New Lit Journal Pays $1,000 for Short Stories

Electric Literature, a bi-monthly short story anthology whose inaugural issue launched in June, is setting itself apart with a brilliantly simple business plan: keep the issue cheap and accessible for consumers (under $5 on Kindle and iPhone) and fairly compensate contributors (every writer gets a grand).

An interview on Flavorwire illustrates how this is possible for a start-up in this economy.

“Co-publisher Scott Lindenbaum explains that the Electric Literature iPhone application integrates the ‘same pricing model as iTunes, essentially $0.99 a story.’ Though the anthology is still available in a bound print edition, mobile media speaks to the way we aggregate information now. ‘Literature is way out of step with what people are paying for their content,’ Lindenbaum says, and there must be a way to bring literary geekdom back to pop culture…Since they avoid upfront printing costs — only printing issues when requested and paying the printer in bulk at the end of the month — and work with an independent distributor, they can afford their first priority: fair, even generous, compensation for writers.”

More from Electric Literature’s website: “People of our generation—with one foot in the past and one in the future—must make sure that the media gap is bridged in a way that preserves and honors literature. We don’t want to be sentimental old folks in a world where literary fiction is only read by an esoteric few.”

Hopefully other journals will follow Electric Literature’s lead, but the fact that this publishing model is garnering so much attention proves we have a long way to go. Using current technology for distribution and paying writers fairly shouldn’t be so revolutionary.

++Photo by Trak.in++