Big Changes Coming To The Cult
Those of you who have been here for a while know that The Cult has gone through many iterations over the years. From about 1999-2002 we were just a Chuck Palahniuk fansite. But that changed in 2003 with the first incarnation of our Writers' Workshop. Over the next few years, we broadened into features, interviews and reviews.
For as many fans that loved these new eclectic offerings, there seemed to be twice as many that were confused by it. "Wait, why aren't we talking about Tyler Durden?" You might laugh at that, but it's true. There's just a large, large group of Chuck fans that want us just talking about Chuck. After all, it is his official fan site. And we understand and respect that.
It was because of this growing non-Palahniuk content, that we first began to seriously consider a stand-alone site. About one year ago we began discussing the creation of a new site dedicated to support this type of content. We discussed the idea with Chuck and he was a full supporter of this decision. If you know anything about Chuck, you know how modest he is. He cares about his fans and fellow authors alike.
With this in mind we set out with a new goal; to appease the reader just interested in Chuck Palahniuk content, and to give the visitor to our site who likes these other offerings... more.
On October 1st we are launching a new website called LitReactor.com. Many of you who follow us on our social media feeds already might know about this endeavor. It's been in the works for over a year now and we're extremely excited about it.
The site has three major sections:
- A brand new version of our Writers Workshop with more features and tools
- Monthly online Classes taught by industry professionals and published authors
- A robust online literature Magazine featuring columns, reviews, interviews and more
LitReactor will be a destination for writers to improve their craft; a haven for readers to geek out about books; and a platform to kickstart your writing goals. While the site launches on October 1st, we already have a splash page set up where you can see advance content, watch some fun videos, and sign-up for a Newsletter which gets you an insane, 8 pg PDF compendium loaded to the brim with writing advice from people like Neil Gaiman, Bret Easton Ellis, Craig Clevenger, Max Barry, Stephen Graham Jones, Amy Hempel, Jack Ketchum, Holiday Reinhorn, Christopher Bram, Steve Erickson and of course, Chuck himself.
What Does This Mean For Existing Premium Members?
At first, not much will change here. The Workshop featured on this site will be closed for any new submissions and will exist in an archived state for a duration. Anyone who has an active Premium Membership here will be invited to transfer their membership over to LitReactor's workshop. This invite will come via a newsletter sent out to all our Premium Members. So please don't contact us about this. We will contact you. Soon. Those who aren't interested in this, can contact us and be offered a prorated refund.
Chuck has given us permission to move his 36 writing essays, as well as his Q&A fan sessions, to LitReactor where they will not only be easier to locate on the site, but will also be viewable as HTML. Yep, this means you can finally print them, as well as read them from your mobile devices. (cue: collective sigh of relief)
Not long after LitReactor gets going, we have plans to do some awesome new upgrades to The Cult, which will put tools in place for fans to upload their own content. The site will continue to exist as the largest and most robust author site online, but it will get better, as we streamline it to focus more on all-things-Chuck.
For now, if you have any questions about this, you can direct them below in our comments section. If you have questions specifically about LitReactor, head over to our Facebook page and post them on our wall and we'll do our best to answer them.
If you were specifically holding out and waiting for new Class offerings at The Cult, rest assured we have a full-schedule planned at LitReactor. October classes have just been firmed up. So if interested, hurry and sign up for our newsletter to get the latest details on when these classes will go live, who will be teaching them and what great content you'll be getting.
Thank you all for your continued support. The future for both sites is very bright.
Comments
Very cool.
Excellent! Although I wish they would keep a little. There was just way too much. But I did appreciate "Sorry you asked" and "Beat the Reaper" by Josh Bazell that I never would have found without the cult. But I'm glad the site is narrowing its focus.
Where did the name "Litreactor" come from?
This is long overdue. I'm stoked about the new writerly site.
We couldn't buy the first domain name I thought of that seemed to appeal to the whole team (FictionMachine) and we couldn't get any number of other strong contenders.
