Bestselling Novelist Sells Story Ideas for $1

Best­selling writer Jonathan Lethem — author of one of my favorite nov­els Moth­er­less Brook­lyn — has put togeth­er an offer that’s hard to beat. He’ll sell you a sto­ry for a book, play, or screen­play for a mere $1. Then you can take the sto­ry idea, make it your own, and move it in new and unex­pect­ed direc­tions.

This is obvi­ous­ly not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s actu­al­ly more about bring­ing Lar­ry Lessig’s notion of free cul­ture to the lit­er­ary domain. You can get more on Lethem’s ideas here, but the upshot is that Lethem, being a fan of “adap­ta­tions, appro­pri­a­tions, col­lage, and sam­pling,” wants artists to “make mate­r­i­al free and avail­able for [cre­ative] reuse.” (Some of this think­ing informs a recent piece in Harper’s called “The ecsta­sy of influ­ence: A pla­gia­rism.”) The ini­tia­tive, which he calls The Promis­cu­ous Mate­ri­als Project, offers a step in the right direc­tion.

Relat­ed Con­tent: Give a lis­ten to this engag­ing inter­view with Lethem where he talks about this project and more. Also check out Lethem and oth­er authors speak­ing at Google.

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