I love short story magazines as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't run one. Not even with a gun to my head. I wouldn't read most of them with a gun to my head either. Point is, it's a pretty thankless job and yet I'm glad they exist. Without short story magazines, there would be no venues for new writers to calibrate their voices and figure out who they are.
Needless to say, I was skeptical when Richard Thomas approached me to be a part of the promo campaign for his new magazine Gamut's Kickstarter. I figured might as well confront these feelings about short story magazines people might have and put Richard through the most brutal interrogation I've ever run on this site and I thought he did great. So, check out Gamut's Kickstarter page and hear Richard out. He makes a couple great points.
What is Gamut?
A new online magazine of neo-noir, speculative fiction with a literary bent that I’m Kickstarting right now, as we speak.
How is it different than any other short story magazines?
We will pay ten cents a word, which is rare, and we’re focusing on that sweet spot between genre and lit, dark fiction that is innovative in form, content and voice.
Why should people read it?
To be entertained, to be moved, to open your mind to the plethora of talented authors that are writing and publishing today, often on the fringes.
Why should people who don't like reading fiction pay any attention to it? I
It’s more than fiction, it’s new illustrations with every story, it’s non-fiction, essays, reviews, poetry and more. I’m also planning some events at The Music Box Theater in Chicago, focusing on transgressive movies and the new wave of horror.
Editing a short story magazine has been a fruitless pursuit for many. How do you plan to succeed where others have failed?
I try to surround myself with talented people and then get out of the way. By Kickstarting this, everyone is involved, committed, they are invested (literally!) in this project. It’s not just me, or my staff—it’s the 40 authors, it’s everyone who is watching, cheering, excited, inspired—300 backers to date. We do this together, or not at all.
Why should people read short stories?
I think it was Stephen King that said a novel is like a marriage, but a short story is like a stolen kiss in a back alley. I agree.
Why should people pay to read short stories?
Because we need to pay our authors, and pay them well. You get what you pay for, right? Ten cents a word is a good start, double the current professional rate, but I’d love to get that up to 25 cents.
What is going to happen to the money invested in the Kickstarter?
It will go to paying the authors, the bulk of it, as well as the website design and hosting, columnists, artwork, legal fees, Submittable costs, Kickstarter fees, and staff.
What is going to happen after volume 1 is out?
We won’t do “volumes” per se, instead putting up new content every week, ideally, every DAY. This launch should really get people excited—to read, to write, to be a PART of something.
Congratulations, you've survived. Now is the time to thank people and plug your projects. Fire away!
Thanks! I owe a lot of thanks to the Gamut staff for working so hard behind the scenes—Mercedes M. Yardley, Dino Parenti, Heather Foster, Casey Frechette, and Whittney Jones. Thank you, Benoît, for taking the time to do this interview. And thank you to everyone that has contributed so far—we just went over the $11,000 mark as I was typing this *. And you there, yeah YOU, the reader—thanks for sitting there at your desk and listening, for reading—I really do appreciate your time. I hope you’ll be a part of Gamut.
Aside from Gamut, my third novel, Breaker (Random House Alibi) just came out, my third short story collection, Tribulations (Crystal Lake) is out in March, and a novel-in-novellas The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books) is out in July—with Nik Korpon, Axel Taiari, and Caleb Ross. I also have stories in two really exciting anthologies—Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards), and Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories (Crystal Lake)—alongside Stephen King, Clive Barker, Jack Ketchum, and Neil Gaiman. And of course, two excellent books at Dark House Press : Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters and Scratch by Steve Himmer. Big year!
I want to leave you all with one thought—the opposite is love is not hate; it is indifference. It is apathy. Jump in. The water’s fine.
* $20,000 by the time this piece got published, so it's going well.
Needless to say, I was skeptical when Richard Thomas approached me to be a part of the promo campaign for his new magazine Gamut's Kickstarter. I figured might as well confront these feelings about short story magazines people might have and put Richard through the most brutal interrogation I've ever run on this site and I thought he did great. So, check out Gamut's Kickstarter page and hear Richard out. He makes a couple great points.
What is Gamut?
A new online magazine of neo-noir, speculative fiction with a literary bent that I’m Kickstarting right now, as we speak.
How is it different than any other short story magazines?
We will pay ten cents a word, which is rare, and we’re focusing on that sweet spot between genre and lit, dark fiction that is innovative in form, content and voice.
Why should people read it?
To be entertained, to be moved, to open your mind to the plethora of talented authors that are writing and publishing today, often on the fringes.
Why should people who don't like reading fiction pay any attention to it? I
It’s more than fiction, it’s new illustrations with every story, it’s non-fiction, essays, reviews, poetry and more. I’m also planning some events at The Music Box Theater in Chicago, focusing on transgressive movies and the new wave of horror.
Editing a short story magazine has been a fruitless pursuit for many. How do you plan to succeed where others have failed?
I try to surround myself with talented people and then get out of the way. By Kickstarting this, everyone is involved, committed, they are invested (literally!) in this project. It’s not just me, or my staff—it’s the 40 authors, it’s everyone who is watching, cheering, excited, inspired—300 backers to date. We do this together, or not at all.
Why should people read short stories?
I think it was Stephen King that said a novel is like a marriage, but a short story is like a stolen kiss in a back alley. I agree.
Why should people pay to read short stories?
Because we need to pay our authors, and pay them well. You get what you pay for, right? Ten cents a word is a good start, double the current professional rate, but I’d love to get that up to 25 cents.
What is going to happen to the money invested in the Kickstarter?
It will go to paying the authors, the bulk of it, as well as the website design and hosting, columnists, artwork, legal fees, Submittable costs, Kickstarter fees, and staff.
What is going to happen after volume 1 is out?
We won’t do “volumes” per se, instead putting up new content every week, ideally, every DAY. This launch should really get people excited—to read, to write, to be a PART of something.
Congratulations, you've survived. Now is the time to thank people and plug your projects. Fire away!
Thanks! I owe a lot of thanks to the Gamut staff for working so hard behind the scenes—Mercedes M. Yardley, Dino Parenti, Heather Foster, Casey Frechette, and Whittney Jones. Thank you, Benoît, for taking the time to do this interview. And thank you to everyone that has contributed so far—we just went over the $11,000 mark as I was typing this *. And you there, yeah YOU, the reader—thanks for sitting there at your desk and listening, for reading—I really do appreciate your time. I hope you’ll be a part of Gamut.
Aside from Gamut, my third novel, Breaker (Random House Alibi) just came out, my third short story collection, Tribulations (Crystal Lake) is out in March, and a novel-in-novellas The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books) is out in July—with Nik Korpon, Axel Taiari, and Caleb Ross. I also have stories in two really exciting anthologies—Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards), and Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories (Crystal Lake)—alongside Stephen King, Clive Barker, Jack Ketchum, and Neil Gaiman. And of course, two excellent books at Dark House Press : Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters and Scratch by Steve Himmer. Big year!
I want to leave you all with one thought—the opposite is love is not hate; it is indifference. It is apathy. Jump in. The water’s fine.
* $20,000 by the time this piece got published, so it's going well.