Tuesday Shorts recently interviewed Pat Lawrence, editor of the
The Fifteen Project,
Replenishment Books publisher, and author of the novel
Bedford.
What makes The Fifteen Project different from other online journals showcasing various art forms?
Having a limited number of pieces included in any issue allows me to be very selective with my submissions. I like to think that this means that what is included is really special or offers something unique and valuable to the reader. Ultimately, though, what differentiates The Fifteen Project from other magazines ends up being my editorial perspective. Sometimes it's crass and silly, sometimes it's elitist and pretentious, but it's the only perspective I've got. My background is in literary theory, so that sometimes makes me a very stringent editor, but it's also opened my eyes to the merits of a lot of genres and techniques I wouldn't have appreciated when I was younger. I think this means that 15p publishes more experimental work than most other magazines; we've had dada pieces, minimalist drama ala Beckett, cubist painting etc. I'm open to a really wide variety of submissions—the internet makes that feasible in a way it wouldn't have been years ago, of course.
How many hits would you say the site gets, on average, per month?
Because traffic spikes around the release of new issues, that's a little irregular. The overall average would be something like a hundred a month, though it's been on a steady increase since last year with the launch of the new site (the Project used to be hosted as a subordinate entity on another site, but in June of '07, it moved to fifteenproject.com—a move that was accompanied by a new format and layout; it's pretty gratifying to see those changes pay off with increased readership).
I suppose that still puts 15p in the small time, but that's all right. A modest profile allows me to stay on the cutting edge.
What do you look for in the fiction, poetry, and the artwork you publish?
This is a tricky question, and I have to admit that the process can be capricious. For a variety of reasons having to do with my background, my tastes are different for different genres.
In poetry, I tend to lean towards imagistic works that have cynical or subdued tones, but I mistrust pieces that are polemical without being balanced with a sense of philosophical realism or of the subjectivity of the author's position. I similarly mistrust pieces that are indiscriminately mystical or magical—I don't doubt that these types of works can indeed be aesthetically interesting and valuable, but too often I find that concerns for expressing wonder and surreality or political outrage overshadow or force out the formal and artistic elements in composition.
I suppose in fiction, I lean the same way, although I more often find myself accepting pieces that have wry or humorous tones than I do with poetry. I also have a more developed background in fiction, and therefore accept more experimental or opaque fiction than similar works in poetry.
With graphic arts I almost always lean towards the abstract or surreal, especially as they juxtapose iconic images in otherwise inappropriate or unexpected circumstances, or harness the conflicting authorities of different representational modes (this is kind of a reference to the forthcoming issue's cover piece—think Ceci n'est pas une pipe).
Generally I like works that demonstrate a mature perspective that's realistic and modest in its claims, tempered by something more immaterial, and I always gravitate towards pieces that demonstrate strong technique and skilled construction.
How many submissions do you receive a month, and do you take submissions throughout the year? (and, part (a)): The journal began in 2004, but there are only eight issues. Does the number of submissions you receive have anything to do with the number of pieces you publish per issue?
I receive something like a submission or two a day on average, I suppose, although it's usually in bursts for some reason I can't fathom (7-8 every five days or something like that).
Let me address the other part of your question with a long, dull detour of a story: Back in the day, during the time of the old format, the magazine would publish 3 each of five types of works (poetry, fiction, reviews, graphic art, and audio/video art) and came out on a rigorous quarterly schedule. Because of those restrictions and the relatively unknown position of the magazine at the time of its infancy, I seldom received the right balance of submissions. I'd be overflowing with poetry, but have no music, or have a handful of reviews and a pinch of short fiction. The first several issues were published on time, but were incomplete (I refused to fill up the difference by relaxing my editorial standards). With the re-vamp last year, I took the opportunity to break down the boundaries governing the assortment of genres in the magazine and at the same time vowed not to publish any more incomplete issues. The result was that I was able to put out the first complete issues, with their full complement of fifteen pieces, and I found that discarding the artificial aesthetic of balance I had adhered to was liberating. But this has also meant that publication of successive issues has followed somewhat sporadically, and are published only when I have fifteen really quality entries. So the new format is a bit irregular, but it allows the magazine to maintain its high standards and to put out complete issues showcasing a variety of talents.
What are you doing to introduce The Fifteen Project to readers and potential contributors?
This will seem terribly old-fashioned of me in this context, but Myspace is a new addition to my promotion repertoire. I've been steadily building a network of contributors and readers through the writers, artists, and book/art lovers on the site, and that's been a huge boon.
I also maintain an ever-growing list of contacts in the indie lit and underground art scenes through my various publishing and writing endeavors that help me hype new issues. And I've managed to get listed on a number of sites that provide resources to writers looking to get published.
Word of mouth seems to help readership grow linearly. Most writers know other writers, and past contributors have done a lot to introduce their friends and colleagues to the site, too. Those people become contributors in time, and tell their friends and colleagues….
What are your plans for the project? The website offers hope of a future print anthology - is that still in the works?
Besides continuing to publish and gradually grow the profile of the magazine, the anthology is a major goal. Like the magazine itself, I intend to only publish it when I feel like I have a good harvest of content for the book. Since only 15 pieces can be published in any issue, that crop grows fairly slowly, so the book is still on the horizon, rather than being the next pit stop on the magazine's roadtrip.
I'm also actively considering a guest-edited issue sometime next year, and may also do a short series of single-medium issues (all poetry, for example, or all painting/photography). I'd love to do an all-music or audio-art issue, but as it stands, it's very hard to get really good audio artwork—there just aren't as many people producing it.
