Electric Literature
JA
July 24
Here’s an example of what kind of cool new things can be done online. Electric Literature is a bi-monthly short story anthology by Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum. In a nutshell, it’s visually explosive, affordable, eco-friendly and manages to pay contributors US$1000 per piece.
The first issue was released in June and already it’s garnered a steady following in the blogosphere. The cover art is a wild, trippy piece of illustration and the ad campaign loud and provocative, spruiking the idea of ‘Reading that’s bad for you’ (think along the lines of banned books such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ulysses and Madam Bovary). The premise is simple – a magazine showcasing five short stories by a mix of writers that negotiates the tensions between online and print to it’s own advantage. Electric Literature is available on multiple platforms including Kindle and iPhones. You can buy it for $5 online or, alternatively, each story is available for $0.99 according to a pricing model similar to iTunes. If print is still your thing, then you can purchase the magazine as a hardcopy for $10.
By using this online/print-on-demand model, Lindenbaum and Hunter avoid paying upfront costs and are able to act as their own distributor. They also never have to think about things like pulping or giving a percentage to retailers. The result is a business that is relatively low maintenance and retains enough to pay authors a generous fee.
‘Literature is way out of step with what people are paying for their content,’ Lindenbaum says. He and Hunter fronted up 20% of the ‘low five-figure’ start-up cost, and convinced investors to give them the rest. They also convinced literary heavyweight Michael Cunningham (The Hours) to give them a chapter of his novel-in-progress for the first issue, which also features Jim Shepherd, Lydia Millet, T Cooper and Diana Wagman.
You can have a look at (or buy) Electric Literature here.
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Comments
24 Jul 09 at 9:21
Electric Literature is fantastic, and a really exciting concept. Vignette Press has been looking into creating something similar - I just love the idea of giving the audience the power to decide what format to read content in. EL has very schmick design too, I'll be looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.
...24 Jul 09 at 10:27
I think short stories will be the next big thing. We can't live without narrative and the new technologies are wonderfully suited for exploring the possibilities of story in an open-ended, multi-branching way.
...24 Jul 09 at 17:04
lisa - that's v. exciting. I'd love to see something like this done in Australia. You'll have to keep us in the loop of what Vignette comes up with.
...24 Jul 09 at 18:19
I was just reading about Apex Magazine using the same model. Interesting.
...11 Dec 09 at 15:56
I'm quite excited about this journal. Hopefully they can put some runs on the board with digital distribution.
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