Interview with Samuel Coons of The Heel Press
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“The Heel Press”:http://www.heelpress.com is a community for artists, writers, and everyone else who is moved by all things creative. It is a place for artists and writers to cultivate their skills and showcase their best work through a collaborative process.
Sam Coons, a graduate of Babson College, is an entrepreneur, a technologist, and an admirer of the creative pursuit. After spending time in both the technology and financial services industries, he decided to his explore his passion for arts, culture, and design, and has launched The Heel Press with his friend and business partner Nick Miller. |
What is the motivation behind the voting system on The Heel Press? Is there any way for artists to receive criticism of their work even if the piece is not selected for publication?
The voting panel is the backbone of The Heel Press and is at the core of a paradigm shift away from both self-publishing and editor-publishing. It the cornerstone that allows for collective/community publishing. Through the voting panel, members that have had their own work published become the taste-makers. It is, however, important to note that single individuals don’t do the publishing – it’s always a collective effort. The voting panel itself is about much more than simply adding points to a piece until it’s published. It’s about fostering creative talent through critiques, comments, and our hands-on editing tools to produce the best possible work. The ultimate goal of the voting panel is to enable members to refine their work through a new level of collaboration. If a piece is not selected for publication, it still receives the same level of critique as published pieces in hopes that the creator can re-shape their work to meet the community’s publishing bar. The work that is published makes a statement about the community and the talent of everyone involved.
The site is currently limited to students – do you have any plans to expand it to include other amateur artists?
The site was actually recently opened to all users – students and beyond. We started with students and recent alumni as a manageable population to test our ideas. However, we quickly noticed that attending a college or university has nothing to do with one’s creative talent. Once our system was re-tuned to meet the infrastructure demands of a wide-release, we opened the doors to anyone who wanted to be a part of The Heel Press. The student user base remains strong, and moving past our initial beta the creative community continues to flourish. In short, everyone deserves to be creative and therefore be happy. It is important that we don’t have any barriers to entry for individuals wanting to showcase their best work and creative talent.
Are you moving toward any sort of print publication for your top rated pieces? How would you fund that effort?
We are always entertaining ideas for a formal print publication as a way to grant more established visibility to the talent of our writers and artists. However, responding to the needs of our members without hindering their creative abilities is of the utmost importance to us. We are currently developing an internal strategy regarding how we are going to approach this potential shift, and in the process will ensure that we best represent the interests of our members and their desire to showcase their work in the finest way possible.
Funding such an effort can be internal or external. Currently, we are analyzing which approach would best preserve the creative objectivity of the writing and art on the site.
Bonus: Are you an artist? What’s your favorite piece you’ve created?
I am an artist, but it’s only as a direct result of being inspired by other artists and writers on The Heel Press. I dabble here and there on the site under a pseudonym, but have come to the realization that the creative talent of this community far exceeds my humble skills. I view my role as a facilitator for all of the other writers and artists on the site, and for that reason want to preserve my objectivity by not becoming too involved in content production. As far as a favorite piece is concerned – it wouldn’t be anything I have created – that honor would have to go the work produced by our members, and each is so stunning that it’s difficult to narrow it down to a single favorite. The great submissions keep coming in everyday and I can’t pick just one.
Copyright © 2007 by Sonia Aggarwal