Hey, it’s been Short Story Month for five days and I’m late to the party. It seems events and celebrations have been moving along at a good clip over at SSM headquarters, Emerging Writers Network, and at Matt Bell’s Blog so I thought I’d join in the fun.

Everyday Genius has always been an interesting zone, at the very least for the curatorial process involved. For the month of May, Publishing Genius head-honcho, Adam Robinson, recruited Justin Sirois, of Narrow House Publishing and The Understanding Campaign fame, to wrangle in some refreshingly bizarre writing inspired by a selection of animated gifs. Kind of strange task to undertake seeing the gifs themselves are the visual equivalent of a non sequitur. Anyway, most notable so far are Brian Allen Carr and Amelia Gray‘s  short pieces. From Amelia’s:

Hey folks, the subscription drive is revving up into the high temperatures in the final three weeks. We have 21 days to get 37 new subscribers to the print issue. Why do we need 37 new subscribers? So we can pay for the next print issue, Annalemma Issue Eight: Creation. It’s all explained here.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been thinking about subscribing for the last few weeks. Let this be your tipping point. Click on over now to subscribe for $5 off the cover price.

There’s also the possibility that if you’re reading this, you’ve already subscribed. High five. You’re an incredible human being and I’m thinking all very good things about you and having a general vibe of joy and reverence in your direction. But there’s a part of me that feels you still want to do more to help out. Good news! You can.

If you want us to keep doing what we’re doing please post this message on your blog/facebook/twitter or however else you share the things you love with the people you care about.

If you want us to keep publishing writing and art and all things beautiful by the likes of Patrick deWitt (Issue Seven) Matt Bell (Issue Six), Amelia Grey (Issue Five), Blake Butler (Issue Eight), Zora Neale Hurston (Issue Seven) Joe Meno (Issues Four and Seven) David Potes (Issue Seven) Roxane Gay (Issues Six and Seven) and Raquel Aparicio (Issue Four) then please. Please. Please spread the word to your friends, family and whoever else you think would be into the cool things we’re up to at Annalemma.

Honestly, I know these contributors are published a lot of different places, very good places, but who else publishes them in such a beautiful package? Nobody but Anna. It’s true. Don’t deny it. Promote it. Thank you. You’re incredible.

The subscription drive is drawing to a close. If we get 40 more subscribers in the next four weeks we can make sure that we have enough money to get Issue Eight: Creation printed. This is a totally achievable goal. If you haven’t subscribed already, now is a great time. If you’ve already subscribed, thank you for that. Do you know someone who’s interested in writing and art and all things beautiful? Do us a favor and inform them of our existence and our need of their support.

Thanks again to everyone who subscribed in the last few weeks. You’re incredible human beings who’ve spent money well. Want to help out but seriously can’t shell out the dough right now? Please repost this message on your blog/twitter/facebook, wherever you share the things you love with like-minded people.

Still need motivation? Subscribe now and you’ll receive $5.00 off the cover price. A little math:

Annalemma Issue Seven: Endurance cover price… $15.00 USD plus Annalemma Issue Eight: Creation cover price…$15.00 = $30.00.

Minus the $5.00 Subscription Drive Discount = $25.00

Subscribe today and help us keep this beautiful, tangible, connective force called print publishing alive.

Thanks to everyone who’s heeded the call of our subscription drive over the past couple weeks. Because of all you who subscribed or passionately blogged/facebooked about the drive, subscriptions are up 68% and we’ve achieved about 87% of our fund raising goal, which is incredible and warms my heart. It’s been great seeing new names on the subscriber list. A few new people have been getting their copies of Issue Seven: Endurance and have been so moved by the stories they felt the need to email me to tell me just that, which always feels good, so thanks for that, everyone. It always feels good to make new connections. We all know the internet can’t deliver that connection of smell, feel and touch the way print can so it’s good to see people reacting to that.

We have about a month to go before we ship Issue Eight: Creation off to the printers and have to pay them and all other interested parties in the production process. We still have a ways to go to achieve our goal of making this a reader-supported publication.

Want to help? Click here to subscribe for $5 off the cover price of Issue Eight: Creation. Or, if you want to help beyond financial means, repost this message on your blog or facebook. You guys and gals are incredible and, as a publisher, these past few weeks have been a great exercise in putting some meat on the bones of these connections with Anna’s readers.

