So have you heard of this company, Plympton: Serialize Fiction for Digital Readers? 

Think of it as what Charles Dickens would do if he lived in current times and could work a Kindle like some folks worked a loom or whatever they were working back in the day. (Yes, that was a joke.)

BTW, we all know that Dickens is my homeboy, right?

Anyway, this wonderful company is working with Amazon and distributing serialized stories through Kindle. This is a fantastic effort and a great twist to the old school way people used to read fiction. I’ve experimented with serialized fiction on this blog. Trust me, it’s some work to get this baby boy going.

One of the reasons that I’m so excited to read about this company is that someone I know, Jennifer 8. Lee, is behind this thing. I met her a bit ago. I was an undergrad and a member of a student project for the American Society of Newspaper Writers. She was cool then and she’s insanely amazing now. It’s wonderful that someone you know is doing so well.

Just like then, Jennifer is teaching me something new. Well, she’s really reminding me of something that I already knew. With the tools and technology out there now, there’s a new frontier out there for writers and lover of stories waiting to be discovered.

As I wrote in my last post, three of my grad school friends are using technology to start their own publications. In the process they are adding to the world of letters, they are adding a point of view that doesn’t necessarily come from the critics or publishers that have traditionally dominated American literature.

And it’s not that it’s bad to want to be published the traditional way, there’s just more than one way now. There’s more than one avenue. More than two. More than three. There’s starting to be an infinite amount of roads with an infinite amount of destinations.

That is a good thing because the world is introduced to projects such as these.

That’s also a bad thing because there’s no vetting. Anyone with a computer and some know-how can publish and therefore flood an already flooded market making it harder for the good stuff to float and the bad stuff to sink.

What’s the happy medium? We’re not there yet but with projects like Jennifer’s I think we’re coming closer to it, don’t you?

Talking about her project, her company has started a Kickstarter campaign which will allow them to do more serialized novels/stories.  Help out by contributing. Charles Dickens would have!

Write On!