Harvard Grads Found 'Plympton' Publishing House

UPDATED: September 8, 2012, at 1:31 a.m.

A new literary studio founded by two Harvard graduates that provides a digital platform for writers launched with a partnership with Amazon announced Thursday.

Plympton, named after the Cambridge street that houses both the Harvard Bookstore and The Harvard Crimson, will give writers a service through which they can publish their stories in pieces. Writers will be able to receive editorial feedback from readers who can purchase the serialized pieces.

“Serialization of stories has been around since ‘One Thousand and One Arabian Nights,’” said co-Founder and President of Plympton Jennifer 8. Lee '99, a former Crimson vice president. “For us, it is very exciting from a literary perspective by bringing back this format for a modern audience.”

Through installments, Plympton enables starting authors to receive compensation for their work as they write. According to Lee, it also allows for creative risk-taking by offering a small-scale platform to launch a writing project, while cultivating an audience.

“We are interested in creating something in between self-publish and traditional publishing houses,” said Yael G. Love '00, co-founder and editorial director of Plympton. “We want something that gives you support, a strong editorial side, and helps you be found among the many, many things that are out there.”

Though commonplace in television, the founders said they hope applying serialization to literature—a novel concept—will generate equal success.

“There is a reason why we have fallen in love with Mad Men and Downton Abbey and Sopranos and Breaking Bad,” Lee said. “The idea here is that we are naturally compelled, as humans, to a story that goes on and on and on.”

Love said that the she and Lee made a conscious decision to evoke Harvard through the naming of their new project.

“Harvard, for better or for worse, fostered a sense to think big and that you can do anything that you set your mind to,” said Love. “It helps that you’re delusional when starting a company.”

—Staff writer Fatima N. Mirza can be reached at fmirza@college.harvard.edu.