Lessons in Literary Ebook Publishing
Cantarabooks, it should be noted, is not the first literary PDF ebook publisher on the internet. That honor goes to Electron Press, a solo operation started by Philip Harris back in 1997. Philip, by profession an IT consultant, saw the possibilities the internet offered early on and started Electron; and because at the time web publishing was such an intriguing frontier, he was able to acquire the works of varied and veteran authors such as Barry Malzberg, Arthur Herzog and James Ridgeway. I worked for Philip for a few months about five years ago as a special-projects editor when he still had his office in Manhattan (the last news of him was that he relocated to Connecticut), and a great deal of what I know about e-publishing I learned from working for him. Thirteen years into the so-called Internet Revolution, the only two literary PDF ebook publishers I know of in the entire world at present are Electron Press and Cantarabooks. The only two literary PDF magazines I know of are...