The Concord Free Press, an unusual writer-founded house that publishes print titles to give away to readers in exchange for donations to charity, has launched The Concord ePress, which will, in effect, release e-books to support the press’s book giveaway program.
The Concord Free Press was cofounded in 2008 by novelist Stona Fitch with the unusual mandate of giving the books away for free to readers, who in turn are asked to make a charitable donation to a group or person. Dubbed a “generosity publisher,” Concord Free Press does not pay the writers who publish with them; the books are published in limited editions of 3,000 and bookstores that work with CFP give the books away.
Now the press has launched the Concord ePress, a digital publishing program that will offer titles for sale, split the money 50/50 with writers and use its share to support its free paperback print editions. CFP publicist Tanya Farrell said the CeP is a “collaborative project. Writers introduce other writers' works. Writers edit other writers.” She described the venture as “a new, more empowered way of getting books out to the world and less about about hand-wringing about the future of publishing. They're doing something as a group vs. individual authors just slamming their stuff up on the Kindle. Writing is solitary enough. Publishing is a team sport.”
CeP is releasing e-book editions of books by Richard Wiley, Scott Phillips, Stona Fitch, and Wesley Brown. CFP publishes both new and veteran authors including Frank Sinatra in a Blender, an original noir novel from Matthew McBride and works by PEN/Faulkner Award Winner Richard Wiley, who is publishing his entire backlist with the ePress. Other writers publishing with CFP include Russell Banks, Tom Perrotta, Francine Prose, Hamilton Fish, Joyce Carol Oates and more.
Farrell said that CFP has "inspired almost a quarter of a million dollars in generous donations throughout the world."
