Awesome Machine Press

**UPDATE/CLARIFICATION** I want to be clear that I Really Do like reviews. I'm not trying to say that I don't. **End Update/Clarification**

I just posted an announcement about Awesome Machine Press below, but I am really excited about it and want to say more.

Here's the "About" page at AMP:

Awesome Machine Press was founded in 2010. It is an imprint or a series or something from Publishing Genius.

Books are printed in one run of 125. 25 copies are for discussion (want one? Keep reading). 50 go to the author to sell and 50 are for sale from the press.

After the book sells out it will be available online and for the Kindle and probably the Nook later.

The entire point is fun. Fun writing, fun book making, fun reading, fun talking.

All the other stuff, like work, or caring about stuff, that is not a part of it.

Awesome Machine has fun fast and doesn't accept submissions, though sometimes submissions through Publishing Genius will make it over to Awesome Machine, probably.

If you have any questions, or would like a discussion copy, contact adam at publishinggenius dot com. The first 25 people in the USA to request these copies will receive them as long as they have at least a blog or whatever to say something about the book or whatever at. (Sorry to people not in the USA. If you want one and want to Paypal about $6 USD for shipping, then all systems go.)

People who pre-order AMP books get free shipping. Then it will cost $1 extra to help defray shipping costs. . . .

How did this come about?

Two things. 1) For my MFA thesis I had to self-publish a book, and part of that assignment was to label the book with a name for the publishing house or whatever. So I decided to call mine Awesome Machine Press.

2) I met Timothy Willis Sanders at AWP and he is so awesome and I really liked hanging out with him and later I was like, so what do you write and he sent me a link to his story at Japanese Baseball and I was like, haha that is funny and goodhearted what else do you got, do you got a bunch of stories? and he did and yesterday he sent them to me and I put them into a really good layout.

The AMP motto is "we ARE the most fun" because that's what it's about.

I'm giving away 20% of the books in hopes that people will read them and say whatever about them, then I can sell my 40% and recoup the cost of producing them. (The authors get the other 40% and can sell them easy when they do readings and stuff. That is their payment, which can equal $400.) (The press doesn't make any money, in fact I will lose a little more than $100 this way, but I often lose that much by forgetting to pay parking tickets, so no big whoop, and honestly I'm hoping that this whole thing will raise the exposure of Publishing Genius and I'll make up the money that way. I might be a freaking idiot, but so far it's been fun, what.)

Anyway, I want to talk now about the discussion copies. They aren't review copies, they are discussion copies. Perhaps some of the chatter will take the form of a review, and that's cool. But really the focus for me is kind of on unempowering our notion of reviews.

That's not to say that I don't like reviews. I like reviews okay. But I think very often something happens like a very talented, experienced, accomplished writer does a book that is good or bad or whatever, and then an intelligent, eager, well-meaning young writer writes about it because that's part of the game, and that person says some interesting things about the book, and perhaps offers a bit of a criticism and I'm often thinking -- well, but, who cares? When David Denby writes about movies it's usually pretty good, but it's a closed loop. There's no point discussing the movie with your copy of the New Yorker. But when youths are writing reviews for the Internet I find it disappointing that they are themselves trying to close the loop by offering their judgment like a final judgment.

So like I read a David Denby review and I go to my friend, "Oh David Denby said Angelina Jolie was pretty good in Salt" and my friend goes, "Sure, why not, but the movie is for shit." To which I respond, "Well, I liked it but I really like spy movies and it was like a stupid Jason Bourne movie."

But sometimes I read reviews on the Internet and I go to my friend, "" -- no just kidding. I don't go to my friend at all.

So rather than have the game be about reviews, which everyone thinks are so smart, I'd rather just have a bunch of friends going to each other.

I guess my point is that reviews are great -- for the NYer. But we're all friends here on the Internet so rather than get authoritative, let's just hang out and discuss and I don't care if you're a reviewer or just a person, your talk about a book will be awesome.