Thanks to everyone who ordered a subscription over the weekend and to all the folks who reposted the message on their facebook pages and blogs. It feels incredible to see your support manifest itself like this. We got over 30 new subscribers which is a great number but we’re shooting for much more. If you’re into Annalemma and you’re interested in seeing it keep going, please post this message on your facebook/twitter/blog/what-have-you. Or better yet, subscribe now for $5 off the cover price of Issue Eight.

Last Saturday we competed in the Scrabble for Cheaters Tournament for 826 NYC tutoring center and the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. Depending on how much money you raised for the tutoring center the rules allowed you to buy however many “cheats” you wanted, stuff like adding 10 points to a tile, adding Q or X or Z to a word. The big money cheat was to make up a word. This cheat would be our undoing.

We won our first round! And only used a minimal amount of cheats. I get heavily competitive at board games and it creates an atmosphere of tension that I enjoy but I realize probably makes a lot of people around me uncomfortable.

The spoils of victory. Alas, this would be as close as we ever got to cheating glory.

The bracket.

The game field.

The decimators. We got obliterated in the second round by these two folks, “Justice Mispelled,” they call themselves. They cheat like masters. Make sure not to tangle with these two if you find yourself in a back alley Scrabble match.

We lost, but the sting of failure was soothed by the balm of charity. We raised a little bit of money for a very cool place that helps a lot of kids. So we had a ball.

UPDATE: more photos of the whole day at the 826 NYC flickr.

Annalemma’s next issue is coming out in a few months and we’re throwing a subscription drive to help pay for production costs.

Issue Eight: Creation, will mark four years I’ve been editing and publishing this magazine and, for the most part, enjoying the hell out of it. I love meeting and working with extremely talented writers and artists, collaborating on an undeniably beautiful product and helping to foster and support a community of writers and artists I enjoy being a part of and cherish on a daily basis. What I haven’t always enjoyed is trying to sell the magazine. Creating a sustainable revenue stream (as is the case with most publishers in the literary game) is a complicated, uphill battle, requiring a lot of work for very little reward.

I started this magazine with my own money under the pretense if you create a beautiful product, people will pay for it. Then I learned people need to know about it before they can pay for it. Getting a magazine on the radar requires money. Add that on top of printing fees, contributor fees, web and print design fees, release parties, and the money dries up rather quickly. And if people aren’t buying the magazine in the numbers it needs to sustain itself then you have a problem. So last year we went nonprofit and solicited donors to help pay for the production costs to print Issue Seven. That worked out pretty well and we banked on the idea that we could print Issue Eight if we sold enough copies of Seven. Which brings us to now.

I’ve tried a lot of things. We (meaning the people I rope into helping me out with this project) have tried a lot of things. We’ve tried everything short of directly asking you to buy the book. So here we are, asking you to buy the book.

If you want to see this magazine thrive during a hard time in publishing, click here to subscribe. You’ll receive Issue Seven and, in a few months, Issue Eight, as well as some postcards, buttons and whatever free fun stuff is lying around the office.

And if you subscribe right now you’ll receive $5 off the cover price of Issue Eight.

This isn’t a plea to support a convoluted Kickstarter campaign, this isn’t a plea to give us money with nothing in return. This is good old-fashioned capitalism. This is a plea to support something you and I both enjoy. You’re paying for a beautiful product you’ll keep for a long time, a product that will enrich and add dimension to your life.

If you want to help beyond a financial way, please post a link to this message on your facebook/blog/twitter, however you communicate with people who enjoy the things you enjoy.

Thanks for your continued support and interest in this project. It means everything.

Online contributor Tom Fewings sent a few of his prints across the sea and to my front door. These prints are a great example of the psychadelic wow factor Tom’s illustrations possess.

Thanks Tom!

(image via)

The deadline for Issue Eight: Creation looms, my friends. Submit your creative nonfiction by midnight  EST tonight for a chance to appear in our next print issue. The reading process has already begun and some very worthy pieces have been materializing. Good luck!

What do you do when Borders goes bankrupt, leaving 275+ empty storefronts? Take one back in the name of independent publishing.

Enter Fleeting Pages: A pop-up bookstore in Pittsburgh taking over an empty Borders retail space and filling it up with self-published and independent publishers. As described on the website, “It’s sort of an ode to the transformation of the publishing industry and a way to comment on the irony of the big box bookstore’s demise giving rise to the independent book creators and sellers who were pushed out by box stores.”

How do you get involved? If you’re a publisher, go to the contact page and send them info on your titles. If you’re a reader, live in Pittsburgh and keep up to date on the site when/where the shop is opening up. Hat tip to Galley Cat.