Loads of names that would be cool for a writing site are squatted on by people who aren't developing them. And probably won't. Ever.
Either they don't answer your inquiries or they sneer at any offer.
Hundreds of suggestions and multiple weeks of effort later, I put forth "Fiction-Reactor." Dennis had spun a number of suggestions with the prefix "Lit" and he seemed to prefer it. So, he instantly put the two together and said "We're done."
No one objected.
Despite the risk of evoking an academic course listing in some minds, everyone knows that "Lit" is "literature."
And "Reactor" has a nice double meaning:
1. someone who reacts to things
(like having such a strong reaction to a new book or film that you must write a review or join a discussion)
and...
2. a place where energy is made
Since the site will feature a fantastic amount of free magazine style content--even regular columns--that offer commentary on literature, literary figures, and film as literature, (among related things), it will be a place for literary reactions. Thoughtful and not reactionary reactions, we hope, but distinctive in voice and style.
Since the other major site function will be workshops and classes where new fiction gets shaped and made (easily accessed from all over the world, but guarded from the general public view) we like to think of this core activity, metaphorically, as a kind of power source.
And there you have it. 'LitReactor' also turned out distinctive enough to have some fast brand appeal and SEO advantages.
There's also, yeah, a second meaning for "Lit" as ignited or activated, which is nice. Notice the flame tip on our preferred iteration of the logo design from Kevin Tong.
www.litreactor.com
www.facebook.com/litreactor
Very excited about this announcement, and to be a part of LR.
lit also means drunk or high. So, you've got that angle covered, too.
I gotta say. I'm excited. Surprised this didn't happen sooner.
But I can't believe we'll finally be able to print out CP's essays. I assume they won't be available in PDF form?
The essays in HTML?????
You mean all the time I spent screen-capturing those essays and re-typing them in my word processor when the essays were available in flash only was for nothing? Seriously?
Jusy kidding - though I actually did that - and I learned a lot from those essays, and typing them word for word was part of the process.
I enjoyed the site 'back in the day - when you guys could still publish any short story or non-fiction work directly on the website.
I enjoyed it when you the Chukster shared the news with other authors (no one has made a better interview of Bret Easton Ellis yet).
And I'll certainly enjoy it in the near future (all-things-Chuck sounds good).
Good luck with LitReactor (I'll be there) and thanks for everything, really.
Ben
So I wasn't able to be a part of the beta test group, but I had an idea for the new workshop and wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this and how it might be pulled off.
Most people on the workshop prefer lbls (line-by-lines). Often times, when I'm going over a story with my peer's notes in hand I find myself clicking on several different docs while fixing the primary document. Sometimes I even go as far as taking one document with notes and copying and pasting everyone else's notes onto the same document so I'm not going back and forth between three sets of notes. The most helpful thing would be to find a way to somehow have all notes overlapping one another.
How would you make this a function on the workshop? I have no idea. First step seems to set a standard for uploading files, meaning, no more pdf, or whatever other formats seem to pop up other than docs. You'd probably also have to decide on how the notes would be presented, whether it be sidebar comments or italics within the story (sidebar comments seem the way to go if there are multiple people commenting). Then there might be some way to have everyone's lbls sync up somehow. I'm not a tech guy whatsoever, so I'm not sure how it would be done but I'm sure there might be some solution. You could even think about having this file tailored to specific criticisms, like a "check peer criticisms to be featured on master crit document" etc.
Anyway, just a thought. But I have a feeling I'm not the only person that is tired of flipping back and forth between three different sets of notes. If there was someway to overlap them that would be extremely helpful.
New story is ready to be posted at Litreactor. Looking forward to getting some notes and helping other writers.
-Bill
Awesome idea, hope it works out well.
I really enjoy doing the lbls and am looking forward to getting back into reading/critiquing. I've been barely writing for a while now. This is the perfect opportunity to start again.