Your micropress, Replenishment Books, appears to be, primarily, a one-man operation. What is it that makes you, a writer yourself, interested enough in introducing the work of other writers to expend so much of your own creative energy reading, editing, and -- if you like it -- publishing someone else's work?
You're right, it's a one-man show. But to be honest with you (and a bit cliché), it's a labor of love. For a lot of people, I guess the processes of proofreading and promoting someone else's books would be kind of a drag, but I seem to have a dual personality. I enjoy both writing and editing, and have for years. With The Fifteen Project, the editing exposes me to a huge variety of unpublished and challenging, interesting artwork, things I would never have seen otherwise. With Replenishment, I get the chance to dirty my hands in the nuts and bolts of books, and to work with and discuss with other writers the concepts that their books are constructed around. It's a way for me to be even more involved in literature, and that's always been something exciting for me.
Who is most likely to submit a manuscript to Replenishment Books, and what can you offer authors?
I like to call Replenishment a micro-press, rather than an independent press or a small press. For me, this puts the emphasis on its narrow focus (literary post-modern fiction). I reject almost every manuscript that comes my way, because I know that my resources are limited. In order to make sure I'm going to be able to work on and promote a book the way it deserves, and the way I want, I need to make sure that my skill set (theoretico-editorial and commercial) matches the book very closely.
That being said, I can offer a particular book some things they may not be able to get elsewhere. One is in-depth attention to editorial tasks that will help the book be published in as clean a condition as possible. I also take care of the text formatting, cover design, proofreading and promotion. That makes me a full service press, despite the tiny tiny budget.
However, because I'm a writer myself, I never make unilateral editing decisions, and instead work with the author to preserve his or her voice, and generally defer to the author in situations where there might be disagreement. So, what I offer in exchange for the relatively modest promotional and production capacities that I have is artistic freedom.
With the type and quality of work I engage, I like to think that's valuable. The books I'm interested in publishing are unlikely to be picked up by major-market houses because of the constraints on the market, and the authors of those books, I think, would appreciate being able to preserve the integrity of what they see as an artistic, rather than commercial, endeavor.
Where will Replenishment Books be, ideally, in ten years? That is, what contribution will it be making to the literary world?
Well, there's another title slated for the fall, and I'd like to continue the current rate of publishing a book every year or every other year. That seems like a modest number, but I like to keep my responsibilities realistic. I've seen first hand the perils of over-extending one's resources in this business.
Once there is a slightly larger catalogue, I'll be applying to Small Press Distributors, which should help distribution dramatically. I'll also be building the network of bookstores and outlets for the books. Right now I've got good on-line distro through Amazon, Target.com, Alibris, etc., but it would be nice to really break into bookstores, something that scale and the other obstacles of the business make very difficult for a small press (and worse for a micro-press).
However, bookstore placements are primarily for promotional purposes, getting the books in people's hands; the press has no pretense to making money. And, once it's large enough, I'll be incorporating it as a non-profit organization and then soliciting grants to fund publication of successive titles.
Ultimately, the goal is to remain a niche publisher dedicated whole-heartedly to the limited number of titles on the list. Right now that means post-modern fiction, something already on the decline. I have a soft spot for that kind of literature, so (paradoxically) I'd like to be a place for that kind of book to continue to have a home.
The Fifteen Project, in issue 8, contains a wildly in-depth review of The Old Asians Clap by John Dempsey. A lot of writers would salivate over such an insightful analysis of their work. How interested are you in making reviews a regular part of The Fifteen Project?
That's very flattering. I try to do between one and three reviews for each issue of 15p (if there are going to be three, generally one will come from an outside source: either a submission or a review I've solicited from a colleague), and I hope to be able to continue to do that.
Of course, I love to have copies of new books to review. In the past, though, my ability to do reviews like that of Dempsey's book has been limited by my other responsibilities. Not only am I something of a slow reader (embarrassingly), but I like to give a good long time to my reviews in most cases. Whereas most reviewers can kick out a 500 word commercial summary/review in a few hours, I take notes while I read the book and then turn out something like 1500 words of critical analysis. And those longer reviews generally see several edits, too. So a review like that can take up a lot of time for me. I love to do it, but I can't do it too often. And, unfortunately, not every book I read excites me or inspires me to the same degree, and this isn't a measure of their relative worth, only of how close they strike to the core of my perspective (for better or worse, as in the case of The Old Asians Clap).
But, with all of that in mind, reading and doing reviews is a lot of fun for me, and nothing would please me more than having a steady stream of books to review.
Note: This question inspired me to go back over some of my older reviews, and I'm really stumped why anyone would submit a book for me to review… I can be really harsh. I try not to be, though, and am careful to be judicious and thoughtful in my criticisms.
A harsh one: http://fifteenproject.com/fourteen7.htm Not as harsh, but very in-depth: http://www.bedfordnovel.com/fifteenproject/eight101504.htm
Bonus: Put anything here you wish I would have asked, whether about The Fifteen Project, Replenishment Books, or your experience, writing or otherwise.
Let me address your question with a long, dull detour of a story:
I won't do that. I'm inclined to ramble, as this interview has already proven, and, like most writers and editors, I'm inclined to exaggerate. But thanks for giving me the chance to babble about my various projects.
Thanks from TS to Pat for taking the time to answer the questions.
More information on Pat Lawrence can be found on the bio page of his website.