Would you buy a literary journal dedicated to exploring the ebooks in SE's catalog?

[Alex Cabal]

Over the past decade or so of working on Standard Ebooks, I've often
wished that I could find some kind of interesting literary criticism on
the SE books I've read.

By criticism, I mean insightful perspectives on why a book is
"interesting" or "classic"; historical framing of the book's history,
raison d'etre, and impact; the author's life and how it might have
influenced a particular book or body of work; deeper analysis of
specific themes or unique takes on a book; etc.

In other words, the kind of literary-focused essays you'd find in places
like LA Review of Books, London Review of Books, The New Criterion, etc.

But those publications are:

1) contemporary; while it's not unusual to find PD-era discussion in
them (especially New Criterion) it's also not their focus

2) broadly arts-focused; books are the core of their offering, but they
also heavily dip into all kinds of other art

3) very political; often these kinds of journals - and especially the
three I listed - have the oily feel of partisan rags, with literary
review tacked on for the ride

I've been dreaming of starting a journal which focuses on the books on
SE's catalog, and is entirely focused on PD-era literature, and not
contemporary books, art, events, or politics.

I'm also especially interested in making this a print publication. Yes,
the name is Standard Ebooks, but there's still something special about
handling finely bound paper. Of course, these articles could still be
hosted on our website and linked to/from the appropriate ebooks.

I wonder - would there be any interest in a project like this?

The finances are difficult - for even a very, very modest run of 3
issues per year with ~6 articles and ~20k words per issue, we would need
to net 150 subscribers paying $120/year just to break even, and that's
just on the cost of printing, distribution, and writers - my own time
would be unpaid. (As of 2010, LRB was famously £27M in debt![1])

Is there a world where someone would pay $40/issue for a highbrow, print
literary review of public domain literature?


[1]
https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/london-review-of-books-pound27m-in-the-red-but-it-isnt-counting-nvkr90btl9c

[Hendrik Kaiber]

I certainly think this is interesting (specially the part about being less political) but would probably not acquire any issue. That's because I don't live in the US and the cost could easily become 2x-3x when considering shipping. If there was also a digital option I would be more likely to purchase.

—Hendrik

[Lukas Bystricky]

I'm in the same boat as Hendrik, so my answer would be the same. Maybe you've considered this, but would you be open to collaborating with other outlets? This sounds broadly similar in scope to the Public Domain Review for instance. They've also printed annual issues in the past, so they have some experience there. 

[Asher Smith]

I'm fascinated by this idea. Some questions:

• Would you imagine the SE community volunteering in the production process? What would you expect the editorial process to look like? I think it's fair to say that as a community we have a lot of experience with formatting and proofreading (and I also have some other experience with other typesetting with InDesign if you were imagining a more traditional magazine production pipeline) and I am sure that there would be volunteers for those other tasks.
• Would you be soliciting contributions from the SE community generally? I have in the past contributed essays to a friend's zines, and could imagine writing for such a project. I would also bet that there are plenty of people who contribute art if you were looking to have covers drawn from sources other than the ones that form SE covers. Obviously these would have to meet an editorial standard of quality and your approval.
• Do you imagine that the subject matter of the essays would purely be the text, or would you expect there to be essays about the actual production of SE editions/modern productions? For example, as someone who has produced a bunch of George Bernard Shaw plays, I can imagine writing an essay about how we have dealt with his idiosyncrasies (e.g. no apostrophes in contractions) compares to the ways that others have dealt with them or how other writers' choices have been treated. That is, I think, more metatextual than I think the journals you've mentioned are, but might be of interest (or might not, I dunno, I've not actually researched it so don't know).