ArtSake

In the latest issue of Big RED & Shiny, independent curator, artist, and film producer Jim Manning contributes a terrific video profile of Monica Nydam (Painting Fellow ‘10). In it, Monica speaks about her affection for the local art scene and shares the origins of her intriguing horse portraits. She also tells the story of learning she won an MCC fellowship: the night before, her apartment had run out of hot water, so she took the call still smelling of paint and thinner from yesterday’s studio work. The grant (along with, we hope, helping her upgrade apartments) let her take time off work to prepare for a recent solo show at Boston’s LaMontagne Gallery.

In the same issue, publisher Matthew Nash announced that Big RED & Shiny, an online journal that has explored and championed the New England arts scene since 2002, will no longer publish new issues. Big RED always contained a variety of voices and an unparalleled engagement with New England artists. Happily, Our Daily RED, the journal’s blog, will continue.

To all contributors and collaborators on Big RED & Shiny: thanks for making the local scene a little bit smarter, a little bit more fun, and a little bit better understood.

Images: Monica Nydam, UNTITLED HORSE PAINTING (2009), Oil on Board, 24×48 in; UNTITLED HORSE PAINTING (courtesy of La Montagne Gallery) (2008), Oil on canvas 9×12 in.

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What discoveries await you in this fan blog about Williamstown writer Jim Shepard? A. the above video. B. news of a new collection coming out March 2011, and that The Millions thinks You Think That’s Bad‘ll be rad. And C. that a Project X movie may be on the way. (I guess I just spoiled all your discoveries. Sorry. But still go check out the blog.)

Boston novelist Michelle Hoover guest-writes in the highly entertaining 1st Books Blog (authors writing about publishing their first books). The takeaway: persist, writers! Some 15 years spanned between the author starting her novel to the final days of editing, when she read chapters aloud to Other Press publisher Judith Gurewich.

Local playwright, actor, and theatre artist John Kuntz has launched a blog, and he recently wrote about how the audience at Company One’s Grimm was engaged and interested in the new play process: “It was a packed house, out for the night, they wanted to be there, and they were having a great time.” Dig it. May many more new works find many more enthusiastic audiences.

Jen Mergel, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, was featured in the New American Paintings blog discussing the role of contemporary art in an institution with a strong art history tradition: “I see [emerging artists] as hugely important in terms of keeping the conversation going and the discourse alive.”

And while we’re in the hallowed halls of the MFA: the Boston Globe recently profiled Andrew Haines who, as the museum’s conservator of frames, matches frames with paintings from MFA’s collection (that is, when he’s not creating his own astutely observed paintings).

In promoting their books and advancing their work, writers should definitely do these three things and then also these five things. Then POW: instant fame! Or at least, eight things done.

Sign of the times: Porter Square Books in Cambridge has added an e-Books buying section to its website.

Neato idea: a theatre company in NY enlists donations to cover the cost of giving away seats to audiences who otherwise may not have the opportunity to go.

In the blog of ArtCorps, an organization that sends artists to strengthen and mobilize Central American communities, Massachusetts native Laura Smith talks about using art to foster empowerment with women in El Salvador.

Always wanted to weld/wire/sew/woodwork but don’t have the tools, space, and/or know-how? Artisan’s Asylum, a non-profit community workshop in Somerville, wants to make an array of tools and classes available to current or aspiring makers of things. In preparing their upcoming class schedule, they’re asking for artist/artisans to take an interest survey.

Attend the London Biennale – in Boston. No inter-dimensional wormhole required! TransCultural Exchange, a Mass. org specializing in connecting international cultural communities, is holding a local satellite event - a Curated Salon - as Boston’s contribution to the London Biennale’s three month calendar of cultural events. If you’re interested, bring yourself and a non-artist guest for an evening of brilliant conversation. All participants will be listed on TransCultural Exchange’s website as official participants in the London Biennale. The salon takes place on August 19, 6-8 PM, at the Hampshire House. Download the press release, which includes ticket information, here.

Finally, two “Notes” we missed in our recent Artist Fellows Notes: Wendy Jehlen’s (Choreography Finalist ‘04) Anikai Dance Company is producing a free site-specific outdoor performance at Georges Island on the Boston Harbor Islands on Saturday, August 7, 1:30 PM. And Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ‘06) is featured in the July/August 2010 Design New England. His art was selected as part of a model unit by interior designer Meichi Peng (see art overlooking pillow, below).

