Passing $10 Back & Forth: The Trials Within Indie Literary Publishing
Pittsburgh resident and After Happy Hour Review Editor-in-Chief Jess Simms tells all in this firsthand account of funding (or lack thereof) within the indie literary publishing industry.
Jess Simms is a non-binary freelance writer and self-proclaimed "Virgo-in-Chief" of Pittsburgh-local workshop-based indie publisher After Happy Hour Review (also called AHH). During a nearly-hour-long Zoom interview in early October, Simms detailed their near-decade-long experience working as an editor, discussed the challenges that comes with working in such a poorly-funded industry, and expressed their hopes for the future of indie literary publishing.
The following interview has been condensed for clarity.
When and how did you get involved with the Pittsburgh literary scene and After Happy Hour Review?
I moved to Pittsburgh for grad school and I was on the staff for The Fourth River, Chatham’s literary journal. After Happy Hour Review was founded by a workshop I joined called The Hour After Happy Hour — they needed more editors, so I jumped on as a reader. A couple years later, the original group that founded the journal had moved on in their lives, so that’s how I became the person in-charge. I think it was around Issue 6 [Fall 2016] that I started with the journal.
How would you describe your current responsibilities as “The Big In-Charge” of AHH?
I call myself the Virgo-in-Chief. Basically, I’m the one who keeps track of what’s due when, who needs to do work when, and I delegate and nag. I also do all of the communicating with submitters, I’m the one who manages the finances — I take care of all that logistical stuff.
As the managing editor of a decade-old publisher, how important do you believe it is that these indie projects receive financial backing?
It’s hugely important because, I mean, I’m a writer too! Most people who edit journals are also writers, so it’s nice to get paid for putting hours and hours into a piece. A lot of indie publishers just can’t afford to. I’ve seen a lot of small journals that have these dreams of paying pro rates and they fold in four issues because they run out of money. There really aren’t any resources of people just giving funding to journals — the way AHH is able to pay contributors (it’s only a pittance [of] an honorarium right now) comes from submitters. We’ve set up this “expedited tip jar” category for submissions, and that’s the only source of funds we actually have other than selling our issues, which isn’t a huge money-maker. Not a lot of people buy and read literary journals who aren’t writers and…writers don’t have a lot of money!
In the past year, AHH has become a paying market. How exactly did this happen?
This was the goal from the beginning — it took us 10 years to get there. We took a leap of faith — we had, like, $20 extra from the last print run, and said “Alright, we’ve got a little bit of extra money laying around. Let’s try this tip jar thing and maybe that’ll alleviate some of the costs.” It ended up covering all of the contributor costs so far, which has been nice. Our journey was one of “We want to do this, let’s just do this and see what happens!” which is maybe not the smartest, but that’s what we did.
The first step was starting the contest, which is what we used to pay for printing costs. We’d like to start paying more because $10 is, like, just north of insulting, especially for someone who writes a 7,500-word short story and goes “Oh, great, $10, thanks…I guess! This took me 6 months to write!” We’d like to be able to pay more, but it’s about figuring out how to take that next leap without gouging everyone who sends us work. We’re always very committed to having free submissions as an option — not every writer can afford to pay submission fees and that’s just the truth. Figuring out how to increase the amount you’re bringing in without alienating the people who’ve gotten you there is a huge challenge.
How do printing costs impact indie literary projects?
When you’re a small journal, you can’t afford to do large print runs; the larger your print run, the less you pay per book, the more profit you can make. But, if you’re starting out from a place with zero funding, you’re going to have higher printing costs because you can only afford to get, say, fifty copies printed at a time. Printing costs are a huge impediment to small literary publishing. They’re a big reason why there’s a huge gap in the publishing world — top journals and publishers who have major financial resources and are paying pro rates [versus] a lot of little guys who’re paying you $10, $25…and sometimes still going bankrupt. There’s really nothing in the middle.
What costs, besides printing, does AHH have to deal with?
