Rick Paulas is an American author and journalist. He gained notoriety for his activism and for pioneering unique distribution methods of his works.
Rick Paulas | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1981 (age 42–43) Oak Forest, Illinois |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | Michigan State University |
Early life
editPaulas was born in Oak Forest, Illinois, a suburb near Chicago, and was raised Catholic. He became a fan of the Chicago White Sox during his childhood.[1]
Career
editFreelance journalism
editPaulas began his writing career as a freelance journalist. He emailed editors at online publications seeking to get published and ultimately spent fifteen years writing for outlets such as The Awl, Wired, Vice, McSweeney's, Curbed and Longreads.[2] By 2019, he had spent six years living in Oakland, writing articles about the widespread housing crisis and on topics such as the Ghost Ship warehouse fire.[3]
Works of fiction
edit
Eastern Span was Paulas' self-published debut work in fiction. It is a noir novel set in 2013 Oakland about a gig-economy investigator named Pug. The protagonist sets out on an adventure to find an acquaintance who disappeared. Along the way, he uncovers a conspiracy regarding the housing climate of the Bay Area that extends into local government and business.[4]
Eastern Span was released in parts, with chapter one being released via the artist's fundraising website Patreon on January 6, 2018.[5] The monthly donations he raised on Patreon contributed to a printing run of one thousand physical copies of the book, to which he added art by local Oakland creators to the beginning of each chapter.[1][6]
The sale of physical copies of the book was launched in July 2019.[7] To distribute them, Paulas made the unique choice to donate seven hundred to local street newspapers named Street Spirit in the East Bay and Street Sheet in San Francisco.[3][6] The intent was for vendors to sell Eastern Span alongside their usual street newspaper for a separate price of $20. The vendors quickly sold all of the books that were donated and the unusual selling arrangement prompted several news organizations to publish stories noting the phenomenon.[8]
Rick Paulas @RickPaulas
Anywho, Eastern Span, a neo-noir set in Oakland circa 2013. $20. Venmo (Rick-Paulas) or PayPal (rickpaulas@gmail). DMs open.
May 25, 2021[9]
Paulas moved to New York City in June 2019, living in the borough of Brooklyn. Looking to sell the remaining inventory of Eastern Span and to cover original printing costs, he began a new sales strategy by advertising on Twitter without actually purchasing promotional space. He would post a reply below viral tweets, giving users a short pitch on the story and how to purchase it. It started in January 2021, in response to a viral Stephen A. Smith tweet and "seven or eight people bought the book off of that one (reply)", according to Paulas.[6] He continued posting these replies and eventually sold all the remaining copies of Eastern Span by September 2021.
Over the years, Paulas had composed and released short stories with a common setting, the fictional Palmer Hotel which is haunted. The short stories move from room to room in the downtown hotel. He collected the stories and re-released them in October 2020, aligning with the Halloween holiday, sending them in email form and in a PDF compilation. The following year, on the heels of selling out of his copies of Eastern Span, Paulas turned the short stories collection into a physical copy and sold it as The Palmer Hotel, using a similar Twitter-based advertising method.[2]
In 2022, a multi-chapter fiction story named The Lady in Greenpoint was released. The story is part of a three-mile walking tour of a haunted Greenpoint starting at the Pulaski Bridge. Hand-drawn charcoal illustrations are combined with audio narration to tell the story.[10][2]
Personal life
editPaulas is a frequent recreational softball league player. One of his home runs was referenced in a On the Media segment by WNYC Studios.[11]
References
edit- ^ a b Boone, Alastair (July 1, 2019). "In dialogue with Rick Paulas". Street Spirit. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ a b c Lubitz, George (November 2, 2022). "Anywho…We Spoke with Local Author Rick Paulas About His Latest Project". Terra Kaffe. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ a b Kost, Ryan (July 16, 2019). "How an ex-Oakland writer is trying to repay the people whose stories he told". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Battaglia, Ian (January 27, 2020). "Street Papers: A Story of Housing, Publishing, and Noir". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ "Rick Paulas is creating a mystery noir set Oakland, CA called Eastern Span". Patreon. January 1, 2018. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
- ^ a b c Wagner, Laura (October 12, 2022). "An Interview With The Self-Published Author Who Is Trying To Destroy Twitter By Selling Books". Defector Media. Archived from the original on February 1, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Ferguson, Cat (July 13, 2019). "Coming to an East Bay corner near you: Novelist donates books to street paper sellers". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Dinkelspiel, Frances (July 31, 2019). "How an ex-Oakland writer is trying to repay the people whose stories he told". Berkeleyside. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
Paulas then reached out to Boone. Street Spirit vendors started selling the self-published book about Oakland for $5 to $10. It was a hit. The vendors quickly sold 600 books and the unusual selling arrangement prompted several news organizations to do stories about the novel.
- ^ Paulas, Rick [@RickPaulas] (May 25, 2021). "Anywho, Eastern Span, a neo-noir set in Oakland circa 2013. $20. Venmo (Rick-Paulas) or PayPal (rickpaulas@gmail). DMs open" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 25, 2021 – via Twitter.
- ^ Conlon, Erin (October 12, 2022). "Take a guided ghost walk with Rick Paulas' "The Lady in Greenpoint"". Greenpointers. Archived from the original on December 10, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Loewinger, Micah (July 21, 2023). "The Rise of Worker-Owned Journalism". WNYC Studios. Retrieved July 21, 2023.