Media: clip of Jim Shepard reading the story “Boys Town” at Skidmore College; detail of model unit at the W Boston Hotel & Residences in Back Bay, Meichi Peng, designer and Michael J. Lee, photographer, from Design New England Magazine.

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On WBUR, Andrea Shea covers the current Massachusetts Independent Contractor Law and its effect on creative individuals. According to the article, the law was changed in 2004 to prevent worker exploitation, but it’s had the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for freelance writers, illustrators, and other creative workers in Massachusetts to be hired as independent contractors.

From the article:

… (State) Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, D-Lenox, is concerned about the law’s unintended impact ripping through his district. Many of his constituents are indie artists, and he says western Massachusetts - and the state as a whole - really can’t afford to lose its creative workforce because of this law.

“This creative economy is certainly putting people back to work and all I know is out in the Berkshires, if it wasn’t for the creative economy, I’m not sure where the Berkshires would be on the radar map at this point,” he says.

Read the article and weigh in.

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Exported (temporarily): If you spent last Wednesday searching up and down Massachusetts for master balafon player Balla Kouyate, here’s why you couldn’t find him. Balla, a recent Artist Fellow in Traditional Arts, was in D.C. performing at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and later at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Our sibling blog, Keepers of Tradition, has the scoop on this unique honor.

Exported (less temporarily): Jason Schupbach, the state’s very first creative economy industry director, is also D.C.-bound, but for more than a visit. He’s been named Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts. Jason, who’s also the former director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s ArtistLink project, introduces himself in a Q&A on the NEA Art Works blog. Full of surprises: who knew Jason has a cheese-themed video blog?

Exported (virtually): Evan Garza, who recently served on our Painting panel in the Artist Fellowships Program and is an editor at large at New American Paintings and curator/gallery manager at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, is guest blogging at the Art21 blog.

And: the New Yorker’s Book Bench blog talks with Cambridge author Allegra Goodman (on the occasion of the publishing of her Cambridge-set short story “La Vita Nuova”).

Imported: we recently covered Hannah Barrett (Painting ‘04) and her artistic partnership with the historic Gibson House in Boston. Another historic Massachusetts site, Hancock Shaker Village in the Berkshires, has caught the contemporary artist-in-residence bug, and is hosting a master woodworker from Syracuse.

Locally made (and played): at the Huntington Theatre blog announces an intriguing series of site-specific audio plays by its Huntington Playwriting Fellows. A sampling: Kirsten Greenidge “eavesdrops” on two sisters outside the Co-op in Harvard Square, Martha Jane Kaufman slips between different types of “tea parties” at the Boston Harbor, and Ken Urban orchestrates a meet-up (set up online) at an MBTA station.

Looking for perfect synchronicity between a documentary subject and its screening venue? Just follow the green arrows behind Fresh Pond Cinema. A free rough-cut screening of Foreign Parts, a documentary by Verena Parvel and J.P. Sniadecki, will take place at Aladdin Auto Service, 162 Alewife Brook Parkway in Cambridge, on Saturday, May 8th at 6 PM (reception at 7 PM). Verena Parvel will be on hand to discuss the film, about a New York junkyard under the threat of demolition.

Arts blogger Greg Cook continues to do yeoman’s work (not that I understand precisely what a “yeoman” does - but I mean it as a compliment), covering the region’s highs, such as art inspired by Boston’s recent aquapolypse, and lows, such as the sad news of the impending closure of the Judi Rotenberg Gallery on Newbury Street.

New to the whole artist/gallery partnership process? The GYST blog has your starter kit: everything you ever wanted to know about galleries.

Finally, we thought you might enjoy this quote from writer James Arthur, from the Ploughshares blog, on the notion of “experience” as a writer:

At 19, I interpreted experience as mild psychedelic adventures and having a girlfriend. At 22, after a lackluster undergraduate career, I felt that I needed more job experience: more experience of what I then called “the real world.” At 27, I was in an MFA program, and I knew that a writer is someone who sits at a desk and writes.

