The members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot are releasing an ebook later this month, to help fund their legal costs. Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer For Freedom will be published via The Feminist Press, and should be available for $2.99 from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other sites from September 21st.
Pussy Riot hit the headlines during the summer after they performed an anti-Putin song in a church and three of their number were subsequently charged with felony hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevitch were sentenced to two years in prison each, but their case led to widespread criticism of the Russian authorities from many quarters.
Although Pussy Riot aren’t self-publishing their book, I’m mentioning them because I’ve often wondered when and whether we’ll see ebooks used to release self-published political texts. There’s a long-standing tradition, going back to the days of Gutenberg, of people publishing their ideas. Most are quickly forgotten, but some – such as Thomas Paine – have a big impact. Most ebook authors focus on fiction, but it’ll be interesting to see if more people start publishing political work over the next few years. Will the next Rights of Man start out as a Kindle Single?
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