Anytime you assemble a crew like we had for the state of the long-form narrative panel on Saturday afternoon, you’re going to get a lot of salient information about what’s currently transpiring in the world of publishing long-form articles and e-books.
However, we also had some wonderful creative friction sparking between the lone long-form article writer and the two editors focused on e-publishing and one editor with both print and online publishing expertise, which led to a lively, friendly conversation amongst the four panelists. As moderator, I got the distinct feeling that each, although passionately committed to his approach, was open to learning from the others or at least to considering their perspectives.
Young Bloods Meet Old School
Our Old School representative, Scott Raab, a contributing writer for Esquire magazine since 1997, has made his living writing long-form articles for a major print publication, although he contributes to the publication’s online site, as well. He talked about how his entire approach to his work is a more traditional journalism career that is probably not one writers today will be able to pursue, because of the rapid changes brought by the digital publishing world.
Essentially, Raab is not a huge fan of the self-publishing component of the digital world, because he questions the quality and credibility of a significant portion of the material published.
The three other panelists – Richard Nash, vice president of partnerships at Byliner; Evan Ratliff, co-founder/CEO/editor of The Atavist; and Greg Veis, executive editor of The New Republic – were our Young Blood representatives. Nash’s and Ratliff’s publications are the forefront of leading the digital revolution, while Veis has been intricately involved in reshaping his venerable publication’s print and online editions to a more contemporary appearance, sensibility and voice.
In the end, they agreed with Raab that the long-form writer today is probably better off in the digital publishing world, where a great number of opportunities are available to publish e-singles or e-books in the 10,000 to 30,000-word range.
Other Takeaways
Regarding those expanding opportunities, Nash informed the audience that while Byliner prefers established authors, it is now also selecting good long-form pieces that have already been published in regional or smaller journals to republish, whether or not the author is well-known. One of his comments that stuck with me was that Byliner aims to be “a reading service” or a “Netflix for readers.”
Ratliff emphasized that The Atavist is looking for pieces with a strong narrative thread and a lucid beginning, middle and end, not just feature article content. He added that The Atavist is launching a book publishing division, as well, which is exciting for long-form writers, too.
As editor of a print magazine, Veis clarified that he’s looking for longer feature articles and profiles, as well as shorter pieces. But those longer articles need to have compelling stories, as well, that will drive readers to commit the time required to read lengthy features.