At first I was ok with the idea of transfering my membership to LitReactor because you gave the impression that it's the same membership just transfered to a different site, but you don't mention that it costs more than double what it costs @ The Cult.
It also says The Cult's workshop will be closed for new submissions and archived for "a duration". Does that mean that it will eventually be opened back up for new submissions as it was before or is that the end of submitting work to The Cult's workshop all together and its only the archives that will remain on the site for a while? Is The Cult's workshop going to continue to function in the future in any way or is it going to eventually be LitReactor or nothing? It says eventually fans will be able to "upload their own content" to The Cult's site. Is that refering to submitting stories for review or what? Im a little confused.
Also, if this is the end of The Cults workshop all together then how much longer will members be able to access his essays and other resources? Will they be removed from the site all together and if so when?
Let me know, thanks- Luke
its my understanding that the workshop here, and all the master classes are now part of LitReactor. the purpose is to allow this to be chuck's fan site.
the workshop attracts people who arent interested in chuck, and the site attracts people who are interested in chuck, and just talking about random things. this move gives both sites room to breathe, and grow unimpeded from the other. that's how i see it, anyway.
the wording of your post, if that's the way it's worded on the workshop page, now, sounds like the workshop is closed. the pieces you submitted there will remain for a duration, and then everything will be taken down.
the price point shouldn't scare you. if you were to go to tom spanbauer's workshop in portland it would cost you $2,300 to get the kind of attention you will get there for less than $100. that means you could probably take four of the specialized (and frankly mind-blowing) author intensives, and still be under what a year of intensives from just one author would cost.
im not trying to be a jerk. just trying to put things in perspective for you.
Yeah, i'm aware that it's still not expensive all things considered and I knew that would be the response to the money issue. Im not saying the money alone would scare me or anyone else away from LitReactor, just think if it costs more than double it might be worth a casual mention. When the post says you can just "transfer your membership to LitReactor" it's a little misleading, especially to those of us who are living in poverty.
The new site has some cool features and I get the reason for it but it definitely has a different vibe to it than The Cult's workshop. It seems a little more mainstream. People asking how to make their work less edgy for mainstream publication, which I understand depending on your goals. I also notice theres a button below every submission encouraging readers to "flag as offensive" works theyre offended by? Maybe this is no big deal and im just overreacting but I just cant imagine how many of Chuck's stories would've been considered deeply offensive to most readers. Guts, Haunted, a 13 year old boy in Pygmy dragging a teenage boy into a bathroom stall and violently raping him? Not sure what the purpose of that is but im just not a fan of any kind of censorship when it comes to litterature, especially for someone who likes to write transgressive fiction. Just hope it doesn't encourage anyone to alter or tone down their writing style because if Chuck had done that like most publishers wanted him to we probally wouldn't like him as much. Maybe it's just meant to give fair warning to people who are easily offended. All that being said, I do plan to give it a try as soon as I recieve my e-mail invite.
BlacknBlue - To answer some of your questions:
Atomos hit most of the key points. This site will become primarily focused on Chuck and his work again. That will allow us to focus on that sort of stuff a lot better. Fans will be able to upload many things, including pictures, artwork, etc. But the workshop will not re-open to submissions.
If you asked to have a LitReactor account set up, we gave you all the time you had left on your cult account, plus a little extra.
Members will be able to access the content on this site for at least a few months or until your membership lapses. Once we release the new version of The Cult, the workshop, in it's current state will no longer be here. Many items, like our features and interviews will of course remain. And we have plans to do a whole bunch of stuff for fans. We don't have an exact date on the calendar yet, so stay tuned.
Thanks for clering that up for me. Also, I didn't recieve my e-mail invite till about an hour ago so now I know the reason you didn't specify about the cost difference is because you give Cult workshop members free membership to LitReactor's workshop without additional charges which I appreciate. Thanks again
What's happening with the Anthology and submissions?