by David S. Bernstein
(Updated 9/4/2012)
What happens when a couple of life-long non-fiction book editors decide to launch an online fiction magazine? We’re about to find out.
When I first went to work for Adam Bellow 18 years ago, he was a hotshot young editor at The Free Press (which had just been acquired by Viacom); I had just left a political magazine I founded in DC to attend business school in New York. Adam has put a lot of bestsellers under his belt since then, and neither of us is so young any longer. But that’s not stopping us form starting something entirely new.
Why? Because we see today as a unique and exciting time in the history of publishing, especially fiction. New technologies, especially mobile devices, are going to fundamentally change the way readers interact with stories (and with authors).
But at the same time, it’s obvious that existing publishers are not at all prepared for this changing environment. Not only are they structurally and temperamentally incapable of coping with new business models, most of them are mired in a stifling post-modernist idea of what makes for good fiction.
We see an opportunity to use the emerging technology to create a publishing program that rejects the irony and cynicism that is so prevalent in modern fiction, and return to the fundamentals of good storytelling.
Our new venture, Liberty Island, will identify and publish the best of a new generation of politically independent and culturally contrarian writers. We’re recruiting writers in a wide range of genres, including thriller, crime, fantasy, mystery, adventure, science fiction, satire, historical and political fiction—even western and romance. Independent in all senses of the word, we are starting a cultural insurgency using the tools of digital technology to circumvent and challenge the mainstream publishing establishment. Liberty Island exists to identify, promote, and introduce these new writers to a likeminded audience that shares their tastes and values—specifically the values of liberty, individualism, and American exceptionalism.
Contact us if you are a writer and want to be part of this experiment. We would love to see your stuff.
And, in the same independent spirit, we’re raising money for Liberty Island through crowdfunding. If you want to help us build our site and start commissioning new work, please consider making a small donation through Start.AC.
Submit your work: [email protected]
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