It’s always sort of bugged us that we’ve never gotten around to writing about Concord Free Press, the independent publisher that literally gives away its books (encouraging readers to make donations to charitable organizations and individuals in need), so when we saw news on the Entertainment Weekly book blog of a new Gregory Maguire novel released into the wild, we were delighted to see the house was still going strong—and then we found out from Concord board member Ron Slate about an anthology he’s assembling for publication in 2010 called IOU: New Writing on Money.
Slate is looking for great writing in a variety of genres—short stories, poetry, prose poems, memoir, and essays included—and you can submit your material for consideration until the end of January 2010. If your work is accepted (and you’ll find out in a month if that’s the case), you’ll be giving it to Concord for free, but as per the house’s standard operating procedure, you’ll retain all the rights and if you can sell it again, more power to you! (In fact, the first Concord offering, Stona Fitch‘s Give and Take, generated so much buzz that St. Martin’s has picked it up for republication next year.) You will receive five copies of IOU when it comes out next spring—but Concord hopes that you’ll pass at least four of them on to other readers.
(Slate has set up an IOU Facebook discussion group, so members can follow the conversation about the book, and its subject matter, there as well.)