We’ll Call It Short Attention Span Literature
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The last time we talked to Gina Frangello, a little more than a year ago, she’d just finished editing a short-story anthology for a new press, Hourglass Books, operating out of suburban Lindenhurst. Falling Backwards was a collection of works by various authors on the theme of fathers and daughters, and its publisher, Bill Scheurer, was bent on revitalizing the market for the short story. Frangello (an occasional Reader contributor), who’s also editor of the 21-year-old literary journal Other Voices, was all for that. Scheurer’s business plan eliminated most of the up-front costs: the book would be published “on demand,” authors and editors would be paid if and when it sold, and sales would be driven by newspaper reviews. There was just one thing wrong with that plan, Scheurer says now: most daily newspapers don’t review anthologies. He declines to say how many copies of Falling Backwards have sold so far, but Hourglass, which has yet to bring out its second book, is revamping its marketing strategy. Frangello, meanwhile, is about to launch another short-story collection she’s edited–and another new publisher. Simplify, a dozen works by Tod Goldberg, is the first release from OV Books, a brand-new book press launched by Other Voices that’s dedicated to the short story.
Frangello’s convinced it comes down to marketing: what sells is what can be spun, and short-story collections, with their brevity and variety, don’t offer an easy hook. And here, she says, a small nonprofit like OV Books and Other Voices (published twice a year, with an annual budget just under $30,000) has an advantage: none of its roughly 50 workers, including Frangello (who’s been there ten years), are paid. “We aren’t expecting to sell a million copies,” she says. “We want Tod’s book to sell as well as possible, but we’re not looking to be The Da Vinci Code.” On the other hand, they’ll need at least to sell out the first run “for us to go ahead with the press . . . because we don’t want to jeopardize the success of the magazine,” she says. If it works, the plan is for OV Books to put out up to three collections a year.
The Poetry Center of Chicago announced this week that producer, writer, performer, and National Poetry Slam champ Lisa Buscani will be its new executive director. . . . A scheduling conflict was blamed for the short-notice “postponement” (no new date has been set) of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival this month at the Museum of Contemporary Art; the only surviving element is Congo Square Theatre Company’s production of Deep Azure, beginning this weekend at the Duncan YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts. . . . 3030, at 3030 W. Cortland, will house a final night of performances by local writers and musicians Saturday, September 17, at their impossible-to-license venue of four years. . . . Make that One Book, Two Cities: Chicago’s latest reading assignment, Pride and Prejudice, will be augmented by a stage production at Northlight Theatre, in Skokie.
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