this won’t hurt a bit
that novel of yours that you love? the one that no one else does? you know, that thing you’ve been trying to get published forever, but just can’t seem to get a press interested in, even though it’s obviously brilliant? well, fuck those ignorant editors. you don’t need ‘em. or a vanity press, for that matter. you only need word riot.
in a move that i think the rumpus pretty accurately describes as “an interesting stunt,” on june 7 word riot will publish whatever PDF’ed piece of crap you give them, as long as you’ve previously had work appear in any of 22 specific lit mags they’ve named. and word riot will only make these short story collection & novel manuscripts available for 24 hours. and i’m kinda confused about who benefits in this situation.
i obviously don’t know how other lit mags operate, but i do know that willow springs only likes to put previously unpublished work in its issues. so short stories going out that day are probably limiting their potential for publication in any less ephemeral sense. and if agents weren’t beating down your down after your successful publication in that lit mag, what are the odds they’re gonna be cruising the internet, specifically for you, between the hours of 12am and 11:59pm on june 7, 2010 at the word riot site? and if a writer is trying to reach fans with new work, couldn’t they just do this themselves by posting a pdf on their own website? and make it available for as long as they want? is there some worthwhile literary status i’m not aware of from being published for 24 hours on word riot?
as a writer, would you want to put your stuff out this way? as a reader, are you going to be looking for this stuff on june 7? and even if you are looking for it, what are the odds that this pdf sits on your computer’s desktop, unread, until you delete it or file it away in some soon-to-be-forgotten folder? as a publicity move, this seems like a win for word riot (i am writing about it, after all). i’m just not sure who else is supposed to win here.
Tags: 3:AM Magazine, Anderbo, Collagist, decomP, Dogplotz, Electric Lit, Eyeshot, Hobart, Identity Theory, JMWW, Keyhole, Laminantion Colony, Monkeybicycle, mudlucious, Necessary Fiction, No Colony, NOÖ, NYTyrant, Opium, Pank, Pindeldyboz, Word Riot
I think I’d have to be on one of those rare, perhaps mythical, publishing streaks to give Word Riot naked pics of myself so shamelessly. If I were confident enough to believe I had a “personal legend,” and had followers of my writing, I’d probably do it as a fun aside, though I find it hard to believe that anyone qualified to meet Word Riot’s requirements would see past the novelty. I guess it’s possible that promotion through scarcity could trawl a new fan from the cybermuck here and there, but I think all it ultimately is, as Rumpus put it, is “an interesting stunt.”
Would a magazine really not publish a story because it appeared at Word Riot for one day? I find that… really disappointing. I think we cling to the idea of virgin stories far too much. I think what Word Riot is trying to do is really interesting. I see it more as an experiment than a stunt. I also question why this has to be about win or loss. This isn’t a game. No one’s keeping score, are they?
I’m keeping score. But I’m doing it little-league style, so everyone gets a trophy at the end anyway.
I agree that Word Riot’s trying something new, and that’s a Good Thing. After all, why not?
When it comes to virgin stories, though… I’m not sure if there has to be a line somewhere. I think it’s just up to particular magazines. But I’m not even sure I’d count word riot’s deal as being “published” in the sense that I wouldn’t then send out the story to a physical magazine. But even if you had a piece in a magazine already, would you as a writer even want to publish it again? I guess maybe if you could have it in a mag with a wider circulation. But for me, I’d rather keep having new stuff published, because that means you’re continuing to work successfully and, in theory, grow as a writer.
I guess what I’m saying is that as an editor, if I get a story/poem/whatever that’s kick-butt awesome, and I find out it’s already been published, I have to wonder why the author is even sending it out again. And do I want to bother starting a relationship with a writer who’s interested in being stagnant? Not that magazines should operate in a selfish mode all the time, but I have to wonder what I would get out of that arrangement. Another story that’s been previously published, maybe? I feel like that takes away from my favorite part of the journal process, which is discovering those new voices that haven’t been heard yet.
As you mentioned, Jason, the big point is that people are talking about it. It’s getting run in the lit blog scene, and that means people are going to check it out when it begins. So that does mean exposure to writers, and since there’s a long list of mags that allow people to qualify, there’s a great chance that many/most of the work word riot barfs onto the interwebs will be by relatively unknown and newish folks. I think it would be a different story if you had to be in the New Yorker, Paris Review, or some other bigshot in order to qualify. But even if you are talking about some great writers being included, if you’re a lesser-known writer who qualifies, this is a chance for your work to be seen; if someone comes to download Joe Cool’s short story, they might figure they’ll just download everything else, too, in which case nameless writers get face time with readers.
And, hell, you have to remember that this isn’t being juried, so that means folks probably aren’t putting up their very best work (unless they think they’re going to get noticed), right? Maybe it’s a chance to do something experimental. I don’t know.
Word riot benefits from this. Readers benefit from this. Authors benefit from this (depending on their attitudes). I guess… is there a reason not to do something like this? Maybe it is gimmicky, but it’s still a chance to have your work be seen by other writerly types. That’s usually a good thing.