[Newspoetry] Mightywords Stabs ELO ED in Back

[gillespie william k]

Today (Internet) AP: Mightywords, formerly Fatbrain, today announced it
was shutting down its revolutionary business model, previously allowing
authors to self-publish their writing as "e-matter." Mightywords, along
with Xlibris and Iuniverse and probably a couple other companies with
silly names with fake one-letter prefixes, had dismantled the time-honored
publishing model in which authors are not part of the publishing model,
but sort of free-lancing, no-contract-having temp workers engaged to
create one of the raw materials, words, like paper, used in book 
production and marketing, as minimally as necessary, to the extent that
the authors were first able to market themselves to agents and publishers
and editors. The phrase "you have to be published to get published," a
paradox accepted as truth, appeared as though at any point it might change
to "you have to publish to get published."

Mightywords said some shit about how it wasn't really making anough money,
and they are discontinuing all self-published titles, and reverting to a
more traditional model in which all but already-widely-published writers
will not be considered for publication, and will be sent traditional form
rejection-letters. "By email, because it's cheaper" said some schmuck.

Scott Rettberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Literature
Organization<http://www.eliterature.org>, is author of "Words fit for
Burning," 
<http://www1.mightywords.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=EB00001584>
an e-matter fiction collection for which Rettberg has already received
upward of $1 royalties, and which will soon be out-of-print, or out-of-e,
or something. When asked for comment, someone else pretended Scott said
"Now I'm thinking of a kind of short-story Napster application. But I'm
still trying to work out how to retain the high levels of royalties these
new self-publishing outfits offer."

Then reportedly Rettberg shed a tear and said "Damnit, I'm trying to
create the future of literature and new, equitable publishing models. I
don't have time to send my fiction out to publishers. Plus, my printer is
out of paper."

As of the time I wrote this, or however you say that, the World Wide Web
was still not rejecting submissions and continued to quietly exist in the 
background of the turbulent struggle by ill-fated companies with silly
names attempting to find out how to make money off writers faster doing
e-publishing.

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