Remember the Internet: Hacking Publishing With Instar Books

Presented at A New HOPE (2022), July 24, 2022, 1 p.m. (50 minutes)

During the pandemic, Instar Books launched a book series called 'Remember the Internet', purporting to be a complete history of the Internet, one book at a time. The series looks at discrete cultural or technological moments in Internet history, attempting to figure out what is heartbreaking/weird-as-hell/special about them, trying to do Internet history the same way that people chronicle specific battles during wars (books so far: *Tumblr Porn*, *Tori Amos Bootleg Webring*, *Google Glass*). Internet history is precarious, weaponized, and unstable. How does one go about soliciting and editing books that try to get at some version of the truth? The ossified and conservative book publishing world is a system like any other that is ripe for revolution. Don't let corporate consolidation fool you: publishing has never been easier or cheaper, and ebooks have created an extremely dynamic environment with many opportunities for cunning and piratical minds.

Presenters:

  • Miracle Jones
    **Miracle Jones (@instarbooks)** is from Texas. He is a very private person.
  • Jeanne Thornton
    **Jeanne Thornton (@instarbooks)** is an American writer and co-publisher of Instar Books. She is most recently the author of the novel *Summer Fun*, now available from Soho Press. She has received the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers. Anthologies to which she has contributed to have won a Lambda Literary Award and a Barbara Gittings Literature Award. Works she has written and edited have been finalists for Lambda Literary Awards for Debut Fiction, Transgender Fiction, and Graphic Novel.

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