We use Submittable, which isn’t free. We’re on Submittable’s lowest payment tier but, because of that, we’re only allowed to accept 300 free submissions every month. As the popularity of the journal grows, our ability to offer free submissions is decreasing because our free submission slots for the month are taken up by the 15th, if not earlier. After that, we become a pay-to-play market and it’s not our choice. We implemented the paid category [since] that’s the only way to get Submittable to let us keep accepting submissions; after we’ve taken our first 300, they shut us off until next month. That’s the other hurdle that a lot of small publishers face; if we wanted to take more free submissions, we wouldn’t be able to because we’d be paying Submittable more and getting less.
With renowned American literary magazines such as The Believer and Fantasy magazine shutting down in the past year alone, what do you believe are ways we can help save projects in need of financial support?
It’d be awesome if there were more accessible arts funding grants. Otherwise, you have three potential sources of revenue as a publisher: the people who send you work, the people who read the work, or ad space. The problem is, if you have a small circulation, selling ads isn’t necessarily going to be the kind of monetization platform you need it to be. Even if it is feasible, a lot of places don’t go that route because they don’t want to become beholden to advertisers. If there were more grants available that gather money from people who’re passionate about literature and redistribute it to the people putting that literature into the world, that’d fill a big gap.
How do grants differ from more private means of funding?
Grants usually don’t have a whole lot of strings attached but, once you start taking money from donors or advertisers, then you open up that can of worms of the integrity of what you’re publishing and who controls it. Is it the person giving the money or is it the editor? When you’re getting into private funding for something arts-related, that gets really tricky.
Those of us who’re in the industry could be a bit better about asking for it, too. We’re all a bit shy, like, “Oh, it’s fine, I’ll just pay because no one’s going to pay for me.” We could be better about demanding that this [industry] be supported — that’d be a good change to see.
Six months after renowned literary magazine Bookforum announced it would be ceasing publication in late 2022, it was relaunched by The Nation magazine with invigorated financial backing. Do stories like these give you hope for the future of literary projects?
There’s always hope! If there wasn’t, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. Stories like Bookforum show that there’s this passionate audience of readers even if they aren’t necessarily able to put their money where their mouth is. There’s a lot of hope for the future of literary publishing. One of my buddies on Twitter once joked that being a writer is like passing the same $10 back and forth between your group of friends like, “You buy my book, I’ll buy your book!” If there’s a way to break out of that literary bubble and start bringing in people who’re just readers (not writers who’re reading because they’re looking for the next place to submit), [that’s] where funding can be a long-term sustainable solution.
Do you believe it’s local institutions’ responsibility to fund indie literary projects?
It’d be awesome if local governments were able to have more of a role [in funding]. The problem is, there are already a lot of things local governments are supposed to do that they’re not able to do. The funding that’s given to education could be tweaked so it was actually funding the things that are valuable instead of a university president making six figures. Literary publishing doesn’t take that much money! Talk to any literary journal — if their budget is in the four figures, they’re doing good. We’re talking hundreds of dollars a year, we’re not talking big budget things. We’re in this tricky situation as a country where the way we distribute our funds and the way people need those funds distributed are so far apart — the local level is a good place to start because it’s smaller and slightly less overwhelming! It’d be nice if institutions like schools and local governments would be able to commit more to giving back to the artistic community.
Finally, why do you believe indie literary projects are important and deserving of support?
They’re important because of the diversity of stories being told. The fewer markets out there, the fewer opportunities there are for people to get their stories out and the less likely that people whose stories have been ignored are going to get heard. That’s the main reason why we don’t just want to stick to the top five literary journals. That was one of the reasons why I cared enough about AHH to go “No, we’re not going to have this shut down. Let’s keep this around.” The more we hear from each other, the more we understand each other — writing’s a big part of that. That’s why it’s worth it to fund literary journals — even little online ones that might just seem silly and publish stories about fish. That voice needs to be heard too!