Yep. To paraphrase what the wise man - or was it the massive transnational corporation? - once said: “Just do it, artists.”

Image: Balla Kouyate on balafon and Markane Kouyate on talking drum. Photo by Maggie Holtzberg.

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If you’re an artist who lives or works in Somerville, Massachusetts, you know by experience that it’s an arts-infused place: reverberant with musicians, splattered with painters, and bestrewn with, well, artists who make art that can be strewn - maybe quilters? Anyway, there’s every reason to believe that in the future, the Seven Hills will continue to emanate the atomic glow of art-being-made.

In the near term, Union Square in Somerville is expected to see growth due to a proposed extension of the MBTA’s Green Line, and the Somerville Arts Council has worked with the city to create zoning that complements that growth while encouraging the arts.

The new zoning code provides incentives for arts development, including the designation of a Union Square Arts Overlay District and Transit Oriented Districts to bring about more arts-related use of new and existing spaces.

You can read more about it in an easy-to-read guide to the changes put together by the Somerville Arts Council.

So, that might portend some trends in Somerville’s near future. But what about 2020? 2050? 2099? Tim Devin’s The history of Somerville, 2010-2100 is a community arts project that dares to ask what the future holds for the ‘ville. Tim is gathering predictions from past and current residents, as well as official plans. He plans to use his research to create timelines and assemble a series of talks. He’s posted a few of the predictions he’s already received on his site, including this one:

2080: By now, Somerville is densely populated, as Boston and Cambridge are flooded. Residents farm and tend gardens.
Source: Jennifer Mazer

Until December 31, 2009, you can contribute your own predictions about the future of Somerville.

Images: Bill Ritchotte, FUTUREVILLE, suggesting the future Squares of Somerville; Logo for the HISTORY OF SOMERVILLE, 2010-2100 project organized by Tim Devin.

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This is the second in a series of posts about Art and Philanthropy, looking at those projects that merge artistic with philanthropic vision. Interestingly, they often invent unconventional, innovative work models in the process.

In 2008, novelist, former rocker, and community activist Stona Fitch founded Concord Free Press, an outfit that blends his literary, DIY, and charitable inclinations. The press publishes two books a year using a ground-breaking, generosity-based model: authors (and the publishers, incidentally) donate their work, and the press gives away the books for free through its website and a network of independent bookstores. In lieu of payment, the press asks readers who receive the books to make a donation - in any amount - to a charitable organization. According to Stona, donations from Concord Free Press readers recently surpassed $100,000.

We asked Stona (recently named one of the 2010 Literary Lights by the Boston Public Library) about writers and giving, nontraditional publishing, and his revolutionary charitable model.

ArtSake: Your most recently published author was Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and other bestsellers. Have you found a strong response among writers to your press’s philanthropic model?

Stona: At the Concord Free Press, we’re writers and artists first, publishers second. So our generosity-based publishing concept is designed for and by writers. They get to be part of an intriguing experiment that connects with readers in new ways, and that inspires incredible generosity. And their books can go on to second lives as commercial editions. We’ve been besieged by bad news about our industry. The Concord Free Press sends a new, positive message - one that definitely resonates with writers. And with readers. In our first year, we’ve been flooded with book requests, encouragement, and overwhelming interest from around the world.

ArtSake: The first book the press published, your novel Give + Take, was orphaned at a previous publisher after its editor departed. One could assume this kind of setback will arise more and more as the economic turmoil continues to affect publishers. Do you think more authors will seek alternate publishing routes?

Stona: It’s simple. Writers want their work to reach readers. For the first time in history, writers can publish their own work, quickly and inexpensively. While traditional publishing remains the best avenue to reach the most readers, alternative channels - small online presses, self-publishing, e-books, Twitter novels, and whatever’s next - serve as a vital complement to the mainstream. As traditional publishing continues to contract, more writers will pursue creative ways to reach readers. The inmates have the keys to the asylum now. Whether they choose to use them is another question.

ArtSake: Give + Take involves a Robin Hood-like figure who gives to the poor. Did your book’s plot inspire the press’s philanthropic model? Or was it more a matter of philanthropy as a core interest of yours to begin with?

