Literary Chicago

Jason Pettus, the founder of the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, is throwing a huge party on August 10th at Beauty Bar to celebrate the release of the first four paper books published by the CCLaP. There’s hardly anything we love more than a big book party, and we have every intention of plying you to attend by whatever means necessary before the end of this article, but it is not the only reason Literary Chicago is taking a page or two to talk about CCLaP’s artistic mission and the man behind it; we happen to feel both are pretty damn special. How so, you ask? Well, CCLaP takes a wholistic and cooperative approach to publishing, is committed to utilizing all available publishing tools, and investigates all avenues of publicity, press, and marketing. Jason’s editorial approach spans extremes: he would like to publish your novel in every available e-format; he would also like to bind every copy of your book by hand. If editors like Jason Pettus are a rare breed, an organization like CCLaP is even more so.

Pettus recently shared his story on the Chicago Artists Resource website. Here are some highlights:

“From day one, I’ve seen the Center as more of a partner to hardworking artists, with both of us putting in an equal amount of effort towards getting projects distributed and promoted, and each keeping half of the profits in return…. I should point out, however, that ‘equal work’ here actually means ‘separate but equal,’ which is another policy that has guided CCLaP since its formation. The Center handles all the crappy little things that self-publishing artists hate the most—things that, if left undone, can keep these artists from being truly successful: responding to daily email; sending out review copies and press releases; setting up Paypal buttons for each project; creating specialty websites; licking stamps; and fundraising for production budgets. When we handle these tasks, we give artists the opportunity to do the most fun part of the ‘business’ side of things, the part that used to be the job of gatekeeper-style groups but now rests more in the direct relationship between artists and audience members: convincing these people to be fans in the first place. This is accomplished through such modern conveniences as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, plus such old-school activities as tours, exhibitions and festivals.

“In a world where money is becoming tighter by the day, where traditional nonprofit resources for cultural institutions are disappearing at an alarming rate, and where technology is rapidly eliminating the need for authority figures to tell us what to consume in the first place, it only makes sense that the entire industry of the arts will switch to a ‘federation’ model. In this model, an author here, a distributor there, and a venue owner over there will team up for an endless series of temporary alliances regarding each artistic project that gets released to the public. This is different from the old paradigm of an artist getting handed a ‘golden key’ by an all-powerful arts-based company.”

Jason is actively seeking new manuscripts and encourages any writer open to the idea of experimental writing and publishing to submit through the CCLaP website. And, as promised, here is some more information pertaining to The CCLaP Quadruple Book Release Party and Performance Extravaganza:

From CCLaP:

The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, or CCLaP, is proud to announce their latest local live event, a large-scale party to celebrate the release of their first four paper books this summer. An electronic publisher since 2007, CCLaP has been quietly releasing new special-edition, handmade “Hypermodern” paper editions of its four titles throughout the summer; and on August 10th the group will be gathering at the popular Beauty Bar in the Bucktown neighborhood for drinks, free food, and a half-hour reading from all four featured authors, as well as a few surprise guests. Beauty Bar is located at 1444 West Chicago Avenue, and the free event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m., the reading itself from 8:00 to 8:30. All four books will be for sale individually for $20 apiece; or for one night only, attendees can purchase all four in a bundle for only $50.

Books and performers being featured that night include the novella Too Young to Fall Asleep by SALLY WEIGEL, about a Radiohead-listening “emo” high-school student who volunteers for the Iraq War (originally published in 2009); 99 Problems by BEN TANZER, essays about the mental intersection between running and writing (originally published in 2010); Life After Sleep by MARK R. BRAND, a day-after-tomorrow tale concerning a device that allows people to only need two hours of sleep a night (originally published this past winter); and Salt Creek Anthology by JASON FISK, a collection of linked “micro-stories” regarding four trashy couples in the far Chicago suburbs (published this summer).CCLaP’s “Hypermodern” series is an attempt to create special collector-worthy editions of all the center’s electronic books, reasonably priced yet expertly made; they feature handmade hardbound covers, including a color photo of the ebook’s original cover adhered to the front, external Coptic stitching, whimsical decorative endpapers, a special signature/provenance page for collectors, and a full Colophon in the back listing all materials used. CCLaP itself has been open online since 2007, and with a handful of local live events held in varying venues across the city each year; the center also produces a semi-weekly podcast, sells general giftstore-style merchandise, and publishes over 150 book reviews a year at its popular website. Among other accolades, it’s been featured twice at respected arts guide BoingBoing.net, and its blog is followed by almost ten thousand unique monthly visitors.

For questions or more information, please contact executive director Jason Pettus at cclapcenter@gmail.com, or visit [cclapcenter.com/events].

See you there, Chicago! And be sure to check back next week when Literary Chicago talks with Jason Fisk, author of the hyper-fiction collection, Salt Creek Anthology, just released by CCLaP.

