Roundup
Nothing in Common
David Duhr writes about Steve Almond’s DIY approach to publishing for Publishing Perspectives.
At Mother Jones, a primer on how to start your own country. I had no idea micronations existed. They seem similar to micropresses.
Aubrey Hirsch has some advice on what you can do with your novella. (No, not that.)
Why do writers abandon their novels? It’s a good question.
It is time for the Tournament of Books. Who are your favorites? I am rooting for Bad Marie.
Lady Journos is featuring lady writers.
Speaking of ladies, I Don’t Respect Female Expression, a chapbook of 11 stories by Frank Hinton, will be out at the end of April.
Joel Johnson wrote an article for Wired about Foxconn, iPhones, and the suicides of 17 employees.
Here’s a list of words that don’t exist in English and here is a similar list. (Thanks, Fiction Writers Review)
Kelly Davio offers some thoughts on writers and self-presentation.
The Wall Street Journal is doing such great literary coverage these days. Meghan O’Rourke writes about cadence in prose.
‘I want your face on my face.’ – Frank Hinton
College students are overlooked far too often when it comes to DIY publishing. Undergraduates — at private universities, at least — are blessed with obscene print quotas. Like over a thousand or more pages per each student each year. As in up to 5000 pages!
Here’s my idea: Print Quota Press. Chapbooks, novellas, shorter works in general that are published using the print quotas of students all over the country. Production cost is marginal, it actively involves college students (hello juicy demographic that spends lots of money on “hip” things [see: canvas bags with birds on them, tattoos, graphic novels]).
Get an editor in every major city, or near any major university, have them advertise, impress undergrads by telling them “I’ve been published somewhere,” and soon enough you got them eating out of your fucking hands.
Making copies and releasing short works on your own is relatively cheap at any level. With the success of online ebooks as well I think that there could be a huge sweep into a more DIY based experimental short story distribution. DIY comics have become increasing popular in my experience to the point that most shops carry DIY zines and comic books. Mass distribution not via the internet is a tough one though. The same conversation needs to be happening with Films/DVDs.
Go Next!
I think “relatively” is the key word.
When I was making zines of my own stuff, and I didn’t have much cash, it could cost somewhere around 300 bucks to make 50-100 copies of a book. With the expense of making actual copies excluded, you’re spending money on buying staples and a long-necked stapler. Suddenly 100-200 copies cost five dollars to make. Drop the zines off in bookstores without permission, drop them off in free newsstands, drop them off any which way and where and you are distributing free literature with negligible cost. Do this with some credible names and credible material attached to it, and suddenly you can start making a product that costs virtually nothing to produce, and that involves direct involvement of college students, who flock to and gab on the Internet like no other demographic. Not to mention it’s less expensive for consumers, and they don’t need to pay a hundred bucks for an electronic gizmo to read your work.
Such a model could also provide a meeting-point for comic artists and writers. All of a sudden you get guys like Dash Shaw collaborating with some other big literary name. Or something. That’s where I’m coming from.
Hi Roxane. I liked that story you read at Underbar the other night
if anyone wants to create something that incorporates the line “I don’t respect female expression,” I think frank would be interested in seeing it.
there are some examples at http://frankhinton.blogspot.com and one more if you click my name
maybe there’s only one example at frank’s blog. i forget. but like a photo, a video, anything, involving the phrase. i can imagine creative ways of using the sentence
also, i like frank hinton’s work a lot
Thanks very much, Stephen.