Electricliterature.com (Scott Lindenbaum & Andy Hunter)

There are those who sit around bemoaning literature's bleak demise at the cruel hands of the Internet. And then there are Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum. Last June, the former classmates (they met at Brooklyn College's MFA writing program) published the first issue of Electric Literature, a quarterly journal with a simple yet lofty goal: to use digital media and new models of distribution to keep the short story a vital part of pop culture.

With the help of their teacher, author Michael Cunningham, their first issue included stories from high-profile authors like Lydia Millet, Jim Shepard and an excerpt from Cunningham's forthcoming book. That, coupled with a nice pay structure -- instead of spending $5,000 on a print run, they use print-on-demand and pay each of the issue's five writers a whopping $1,000 per story -- got the buzz going. With a sleek product in place, the guys set about making money. "People don't pay for content online," Lindenbaum says. "We wanted to create a viable model to pay writers, which meant publishing to devices where people are used to paying for content." So in addition to picking up a print copy, readers can access the issue on their iPhones, Kindles, as an e-book or listen to it as an audiobook. "Getting writers to give us their stuff to publish on cellphones was a little rough at first," says Hunter. "We had to convince them that what matters is the work and getting people to read it -- the actual way you read it doesn't matter."

Then it was developing an audience to spread the good word. This has involved "publishing stunts" like commissioning author Rick Moody to write a short story in 140-character installments on Twitter (the finished product appears in issue 3) and asking animators and musicians to create YouTube videos inspired by a single sentence of each story (these have become viral in a big way).

Hunter and Lindenbaum hope to be an example for other small publishers. Says Hunter, "We put all our info about our business model on our website. We really want to help other indie publishers make the transition to the digital age." ALEXIS SWERDLOFF