Stona: Give + Take definitely inspired the press. My novels tend to wrestle with consumerism, and Give + Take is no exception. I’ve also been part of the leadership of a local farm, Gaining Ground, which grows organic produce and gives it away to people in need. So I’m definitely grounded in non-profit work, social philanthropy, the DIY approach, and rethinking traditional/accepted models. The Concord Free Press has been called a grand experiment in subversive altruism - a mouthful, but accurate.

No matter who published them or how good they are, most books go on a familiar trajectory—new, used, shelved permanently, dusty. Ours keep going from hand to hand, generating donations along the way.

- From the Concord Free Press website

ArtSake: I noticed that Give + Take will be published by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press in 2010 – congratulations! Do you have any thoughts on the way nontraditional ways of presenting art – self-publishing, giving away selected work for free, Creative Commons licenses, etc. - can benefit an artist’s career?

Stona: Giving something singular and beautiful away has incredible power - particularly when you expect nothing in return. Whether you’re Banksy or a band on MySpace, giving away your art can revalue it and create new energy that comes back to the artist in one form or another, often in unexpected ways. But giving away work with the specific intent of furthering a career seems opportunistic and kind of venal.

With the Concord Free Press, we’ve created a gift economy for publishing. But it definitely connects to (and co-exists with) a more commercial world, as described so presciently in Lewis Hyde’s brilliant book, The Gift. A free work can go on to a second, commercial life. For example, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s is publishing Give + Take and Harper Collins is publishing The Next Queen of Heaven - both in spring of 2010, coincidentally. We certainly didn’t go into the project with the intent of attracting commercial publishers, though we certainly appreciate their interest and enthusiasm.

Kevin C. of St. John’s, Nova Scotia gave $240 to United Way
Ying C. of Concord, MA gave $55 to Open Table/Concord
Mike D. of Monroe, GA gave $40 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
Robyn F. of San Francisco, CA gave $50 to Choose What You Read NY
Alia W. of North York, ON gave $90 to a friend for bus fare to see his daughter
- Donations inspired by Concord Free Press, from the press’s website

ArtSake: It’s interesting that you chose to include Concord in your press’s name. Does the press being in Concord, Massachusetts, with that town’s legacy of individualism, have a particular significance to you?

Stona: Concord has always nurtured and inspired renegades - from Minutemen to Transcendentalists. I’d like to think that Concord Free Press fits cleanly in that lineage. It’s also important for a project to be grounded in a place. So while we have supporters and readers around the world, Concord is our base - from our office over a local bakery to a great local bookstore and library to the hundreds of committed readers and diverse authors who live here.

ArtSake: What do writers interested in submitting work to Concord Free Press need to know?

Stona: We only publish two books a year, generally solicited directly from established authors. We’re not an ideal option for a first novel, since first novelists deserve the broadest audience possible and tend to require more editing than our all-volunteer staff can offer. And though our books are free, the quality of the work has to be exceptional.

Right now, we’re putting together a new book, IOU: New Writing on Money, a multi-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems edited by renowned poet (and CFP Poetry Editor) Ron Slate. Writers interested in being part of this inherently more inclusive project can find details on our website, and on Facebook. And anyone with questions, comments, insights - or financial donations, we’re a non-profit foundation, after all - can feel free to email us at hello@concordfreepress.com.

Stona Fitch’s novels, including Senseless, Printer’s Devil, and Give + Take have been widely praised by critics and readers or their originality, intensity, and prescience. Stona lives with his family in Concord, Massachusetts, where he is also a committed community activist. He and his family work with Gaining Ground, a non-profit farm that grows 30,000 pounds of organic produce each growing season and distributes it for free to Boston-area homeless shelters, food pantries, and meal programs. He founded Concord Free Press in 2008 and was recently named one of the 2010 Literary Lights by the Boston Public Library.

Image: Stona Fitch in New Town, Edinburgh, 2008, Photo by Laura Hynd;cover art for THE NEXT QUEEN OF HEAVEN by Gregory Maguire (Concord Free Press 2009).

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Remember when we told you about Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge and its new book machine, which prints paperback books while you wait, including books by self-publishing authors?

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) is about to give a working demonstration.

On Wednesday, December 2, 7 PM at Harvard Square Bookstore in Cambridge, he’s going to do something he’s pretty sure has never been done before (and we’re pretty sure he’s right). He’ll read from a book you can then have published before your very eyes (via the bookstore’s book machine). You can even have editorial control over the cover (he says there will be several designs to choose from), and possibly even the size of the trim.

