Ron Charles of the Washington Post reports on Electric Literature, a new bi-monthly magazine that is making lit. mags differently. I’ve noted five lessons about publishing via Electric Literature’s watershed model:
“Amid all the dismal reports about the death of fiction, here’s a refreshingly bold act of optimism: a new bimonthly magazine” that for each issue prints “five great stories that grab you” (1: publish strong content).
“This new magazine is specifically designed for distribution on all platforms. If you’re still enamored of paper, you can own the handsome print version for $10″ or “download the e-version for $5″ (2: publish in different formats).
Publisher and editor-in-chief Andy Hunter (who says, “‘If there’s any kind of hesitation, it’s from people who don’t really believe that a literary publication is viable. We started this publication to prove them wrong. There’s a human need for storytelling that hasn’t gone away just because print is having problems'”) and his co-publisher, Scott Lindenbaum, “put up about 20 percent of the start-up money for Electric Literature and convinced investors to give them the rest” (3: make friends with rich investors who support your art).
Hunter “holds down a day job at an NGO at the United Nations” (4: have a day job / support NGOs).
“‘We insist on being able to pay writers a large fee for their stories'” (5: pay your writers a ton of money to write for your magazine).
