Happy Ho Days!

We’re taking a few well-deserved weeks off at the end of the year, but already have a bunch ‘O new works set to be published in the New Year.   In the meantime, if you are still looking for possible gift ideas, might we suggest this…

You Likes Us…You Really Like Us!

Well gee golly gosh….We just got a nice little review on New Pages.  More importantly, they seem to like  what Ann Tashi Slater, Noha Al-Badry and Kara Candito have to say in our latest issue.  Of course,  we’re always happy to provide our readers with some damn good reads and have a bunch more in store.  But for now, we’ll bask in the limelight and say this.

We’re Back!

Get ready folks!  Fall is here and guess who is back?  That’s right failbetter fans, we’re back baby!  Our fall 2012 issue is unfolding as we speak.  Sure, some folks might not be so excited about the news.  And others still may mock the point of it all.  But we’re thrilled (just like this guy) and we hope you are too.  Sure, we could make this personal, but really, this is all we’ve got to say.  After all, if you are reading this , it is kinda self-evident. So….We’ll let the new issue speak for itself.  Go check out Girl X.  And feel free to listen to our snazzy non-official theme song for the issue as well.

We’re Taking The Month Off — August

Folks -

We here at failbetter need a break from the heat…and the computer.  Thus, we’re taking the month of August off.  Rest assured we’ll be back in September with new works and exciting things for your viewing pleasure.  Until then, power tan.

Join The Party…How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Web

For those of you who will be descending upon the decadence of Chicago for the upcoming AWP Conference (Feb 29 – March 3rd) we invite you for an evening of cheap drinks and free readings.

Join failbetter and friends from Blackbird, Drunken Boat, Memorious, and Midway Journal for night of worry free, poetry and prose! Come hear authors Michael Martone, Randall Brown, Sean Hill, Margaret Luongo, Nicky Beer, Erica Dawson, Caki Wilkinson, Sibyl Baker, Michelle Chan Brown, Shira Dentz, and fb alum Mr. Daniel Nester.

After Words Books is walking distance from the AWP Conference Event Hotel, and is a straight shot down State Street, just off the corner of State Street and Illinois Street.

Here are the whens and wheres:

March 1
6:15-8:15
After-Words Bookstore
Phone: 1 312.464.1110
23 E. Illinois Street
Chicago Illinois

If you can, please join the party.

Good News in the New Year

Just before the hell of the holidays, we took a moment to reflect upon our greatness in 2011 to single out the best of what we had to offer.  Thus,  here are our Pushcart Nominees:

for poetry:

*   “The Domino’s Pizza Gorilla” by Kerrin McCadden from failbetter 39

*   “Firsts” by Margot Schilpp  from failbetter 40

*   “Dark Matter”  by Henry Israeli from failbetter 41

for fiction:

*  “He Tells Her a Story” by James Fleming from failbetter 38

*   “Aero ● phobe” by Nathan Hill from failbetter 38

*   “The Escape Artist” by Ken Weaver from failbetter 41

Congrats to all!

What does the grave say?

What does the cave save? Small bones to make its teeth.
Where do their ghosts sleep? In a bowl of feathered rest.
What bird flies best? The one with his long throat open…

End of the Beginning…

No, I’m not talking about the current events in Egypt. Nor are we here at failbetter about to get all religious on your ass. What we’re witnessing these days is a business, the publishing business, that amidst our apparent economic turmoil may actually be, or should I say finally be, coming to terms with the future. Ah yes, dear Mr and Mrs Book Publisher, the digital age is here to stay. Of course, some will claim it may be to our own cultural downfall, but others have hopefully put a more humorous and intellectual spin on the possibilities.

Day one here at the annual Associated Writing Programs Conference has afforded me the opportunity to take a look at the many pub colleagues who are finally embracing, or at least, facing the realities of the digital world — eBooks and ePub, Kindles and mobi, iPad and apps — all in effort to see to the book’s survival. For years, decades really, folks have been touting the supremacy of the eBook and its replacement of our old paper friend…yet the number never backed up such bold statements. Now in the past year alone, those proclamations seem to be coming to fruition. According to the folks at CLMP and more specifically, from the big six publishers taking part in the recent Digital Book World meetings, digital sales put up some rather startling numbers in the past year. Here’s just a few facts from US sales alone:

• 10.5 million dedicated eReaders (i.e., Kindles) were sold
• 10 million tablets (i.e., iPads) were purchased
• Strangely enough over 1/3 of the iPad owners also own a Kindle
• Over 20 million Americans read an eBook in 2010
• They spent 1 billion dollars on eBook purchases
• Sales predictions for 2011 are estimated at 1.3 billion

The last figure of course reveals that much of the market share remains in within the pages of the printed book. But while sales continue to steadily decline in that format, the predicted 30% increase in e-sales for this year alone is more than just a trend.

Meanwhile, thanks to Moore’s Law, the purchasing price of eReaders has dropped to nearly $100. A few years ago, when an audience was asked to raise their hands if they owned such a device, perhaps only a handful would. In just a few years, those days are no longer the case (certainty not here at AWP). So, even the hundreds of little literary publishers represented here this conference, the supposed “seventh” publishing house of the industry, now find themselves scrambling to make the backlists immediately available in pdf, no longer fighting the simultaneous release of books in both printed and electronic form, and venturing down the path of creating their own direct sales shops via apps that can work on iPhones and Androids.

All that doom and groom that cast a pal over the industry now gives way to hope. As one recent poll suggests, more than 66% of the reading public find themselves reading more because of digital readers. In the ye-olde-digital age, literature will not just survive, it can thrive.

Who Are You Callin’ an Aerophobe?

Aero • phobe –  n, One who fears flying; one stricken with fears of airplane disaster.

Also, a nice one sentence story.

And the Nominees Are…

It’s that time of year.  Time we recognize the best of the failbetter best for 2010.  Here are our editors’ top six picks – 3 poems, 3 works of fiction. We’ll be submitting all of them for consideration for various 2010 lit awards, including the Pushcart Prizes:

for poetry:

* “Previous Theories on the Body” by Matthew Olzmann from failbetter 37
* “Near the Old Packard Plant” by John Rybicki from failbetter 36
* “In West Virginia” by Maggie Glover from failbetter 37

for fiction:

* “Dusting” by Peter Grandbois from failbetter 35
* “All-American” by Jenn Stroud Rossmann from failbetter 35
* “Stairs” by James Terry from failbetter 34

Congrats to all six authors! And if you, dear reader, missed their work… Well, don’t you dare make the same mistake twice.