The book is called This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey. Read one way, it includes 30 short short stories. Flipped over and read the opposite way, you can read Steve’s brief essays on writing.

Also, Steve (along with Harvard’s print-on-demand manager Bronwen Blaney) will discuss the changing landscape of publishing and why Steve chose to make a book this way.

In other words, the event should be interesting in about a dozen ways (if you’ve ever experienced a Steve Almond reading, you know his singular humor accounts for at least 11).

To see what other past MCC Fellows and Finalists are up to, check out our Fellows Notes.

Images: cover art (front and back) for Steve Almond’s THIS WON’T TAKE BUT A MINUTE, HONEY. Illustrations by artist Brian Stauffer.

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This just in from the National Endowment for the Arts:

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS LIVE WEBCAST OF ITS CULTURAL WORKFORCE FORUM ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009

The public is invited to watch a discussion of how art works as part of the real economy.

On Friday, November 20, 2009, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will present a live webcast on www.arts.gov of a forum about America’s artists and other cultural workers who are part of this country’s real economy. Academics, foundation professionals, and service organization representatives will come together to discuss improving the collection and reporting of statistics about arts and cultural workers, and to develop future research agendas and approaches.

9:00 a.m Opening Remarks and introductions
Joan Shigekawa, NEA Senior Deputy Chairman and Sunil Iyengar, NEA Director of Research & Analysis

9:30 Panel One: What We Know About Artists and How We Know It
NEA Research on Artists in the Workforce
Tom Bradshaw, NEA Research Officer
Artist Labor Markets
Greg Wassall, associate professor, Department of Economics, Northeastern University
Artist Careers
Joan Jeffri, director, Research Center for Arts and Culture, Teachers College, Columbia University
Artist Research: Union Perspectives
David Cohen, executive director, Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

11:00 Panel Two: Putting the Research to Work
Cultural Vitality: Investing in Creativity
Maria Rosario Jackson, senior research associate, The Urban Institute
Artists and the Economic Recession
Judilee Reed, executive director, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC)
Teaching Artists Research Project
Nick Rabkin, Teaching Artists Research Project, National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project
Steven Tepper, associate director, the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University

1:20 Panel Three: Widening the Lens to Capture Other Cultural Workers
Artists in the Greater Cultural Economy
Ann Markusen, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Creative Class: Who’s in, Who’s out?
Tom Bradshaw, NEA Research Officer
American Community Survey: An Emerging Data Set
Jennifer Day, assistant division chief, Employment Characteristics of the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, United States Census Bureau

2:20 Comments and questions from panel participants

3:00 Discussion: Summary and Recommendations for Future Research
Moderated by Sunil Iyengar and Tom Bradshaw
Lead discussants: Holly Sidford, president, Helicon Collaborative and Paul DiMaggio, professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University

4:30 Adjournment
N.B. There will be 15-minute breaks at 10:45 a.m. and 2:50 p.m.; and an hour break for lunch at 12:15 p.m.

In addition to the above presenters, the following respondents will participate in the NEA Cultural Workforce Forum: Randy Cohen, vice president of local arts advancement, Americans for the Arts; Deirdre Gaquin, consultant; Angela Han, director of research, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies; Ruby Lerner, president, Creative Capital Foundation; Judilee Reed, executive director, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC); Carrie Sandahl, associate professor, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago; Mary Jo Waits, director, Social, Economic & Workforce Programs Division, National Governors Association

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

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There are interesting unities between philanthropy and art-making, particularly when art is produced and presented in non-traditional ways. Both require out-of-the-box approach to commerce, an eschewing of financial norms. In Art and Philanthropy, we’ll look at those projects that merge artistic with philanthropic vision - creative, innovative, altruistic.

Sumanth Prabhaker, publisher of the Brookline-based Madras Press, has a demonstrated affection for novellas and long short stories (being himself a writer, and now a publisher, of them). Noting most such fiction is too long for most magazines and journals yet too short for trade publishers, he decided to celebrate and accentuate the form, publishing stories and novellas as stand-alone volumes.

