I am beginning a new venture, the seeds of which were sown inside the shed early one recent morning.

It was raining and somehow rain, at least for me, breeds ideas. Not always good ones. Not always sound ones. But many times creative and exciting ones in their newness.

Writer Shed Press is one of those ideas.

It’s a simple thing, really. I wanted to create a place for writers to offer short prose published on a platform that would permit easy reading, simple access, and at little cost to the reader. One of my ideas, although not a totally new one, was to build a platform through an app that would offer short prose delivered on your phone. Stories easily accessed on commuter trains, taxis, airplanes. This is not a new concept. There are several apps dedicated to short stories. Many are linked to larger publishers and other content providers, and they have the built-in IT to handle this. The cost of building a standalone app can be prohibitive.

After much research, I scraped that idea.

So then, why not use an existing that through its inherent design and concept, already promotes reading? The Kindle and the Kindle App, downloaded for free on your phone or any tablet and can hold an entire library in the cloud. The platform is already there.

So what would make my jump into e-publishing any different than any other e-publisher?

One, this endeavor would be about short prose. Nothing over 2500 words. These are pieces meant for short reading. Two, I would focus submissions on new and under-published writers. This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t consider work from someone quite accomplished, of course I would. But fresh voices would be encouraged. Three, I would pay. There are literary journals and others like them that will accept submissions and consider your work, but they don’t pay.  I would pay. Not a lot. I’m not Chase Bank, But there is no reason I cannot offer nominal payment.

Lastly, the Kindle-only journal would be inexpensive to purchase. Each volume of maybe a dozen stories or so would cost only 99-cents. The reason is simple. Many studies show readers who use e-devices to read, even part of the time, look for bargains. If you offer a deal, they will come, and they will read. A lower price means more readers, especially readers who may not know a writer’s work or simply want to take a literary chance with little risk. So to start, our journal will be 99-cents.

What do we call it?

Writer Shed Stories.

SUBMISSIONS are open. We hope to publish Volume 1 in the fall. I’m looking forward to reading your work.

Photo by Narain Jashanmal on Unsplash