Interview With Electric Literature

I was honored when Andy Hunter, co-founder of Electric Literature agreed to an interview. I have been following Electric Literature since its launch in June 2009 and co-founders/co-editors Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum are two of my heroes.

 As they explain on their website (http://www.electricliterature.com/), “Electric Literature’s mission is to use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture. [They] are a quarterly anthology of five top-notch short stories, delivered in every viable medium.”

 Andy and Scott are leveraging many of the same technologies I am, and they are equally passionate about literature.  I recently sent Andy some questions and here are his responses.

 Q: Tell me a little about yourself and what drove you to bring Electric Literature to life?

A: I think my penchant for day-dreaming is what drove me to bring Electric Literature to life. Most of my day-dreams seem unreasonable the following day, but the idea of starting a publishing company stuck with me. When I mentioned it to Scott Lindenbaum, who I had worked with at The Brooklyn Review, he was enthusiastic. We whiled away the hours discussing how a new press could use technology to distribute and promote itself, and the kind of material we’d love to publish. Eventually, we reached a tipping point and decided to go through with it. We’re both writers, and we didn’t take kindly to all the pundits and doomsayers predicting that new media and the internet were going to kill the written word. We thought we could use these same tools to ensure literature has a future. Also, I am a born procrastinator. The only thing I really care about is finishing the novel I’ve been writing for three years, and Electric Literature provides me with endless reasons to do things other than work on it.

Q: How long did it take from conception to launch of Electric Literature and during that time, did you ever get discouraged or doubt your plan?

A: We started talking about it in the spring of 2008, but didn’t actually do anything until early 2009. We wrote a business plan, pooled some of our own money, and tried to get investors. My brother declined to invest. He said, “I’m sorry, I believe in you, but I just don’t think you’re going to be the first person in history not to lose money by publishing a literary magazine.” At the time, that didn’t discourage me. But in various dark moments that followed, it came back. The truth is, anyone who doesn’t ever get discouraged or experience doubt is a moron. In late June, 2009, three days after we launched EL, I was up at 3 am googling “How to deal with failure.” Fortunately, we haven’t failed, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to. However, everything is generally more difficult than we thought. Which is true for every worthwhile endeavor. There are times when we are swimming with the currents of the universe and exciting things are happening daily, and times we are swimming against them and everything goes wrong. The crucial thing is to work incredibly hard and never give up.

Q: Your bio on Twitter (@ElectricLit) is, “Saving literature one reader at a time.” How do you think we got to a place where literature needs saving?

A: We are undergoing a cultural transformation. We have more media clamoring for our attention than ever before. Literature requires you to slow down and read closely. Not only do we have less time for it, but our brains are used to more rapid stimulation, so it is harder to settle into. It’s no surprise that people are reading fewer books. Advocates for literature have to keep it part of the dialog, keep it interesting, keep putting it in front of people, and keep persuading them of its worth.

I have a lot of opinions about the state of literature, but I don’t voice them too often because I’d like to stay out of trouble. Briefly: you can’t expect reading to be as big as it was before TV and the internet, but writers back then worked to engage the public, often without sacrificing depth. Dickens and Twain are good examples of popular authors who are still worth reading. Writing back then wasn’t a particularly glamorous job. In the 1900’s, it didn’t have the same snob appeal it does now. Reading novels was frowned upon; they were the soap-operas of their day. As writing increased in prestige, I’m afraid it grew insular and less engaged with popular culture. Those writers who did engage were considered hacks. The rise of MFA programs made it worse–writers now learn to write for their peers. If they write for a less sophisticated reader, they are seen as pandering, or unsophisticated themselves. MFA programs have grown at about the same rate as readership of the short story has declined over the past fifty years. The more these trends persist, the more true they become, to the point that it is very rare, now, for a popular author to also be an excellent writer with depth.

Q: You wrote an editorial in Publishing Perspectives where you said, “With the right platform, ambition, programs, and marketing, the independent press can fill the vacuum left by the major publishers.” Can you talk a little about the vacuum you perceive is being left by major publishers?

A: Major publishers are still publishing some great literary novels, and the editors there generally love books. They aren’t in it for the money, otherwise they’d have chosen another profession. But their business model doesn’t allow them to promote a book unless it is already selling. In other words, if you book starts to take off because of word-of-mouth, they may start promoting you. Otherwise, your book goes out into the world to die. Then, when it’s time to sell your second book, they look at the sales figures for your first book, and they pass. There are a lot of brilliant literary writers having trouble selling second novels, or accepting paltry advances and then finding they aren’t supported by their publishers.

In this hard economic time, major publishers are less and less likely to pursue deals that might not be lucrative, or support an author through mediocre sales just because they believe in her. Smaller publishers, on the other hand, can nurture an author and a book, and can offer larger royalties instead of advances.

I believe publishers in the next century will need identities that readers can relate to and be loyal to. And readers, overwhelmed by the amount of self-published and independently published material, will need publishers they trust. This will evolve into a network of interrelated literary communities, based on tastes and interests. It’ll no longer be a one-way dialogue between publisher and reader, but publishers can still have an important role in bringing an audience to an author, and vice-versa.

Q: You have pursued some very creative marketing ideas, leveraging every media known to God and man. From your youtube videos to your Shadow Army, which of your out-side-of-the-box marketing techniques have been most successful?

A: The youtube videos have been great for a few reasons. People post them to their blogs, so they get Electric Literature’s name out there, and get our writer’s names out there. They make the stories seem fun and exciting–which is important to us. We want literature to be less stuffy, and we think that’s key to getting younger readers, which in turn will insure it survives. Finally, they get literature out of the ivory tower. Writers collaborate with artists, animators, and musicians. Each is exposed to the other’s audience. This is what we mean when we say we want to keep literature a vital part of popular culture.

All that said, the most successful thing we’ve done is the Rick Moody Twitter story. Between the initial press, the backlash, and the backlash-to-the-backlash, the attention it has gotten has been great. Not many literary magazines get into the Wall St. Journal twice in one week, but we did due to that project.

Q: Your website discusses and you’re frequently quoted regarding how well suited the literary short story is to the hectic digital age. Do you think there’s still an audience for novel length literature?

A: There better be, because I’m writing one.

Q: Electric Literature launched in June 2009 and has been getting a lot of press including articles in the NY Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian. Now, it’s March 2010, only eight months later. If I may ask, how close are you to meeting your circulation goal of 20,000?

A: We’re still years away from that goal. But we are on track to break even this summer, and we hope to start publishing novels late this year.

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Much thanks to Andy Hunter for the interview. I’m looking forward to everything Electric Literature has planned and I highly recommend subscribing to Electric Literature. Use the link below to subscribe or buy by the issue.

 http://www.electricliterature.com/electric-literature-store.html

 ttyl

Wanda