The Omikuji Project: An experiment in “cyberfunded art”
I have to confess that until WorldCon, I’d never heard of Catherynne M. Valente. I should have. She’s incredibly prolific and insanely talented. Her work has been nominated for several awards and has won both the James Tiptree Jr. Award and the Mythopoeic Award. Most importantly, she writes the kind of stories I love best, playing with myth and folklore to create original fairy tales and gorgeous urban fantasies. I’ve ordered both of The Orphan’s Tales books and Palimpsest and I can’t wait to read them. If you’re curious, Valente’s got an excellent website with a ton of content, including a free online serial novel entitled The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making.
Valente was on a panel called “Writing for a Living”, a subject, as I mentioned in my last post, I’m very interested in. Although the discussion was lively I didn’t learn much that was new to me. The sole exception is an intriguing project that Valente has launched, an experiment in what she calls “cyberfunded art”.
Valente has been a full time writer since 2006 but until recently she had the additional financial support of her programmer partner. Last December he was laid off and Valente became the sole income earner in her household. She had to choose between taking a low-income job (with a degree in Classics, she told the audience she was qualified to work at Starbucks and not much more) and exploring new ways to generate income through writing. Thus was The Omikuji Project born.
Every month Valente writes a new and original short story of not less than 2,000 words. She sends the story to subscribers of the Omikuji Project, either by email in PDF format, or by mail. The mailed stories are printed on archival paper, signed by the author and sealed with a wax stamp. The stories will not appear anywhere else. The only way to read them is to become a subscriber.
It’s not cheap: $5/month for the PDF and $10/month for the mailing, or $50 & $100 for a year. But she’s not aiming for hundreds of subscribers. She estimates 30 to keep the project going. Do the math – it’s a decent income supplement. It’s certainly more money than most writers can expect to earn from a single short story.
Looking at the reviews of Valente’s work and the awards that she’s been nominated for, I think it’s probably good value. During the panel Valente mentioned she’s got five novels coming out in the next two years. Her career is just beginning and I suspect it will be a long and illustrious one. Imagine owning one of only 30 copies of a signed short story by Neil Gaiman? Or <insert favorite author here>?
I think this is a fascinating idea and I wonder if anyone knows of other writers engaging in similar ventures? I would love to hear about it.