Last week, Amazon’s Publishing Group announced the launch of a seventh imprint, this one specifically for literary fiction including novels, short story collections, and memoirs. The imprint will go by the name Little A, as well as a digital-only version called Day One for individual stories from debut writers. Amazon’s new imprint follows in the better-selling footsteps of the company’s other publishing outlets that focus on genre fiction like romance, mystery, and children’s books. A few works have already been published and are on sale now or in the near future, while the biggest release lined up is a memoir by James Franco, Actors Anonymous, to be released in October.
This announcement marks a prospective legitimization of the digital ebook in terms of literary culture. The beast that is Amazon has spoken. However, the company has spoken for the establishment – albeit the cutting edge of said establishment, but big-wigs nonetheless – who have had no qualms with leaving small businesses and the accompanying bright-eyed optimism in their wake. Alternatives continue to pop up, though, not afraid to fail and certainly not too big to fail.
One such startup is Net Minds, where online dating meets book publishing. Authors, editors, illustrators, marketers, and others create profiles outlining their interests and what type of people they’re looking for to fulfill futures project in the hopes of forming a dream team and ultimately agreeing on an individualized book contract. This method puts emphasis on the team dynamic of releasing a book. Look no further than Raymond Carver for an acclaimed writer who may not have reached such a pinnacle without the controversially heavy hand of his editor, Gordon Lish, in paring down his breakout collection of short stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Net Minds looks to capitalize on those crucial collaborations, and its flagship release will be Finding the Next Steve Jobs written by famed Atari, Inc. founder Nolan Bushnell along with Gene Stone. Bushnell and Stone’s book will be released on March 26 in paperback and ebook format, though many of the Net Minds projects will be ebook-only.
Coliloquy is another digital publisher that concentrates on creating episodic content for readers to choose how stories unfold, including branching story lines and personalized content that can best be applied to children’s books, mysteries, and romance novels. I may not be giving romance novels enough credit, but I’m guessing you can basically choose whether the Fabio is blonde or brunette, and whether he keeps his socks on or off. Brunette. On. Duh. Kudos for interactivity, not so much for intellectual activity.
Leanpub may well be the most ambitious of the digital publishing crop. The company’s own definition of lean publishing is defined as, “The act of publishing an in-progress ebook using lightweight tools and many iterations to get reader feedback, pivot until you have the right book, and build traction once you do.” According to co-founder Peter Armstrong’s Lean Publishing Manifesto, the goal is to treat the book as a startup – a risky creative endeavor by a small team with a low probability of success. However, the difference being, when a startup is in development, it’s in a form of stealth mode to keep the concept fresh and free from predatory competitors. The caveat to the secrecy is no feedback. Turns out nobody wanted an app that brings advertisements to life through augmented reality (AR), but AR that unlocks Easter eggs within Marvel comics would be much appreciated by a certain breed of Hulk fans (see: Sensitive Hulk), an audience the developer didn’t know existed in the first place. Lean Publishing offers such a feedback-driven system more akin to frequent software updates than the five-year release cycle of gaming system hardware. With that connection made, it’s no surprise that Leanpub is the perfect outlet for technical- and science-based texts where the content of the books advances as fast or faster than the extended, circular cycle of a typical print publication. Leanpub is an alternative to spending crucial time and effort to put out an ultimately dated product.
These new publishing models demand praise for attempting to discover the next generation of reading that feels so inevitable with digital technologies being ubiquitous in our lives. Unfortunately, they have all, so far, succumbed to advancing books, not literature. In this new schema – perhaps for the good of literature – she is forced underground where the greatest revolutions are fostered.
I don’t imagine Hemingway or Plath taking part in these startup experiments, but with a little stretch of the imagination, Borges and Calvino may have been able to find them of use, if only to experiment with the experiment. Borges might have been able to create more tangible labyrinths for the reader to lose their bearings, and Calvino could have offered alternative twists to emotive tales.
Alas, there is hope for literature yet in the inner workings of Leanpub. In addition to a more timely product, Leanpub offers a much greater royalty percentage by putting the consumers’ payments into the author’s hand instead of the many middle-men on a publisher’s payroll. This is the true merit of the model if it can amass a broad readership equating to steady returns for content creators.
Although the writer is placed on the pedestal monetarily, his or her work may suffer in the eyes of the reader. The reworking of previously published early chapters is one drawback that makes the reader experience less than stellar. Consumers must enter this pact knowing that they’re purchasing (initially) an unfinished product that may be altered drastically by the time it’s complete. The interesting side of this conundrum is that the reader has a far more significant role than in the traditional publishing scheme. With Leanpub, it’s the consumer, but also the fundraiser (rather than the publisher or grant donor) and an editor. The extent of that role will ultimately vary from case to case on a continuum from simple feedback (yay or nay) to professional advice offered in terms of the writing mechanics itself.
Here is where the potential lies in this type of application for publishers and authors, though the specifics have yet to precipitate. If the readers are treated not so much as investors and consumers, but rather as peer reviewers and editors, a well of inspiration could be tapped to alter how books are written. There are scores of readers spanning all genres and backgrounds similar to music listeners who don’t necessarily have to have picked up an instrument themselves to know a tune when they hear one. Just like those listeners, readers don’t need an MFA or experience writing a novel to be of assistance, and swaths could be qualified to do so if they weren’t already mastering another skill.
Grants, like the recently $50 million-injected Zell Family Foundation, fund burgeoning writers to focus on their work in a like-minded community of writers while pursuing their Master of Fine Arts degrees. This philanthropy is great for the individuals receiving the grants (and that point is debatable, at length, elsewhere), but writers and literature on the whole are facing a more devastating systemic issue – the failure of the publishing industry to evolve to meet the demands of its overwhelmed consumers and under appreciated contributors in the digital era. It seems that engaging the audience is paramount in preserving a literary culture, so for the sake of balancing the currently lopsided supply versus demand, the goal should be to encourage more people to read. In her recent article, “Invest in Readers, Not MFAs”, Laura Miller rightly suggests philanthropists to invest in literary coverage through newspapers, especially those who have stakes in media organizations like the aforementioned Zell Family.
They and others should invest in readers to read not only for enjoyment, but also to read critically and offer feedback through services like Leanpub. Readers in those established networks could be compensated with free or discounted ebooks for frequent and successful editorial contributions. Students could be taught to go beyond peer review into a true editing capacity, shadowing, monitoring, and reproducing the methods of experienced editors. There are avenues of growth and development forming that could ultimately liberate the author from an archaic, unapologetic system.
For now, digital publishing will stick to its strengths: masking the otherwise embarrassing cover of Fifty Shades in the grey plastic shell of a Kindle. Don’t just crowdfund your book through Kickstarter; crowdsource your work with the diverse insight of readers. Better yet, encourage philanthropists to fund those networks of reader-editors via progressive, technology-founded establishments like Leanpub.
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