They’re lovely books - slender paperbacks about the width of an open hand, with cover art, such as the above painting by Jenny Downing, selected by the writers. The first series of authors - lauded short story writer and novelist Aimee Bender, Trinie Dalton, Rebecca Lee, and Sumanth himself - comprise a range of sensibilities whose primary link is an elusiveness to quick categorization. How is it Madras can afford to publish such singular, idiosyncratic books?

The key is that Madras focuses on social, rather than financial, profit. All artists - including the published writers and the visual artists providing cover art - donate their work. All net proceeds generated by the sale of the books will go to a charitable nonprofit of the author’s choosing. To keep costs low, Sumanth is distributing books directly to independent bookstores, including Harvard Bookstore and Brookline Booksmith in the Boston area, and RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH, and selling them from the press’s website.

Madras is about to publish its first series of books (December 1), but you can get a sneak peak at a reading by Aimee Bender at Brookline Booksmith this Saturday, November 14, 7 PM. We asked Sumanth about his altruistic approach to publishing, and how interested writers can get involved.

ArtSake: In an interview for The Bostonist, you mentioned that the “not very marketable” length of your own novellas (too long for literary magazines, too short for trade publishers) got you thinking about a different model for publishing long stories. Have you found a strong response to your model in the writing community?

Sumanth: A lot of people have said some very nice things about us. At the same time, I’ve been interested to learn how many people see this as an obscure project - certainly not meant in a negative way, I don’t think, but it’s interesting to see how surprised people are at the abundance of these in-between stories. Agents discourage writers from pitching short stories, because they say that editors don’t buy them; editors don’t buy short stories because marketing people tell them they don’t sell; and all the market research shows that less-than-novel-length stories actually don’t sell very well. There are a number of different reasons why these stories don’t sell, but I don’t think any of them have to do with the actual stories. It’s equally frustrating to see writers who look at this trend as reason to avoid certain genres or forms, as it is exciting to see writers who don’t care about any of this stuff.

ArtSake: How did you decide to explore philanthropy as a central aspect to your publishing?

Sumanth: It makes sense to me, concerning my own stories; I didn’t write any of them with financial profit in mind, and I don’t like to think of them as commercial products. So we had to think of other ways to measure our success, outside of the marketplace. And without that burden of having to depend so much on sales for our survival, we were able to entertain some options that may not have otherwise been available to us, like giving the proceeds to charities. It seemed like a nice way to do things. Our authors get to choose the organizations to which the proceeds for each book are distributed, which I hope is a fun decision for them to make.

We still haven’t figured out the right model by which to assess our performance, however; there isn’t really a bottom line yet. Our authors contribute their stories at no profit, but our paper is heavy and costs a little more than average. Our production and editorial work is done on a volunteer basis, but our sticker prices are low. We’re saving money by distributing the books ourselves, but we’re spending more than most publishers on manufacturing by printing in smaller batches. It’s kind of confusing, at least to me, but I’m happy with the books, which is good enough for now.

ArtSake: I was impressed to see your initial list of authors, including Aimee Bender. Can you talk a little bit about how THE THIRD ELEVATOR and the other titles fit with your press?

Sumanth: For all three of the other titles in our first series (besides my own), we’ve just asked politely and hoped something would work out. There are so many reasons why Aimee Bender and Trinie Dalton and Rebecca Lee should have ignored us - we’re tiny, we don’t pay our authors, our books aren’t going to be in very many bookstores or on Amazon.com - but in each case I think they saw our project as an opportunity to publish these stories in a more appropriate format than they may have otherwise been given.

ArtSake: Do you see Massachusetts as a good place to be a writer? What about a publisher?

Sumanth: Probably yes to both, but I’m still new here, so I haven’t got any huge insights into the local culture. Most of the book production stuff could probably happen anywhere, as long as you have a computer and some free time. But what we’re working on now - publicity, reading events, etc. - is much easier here than I’d expected, having grown up in a suburb in the Midwest where Borders was our only bookstore. I remember planning a reading at that Borders when I was in college. They couldn’t figure out how to turn the volume on the overhead speakers down, because there was some kind of password protection, so we all had to yell our stories into the microphone or wait for the quiet parts of the songs.

ArtSake: What do writers interested in submitting work to Madras Press need to know?