My best find at this weekend’s Printers Row Lit Fest is an 1893 issue of New England Magazine that contains a 17-page illustrated article by William Morton Payne entitled “Literary Chicago.” (Thanks, Bibliodisia Books!) In it, he writes, “The Chicago of the present is, as the Chicago of the past has been, so overshadowed by the commercial spirit that the delicate plants of literary culture, even where they have taken root, have found it difficult to obtain the light and air necessary for continued existence.”

Today, 117 years later, it seems that the “plants of literary culture” here in Chicago have evolved, grown sturdier, and learned to thrive even in the shade of rampant commercialism. They’ve grown so sturdy, in fact, that the closing events of this year’s festival include a panel discussion called “Chicago, The New Indie Publishing Capital.” It’s a bold title, certainly, but one that the panelists are eager to defend. “In the last five years, there’s been an explosion of indie publishers in Chicago,” says Gina Frangello. The author of a collection of short stories called Slut Lullabies and the Executive Editor of OV Books, Frangello was recently featured in New City. She is joined on this panel by Zoe Zolbrod, the author of the novel Currency and the former Co-Publisher of the ”post-feminist” zine, Maxine; Davis Schneiderman, the author of four novels, including Drain, a professor at Lake Forest College, and the director of the Lake Forest College Press and &NOW Books; and Cris Mazza, the author of nine novels, including The Trickle-Down Timeline, and the Director of the Program for Writers at the University of Chicago. The discussion’s moderator is Jonathan Messinger, the author of a collection of short stories called Hiding Out, the Books Editor of Time Out Chicago, and the Co-publisher and Editor-in-Chief of featherproof books.

Here we have five different writers who have at least one thing in common: they did not wait for the large publishing houses to decide that their works were profitable. They each carved their own niche in the literary landscape and set down roots in Chicago’s independent publishing scene. Messinger says, “The culture of Chicago, for a while, was live reading with unpublished writers, but now these writers are published.”

 ”I did a zine in the ’90s,” Zolbrod tells us. “There was a strong zine presence here in the ’90s. Quimby’s Books just opened then and it was a hub for that type of publishing.” Since it was established in 1991, Quimby’s Books has provided talented unpublished authors with a platform from which to share their work. It is known for its comprehensive collection of zines and books published by small presses, as well as its commitment to promoting “the other” or, in the founder’s words, “something you never even knew could exist.” The support it offers new, unusual, and experimental authors has inspired a new generation of renegade independent publishers.

Joe Meno is a good example of an author who has risen in the ranks and has not forgotten the debt he owes to organizations like Quimby’s. The author of two short story collections and five novels, including The Great Perhaps, he is a faithful Quimby’s supporter and speaks positively about independent publishing, saying in a 2005 interview with Bookslut:

 I think in the last couple of years I’ve been more and more hopeful at how independent publishing has kind of risen to the challenge, and [is] filling the void that most big presses are only beginning to deal with. Likewise all these other agencies like indie bookstores and indie websites or blogs have nothing to do with money. These people are doing it because they love books. That’s the complete opposite reason why Harper Collins or Random House puts a book out. They put a book out purely because they think it’s going to make money. It’s been really amazing to see how supportive the indie community has been and [how] powerful it’s gotten really, really quick.

Even so, many writers are reluctant to approach independent publishers because they believe the major publishing houses, with bigger budgets, can provide far better promotion and distribution. It’s true. They can. But they don’t, not unless you’re Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. “Small publishers can offer more support,” Frangello says. “Big publishers push ‘front list’ authors, but everyone else is on their own. With small publishers, everyone is a front list author . . . Whatever book we publish, we live and breathe that book for six months.”

A smaller budget does mean that OV Books, featherproof books, and other independent presses cannot publish more than one or two titles a year, as opposed to Random House’s 120. But then, Random House won’t even consider authors without agents, and it’s also far less likely to publish their work if it doesn’t ultimately reinforce societal norms. “The books that we publish don’t try to make you feel good in the end,” Schneiderman says. According to him and the other panelists, one of the qualities that most characterizes independent publishers is an interest in work that is “daring” and “challenging,” unafraid to question assumptions and cross boundaries. Frangello explains that a great deal of what is published in Chicago today is a response to the popular, sales-driven writing that is coming out of the major New York publishing houses. But it seems that it is as much a response to the general ”commercial spirit” that threatens the very existence of a literary culture, the one that Payne described over a century ago.

Publishers, editors, booksellers, and writers in Chicago seem to be succeeding in cultivating a literary community that can withstand the shadow of commercialism. It’s encouraging to hear Frangello say, “Everyone here kind of knows each other and supports each other. Authors are really rooting for each other and not looking to knock each other off the top of the ladder . . . It’s a great place to be a writer.”

Maybe, in a poetic sense, it’s as Scheiderman puts it: “The lack of hills allows us to see each other.”

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Can Chicago be a hub for independent publishing?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ivmpm_ysi0

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7mYPWe_RXY

EVENT: CHICAGO, THE NEW INDIE PUBLISHING CAPITAL | SUNDAY, JUNE 13 AT 4:30PM | PRINTERS ROW LIT FEST (CENTER STAGE)