Hello, World!

Hi, my name's Richard. I wrote this story about a punk band called The Oughts. Found Press, this very awesome fiction website, is publishing it online. You can download it for ninety-nine cents. Here's why I think you should:

Well, first of all, it's a pretty okay story, if I do say so myself. You might like it too. Some cool people have said some nice things about it; for example:

Richard Rosenbaum’s “The Oughts” jabs its sticky little fingers right

into your heart and swirls them around in there for a long, long time.

Its characters unfold in pitch-perfect awkwardness and tender apathy,

and readers will be struck by the surreal hinges and twitching imagery

that Rosenbaum flawlessly weaves in. Writers in the audience should

take note: Rosenbaum has created a writhing work of fiction that any

scribe would aspire to be capable of pulling off.

-LIZ WORTH is a Toronto-based writer and the author of Treat Me Like

Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond (Bongo Beat, 2009)

and Eleven: Eleven, which is a shot of surreal punk fiction available

through TRAINWRECK PRESS.

...Which is super flattering!

Also, it only costs ninety-nine cents, which, come on, you've got ninety-nine cents to spend on a story that's probably pretty good, right? But mostly it's because I'm a guy who's been writing stuff for a while now, with some bits of success here and there, but I'd love to make writing fiction my full-time job because it's the only thing I've ever really wanted to do (at least since I learned that “Ghostbuster” is not a real job), and it would be great if you could help me out.

It's a weird moment in publishing. If you're a reader or a writer you've probably noticed. Kind of a “best of times, worst of times” sort of thing. Bookstores and publishing companies are imploding all over the place, and writers are increasingly unable to make a living from writing – lots of them, as a matter of fact, have their day jobs at the aforementioned imploding bookstores and publishing companies, and the rest of them are teaching Creative Writing to university students who will also not be able to make a living from writing. Plenty of people are prophesying the unnatural murder of the written word at the hands of the Internet. It's harder and harder for writers to get published through the traditional channels, and as printing and shipping costs go higher and higher, the writers who are getting published are becoming less and less able to consider writing as a job, and keep themselves in Ramen noodles and gin.

Yet at the same time there's something of a renaissance going on in literature, don't you think? All that stuff that's supposedly killing the written word is really just stripping away much of what used to come between the reader and writer. Publishers, bookstores, all that. Suddenly there's a ton of new applications and websites introducing readers and writers to each other and promoting some of the best and weirdest independent fiction to the world; sites like The Incongruous Quarterly, Joyland, Electric Literature, and of course Found Press.

I discovered Found Press and thought that their whole deal was just really cool. Impressive new fiction that you can read on your computer, your smartphone or eReader or whatever you've got, and that actually compensates the writer for their work. They're trying to create and promote a new publishing model, a new way of distributing short stories. And a new model is exactly what we need today. Who knows which one or ones will win out, but with tastes and technology changing so fast, anyone content to stick to the old ways of doing things is getting left behind. I for one believe that literature is too important to let that happen.

So I thought: let's just set some outrageous goal and see what happens. One million stories. If a million people buy my story, then a million people will have bought my story¹. Not only will we have proved that it can be done, that people care about stories and about supporting independent writers and publishers, it will show that Found Press is on the right track with their new publishing model and give hope to other people looking for their place in the emerging world of literature. And I won't have to go back to working at the bookstore at the mall.

I'll use this blog to keep you guys apprised of any progress toward our ridiculous destination. If you've got a buck to spend, please head Over Here and download my story. If you like it, recommend it to your friends! Or if you hate it, I guess, tell your enemies, who might buy it out of spite, and then you'll have made them waste a dollar! Link to it on your blog, or Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter @1000000stories and retweet us to your followers. Do whatever it is people on Google+ do, I guess? Email me at 1000000stories at gmail.com and let me know what you think!

And thanks in advance for your help, you guys.




¹ The first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology club.