A year after the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses announced the launch of the Literary Venture Fund, CLMP/LVF executive director Jeffrey Lependorf said he couldn't be happier with LVF's first three investments, each of which received between $10,000 and $15,000 in funding. The first books were Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (Archipelago Press, Feb. 2006); Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage (Coffee House Press, Apr. 2006); and TheFirst Hurt by Rachel Sherman (Open City Books, May 2006).
All three books have received strong critical praise, and Lependorf said Khoury's and Savage's novels have "generated revenues well beyond their payback mark," while the third book "will be there soon." Under the LVF model, after the initial investment is repaid, a percentage of subsequent profits from commercially successful books is reinvested by the LVF in new titles (PW, May 16, 2005).
Hailed as a "masterwork" by the New York Times, Gate of the Sun has sold 7,000 copies after two printings. Coffee House's Firmin, a debut novel by a 65-year-old author, has gone back to press after selling out its 10,000-copy first printing and was a B&N Discovery title and a Book Sense pick. And just out in stores, Open City's First Hurt is also receiving exuberant reviews.
Coffee House publisher Allan Kornblum said the LVF money helped the house do "our largest first printing ever, for Firmin." Coffee House also used the funds to print 1,000 galleys, bring Savage to BEA and pay various marketing fees to chains and distributors.
Jill Schoolman, founder and publisher of three-year-old Archipelago Press, said LVF funding went for radio advertising for Gate of the Sun, a novel about the Palestinian conflict, in New York and Detroit, areas with large Arab populations. LVF money was also used for co-op advertising in indie bookstores.
The LVF has 13 projects overall, said Lependorf, including a literary magazine and providing funding for a catalogue from Copper Canyon Press. In the next few months, LVF is providing funds to Soft Skull Books for a book by veteran novelist Lynn Tillman; a translated novel, Dance and Dream by Spanish novelist Javier Marias, from New Directions; and the LVF's first nonfiction title, Waveland Press's Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway. There's also The Mystery Guest, a translated novel from Farrar, Straus & Giroux by the French novelist Gregoire Bouillier.
"Every book can't be a hit," said Lependorf, "but so far the model seems to working. Giving literary titles a little extra capital, a little help, gives them a fair shot at doing well in the marketplace."
