Okay all you MFAs and writerly hopefuls out there, here’s the way it works: you either sell your first novel right out of the gate hot from academia and become the next literary wunderkind or you get a teaching career, (or law practice, sometimes health care professional), do your time in the trenches and somewhere around forty or fifty years old publish your first novel to rounds of accolades about your mature and seasoned voice. That’s about it as far as options in paths to careers in fiction, right?
It aint so. Personally, I’m excited about the state of siege publishing as we know it is under. Viva, la revolucion! (Or somesuch poly-lingual mash-up of enthusiasm.) There are new and viable avenues that beckon brave and innovative writers and publishers today.
Seth Harwood is a case study in the success of Do It Yourself philosophies in publishing. His CrimeWav podcasts, where he first serialized his novel Jack Wakes Up, (which he later went on to self-publish and enjoy a cult status before it was sold to a publisher in 2009), have become a popular outlet for crime writers to gain exposure or just play around. (You can check out samples from the hungry like Jason Duke and Kieran Shea, and established, like Michael Connelly and Tom Franklin, alike.)
Talent? Check. Confidence? Check. Hustle? Check ad-infinity. Harwood’s Jack Wakes Up thrived on classic serial traits like non-stop action, plot twists and short chapters with sharp hooks to entice you to tune in next time. His new novel Young Junius delivers on the promise of his debut with deeper characterization, even tighter plotting and higher emotional stakes packed into a short period in the life of an inner city kid trying to stay ahead of many dangers... Which brings up the next point: okay, hotshot, you got yourself a chip in the game, can you hang? Harwood has the goods, we’ll see what kind of trajectory his career takes from here.
That’s all fine and good for the up and comers, but once established you play it safe, yeah?
Uh. Not necessarily. If you’re anything like Stona Fitch, that is.
He’s taken advantage of the big ol’ question mark large scale publishing has become to create a way for publishing professionals to donate time and talent for charity. The Concord Free Press has printed limited runs of titles from himself, Gregory Maguire, Wesley Brown and Ron Slate and given them away absolutely free. The quality, paperback originals come stamped with an invitation to accept the book under the agreement that you will donate any amount you care to to any charitable organization or person in need and alert the Press as to the sum and destination of your gift. On their website, they track the donations and you can pat yourself on the back just a bit for your own contribution. To date, the books published through them have raised about $50,000 apiece, (at just 3,000 copies each) and some have also gone on to sell to commercial publishers as well.
The latest from The Concord Free Press, whose advisory board includes names like Megan Abbott, Russell Banks, Joyce Carol Oates and Jess Walter, is Rut, by one of my favorites Scott Phillips. His debut, The Ice Harvest was a tart, nasty slice of late seventies nostalgia and was followed up with an even nastier look at the fifties, The Walkaway and then a trip back to the dirty, late 19th century, Cottonwood. With Rut, Phillips takes us into the near future for the first time where humanity has learned from history and finally gotten onto the straight and narrow… or not. It’s a wild look at where we’re headed and not far enough away to avoid, I’m afraid. So relax, we’re all hilariously doomed.
Hustle and generosity, two exciting if far from certain paths to publishing, I mean far from the tested and true roads to big money book deals—like celebrity, crime and scandal, say.
You know of other roads less traveled to publishing? Give me some examples.
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
