But having a space program to research and deploy asteroid-deflection measures wouldn't have hurt. Ahem.

Dave Eggers on 15 Years→

McSweeney's is a huge inspiration for what we're trying to do today, and I think founder Dave Eggers does a tremendous job in this piece summarizing exactly why we want to be publishers, in an age where everyone else is running away from publishing as fast as possible.

One doesn't really "publish" a screenplay. You spend months writing and rewriting, usually alone, and then you finally press send and let it electronically slide into the hands of friends, trusted advisers, agents, producers, executives, and so on. Pretty much the same, up to this point, as any other type of writing. The break becomes when, if your script has juice and you're incredibly lucky, someone decides to make it into a movie. At which point your screenplay is just a vehicle to get the movie made, and nobody ever really reads it again. Sure, within the industry it becomes a calling card to either get you more work, or, if it's terrible or the movie fails, make getting work that much more difficult. But outside of Hollywood, nobody has any idea what it says, aside from what they finally see on screen.

Anyways -- pressing "send" is terrifying. Up to that point, everything feels great. Confidence is running high. Then you press send and you instantly regret EVERY.SINGLE.WORD., and smash your computer against and through the drywall in hopes that the message and attachment won't escape via the goddamn digital throughway, because it if does it'll be ridiculed and we'll be shamed because OF COURSE it's terrible and the worst thing anyone's ever written and God, maybe they won't read it and/or we can steal their computer and make sure they'll never see it in the first place...

I say all this because publishing someone else's work -- like we did in Issue #1 -- is the opposite feeling. It's the most tremendous honor and rush to expose new writers to millions of potential readers, or even feature something new from someone more notable, who's trusting us to not fuck up their good name.

If we succeed in nothing else, I hope we break a few new voices who go on to do big things, and who manage to retain the voice that got them there in an otherwise vanilla publishing industry.

We can't wait to take a chance on you, so take a chance on us and send us a pitch for your best short story. If we love your work, we'll get it out there. We hope you like what we've published so far, and can't wait for Issue #2.