Thursday, August 21, 2014

Julian Gough launches 'Litcoin' Kickstarter to 'remodel the economics of reading

Writer crowdfunds time spent working on new novel with promise to send postcards – some written in his own blood – to readers who buy in

Litcoin
Julian Gough's Litcoin postcards: 'I may write a message … implying that I died while writing it. I may also imply that you were my only true love.'

In the wake of a new survey which revealed a dramatic drop in author incomes, the award-winning Irish writer Julian Gough is funding his new novel with an unusual Kickstarter offering backers the opportunity to receive postcards from Las Vegas bearing whisky stains, lipstick, and even bullet holes.

Gough has dubbed his "economic-slash-literary experiment" Litcoin, and hopes the concept might be copied or modified by other writers. Winner of the BBC short story prize in 2007, and author of novels including Jude in London and Juno and Juliet, Gough says he was inspired "by the fact that James Joyce died leaving an estate valued in total at £908 … but a single letter handwritten by him sold after his death for $445,000", a situation he describes as a "massive market failure". He hopes his project – which has been hugely overfunded – could "help remodel the economics of writing".
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