Sumanth: We’re looking for singular stories, ones that function better when read on their own than as a part of something bigger. Our first series of titles is very representative of our taste, in terms of content, so that’s always a good place to start. We like images and textures and colors and interesting prose and lots of food. We like murder mysteries, too. 10,000 words is our minimum, just to fill out the paperback spine, and for now 25,000 words is our maximum, to keep manufacturing costs at a manageable level. Previously published stories could work, depending on the status of the previous publication - query before sending anything (sumanth@madraspress.com). And we prefer printed submissions; they can be mailed to:

P.O. Box 307
Brookline, MA 02446

Aimee Bender reads from The Third Elevator at Brookline Booksmith on Saturday, November 14, 7 PM. All net proceeds from sales of The Third Elevator will benefit InsideOUT Writers, an organization that teaches creative writing in juvenile detention centers.

Images: Cover art from Madras Press Series One titles (2009): BOBCAT by Rebecca Lee, from PRONGS courtesy of Jenny Downing; SWEET TOMB by Trinie Dalton, image courtesy of Matt Greene; A MERE PITTANCE by Sumanth Prabhaker, from SUN/SQUASH by Joan Snyder (2002), oil, acrylic, and herbs on wood panel, diptych, 18×36in; THE THIRD ELEVATOR by Aimee Bender, image courtesy of Aimee Bender.

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When writers decide to self-publish, a number of issues just come with the territory. Like, say, cost. The creative control of self-publishing may be liberating, but absorbing the costs of book production… less so.

Except that it affords the opportunity to be creative about it. Some artists finance self-publishing projects before the books are published - artist/entrepreneur and opera singer Ja-Nae Duane raised funds to publish her book How to Start Your Business with $100 (due out next month) on a site called Fundable.com. Another crowd-funding site, Kickstarter.com, in which creative types seek pledges to fund their potential projects, lists about 30 literary projects currently seeking support.

Print-on-demand technology has the potential to simplify some of the complexities and costs of self-publishing for writers. So the news that Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA now operates a books-on-demand machine might have some interesting ramifications for Massachusetts writers.

The machine, dubbed Paige M. Gutenborg (and pictured, left), was featured in Wired.com and other national media due to its affiliation with Google Books, who have digitized and made available books from Harvard University’s libraries (sweet, The Sagacity and Morality of Plants is FINALLY available to non-Harvard students!!! High fives nearest plant.)

But it’s the self-publishing possibilities that may prove most interesting to authors. According to the store’s self-publishing guidelines, authors pay a set-up fee and submit the book as PDFs, which you can develop using the extensive do-it-yourself instructions. When books are printed, there’s a cost-per-page for authors.

How do writers get paid? Bronwen Blaney, print-on-demand manager at Harvard Bookstore, says there are two primary methods. The most common would involve an interested reader requesting the book, which has already been scanned for the machine. “So even if we don’t have a copy on the shelf,” she says, “if a customer calls, comes in, or orders through Harvard.com, then we would print and sell the book.” The writer then receives the difference between their selected retail price and the cost-per-page to print.

Alternately, an author could print and pay for a number of books, and sell or distribute them on his/her own. An author could also choose to have a copy kept on the store’s “Printed on Paige” shelf.

Though the machine has been operational for just a few weeks, Bronwen says that she’s already working with a number of authors interested in printing their own books. The first author to use the machine? Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08), who printed a short run of chapbooks.

That detail drives home one of the technology’s most intriguing facets: flexibility. On-demand machines make it relatively easy for authors to print a book of trade paperback-quality (or close to it), be it a chapbook, tome, novella, or eclectic mixture only your mind can conceive. Assuming you don’t have an exclusive contract with a publisher, you could continue to publish traditionally but opt to self-publish for works that don’t quite fit with a traditional press.

Of course, other questions about self-publishing still loom, such as: what do you lose by way of marketing, distributing, editing, publicizing, and/or presentation resources when you’re doing it all yourself? I can think of at least two self-publishing success stories - Massachusetts authors Lisa Genova (Still Alice) and Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) - in which eventual deals with a mainstream publishers were a big part of that success.

Have any intrepid ArtSake readers experimented with self-publishing? We would love to hear about how you made it - or are making it - work.

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