Casually Writing Forum Publishing?

Out of mere curiosity, does anyone here have a connection to a publisher of sorts? I was thinking that it would be neat if we could publish an anthology-type thing entitled "Casually Writing" or something like that with the work from some of the group members. If you do or you have an idea on this, let me know...--Justin

Well, I don't. :( If I did, you'd all know my name by now. Just kidding. But we could always self publish, I suppose. Just a suggestion.

If you would like I could help you WoF it.
V. Lucien Maier

Here is what I found with this publishing an anthology idea. There is a self-publishing/printing company called Morris Publishing (the links for them usually pop up on this site somewhere...) The book would need to be soft cover and, I was thinking, about 100-110 pages at most. So, for 200 books, that would be $3.40 a book, so $680.00 total. If we divide that price by all 33 members in the group, we all need to pay $20.61. The only thing would be that each group member would need to be guaranteed at least one of their pieces in the book, but that is an easy guarantee. The price would go down if we had more people in the group, so start recruiting!!! ;) Any other ideas, let me know... Justin

I'm looking at the length issue. 100-110 pages doesn't seem like very much. That's 3-4 pages each, according the current membership. If I wanted to publish my very short, short story Prophecy, that's 1800 words or a little over 7 pages. That would be over my theoretical allocation. I have another story that is 4000 words, or 16 pages, which might be suitable instead, but that's already one seventh of the book. We couldn't even consider a 16,000 word piece, which is still considered a short story.

The more members we have, the quicker the book will fill up. I suggest going for a more healthy size of 200-250 pages, plus a larger print run (say 300), hoping that we can recruit another 20-30 members. At least we should get a variety of quotes for more pages and larger runs. Then we can think about how much it is worth to each of us.

Someone would also have to edit this beast - at least copyedit for spelling and such. We'll need to keep that in mind.

wof the thing make some money on it then put it out in paper version.
Lucien

Quote:


Check out Lulu.com. They're free.

The best idea would be to set a deadline for writers to get on board. Then set a word limit for the stories. Any writer who thinks they will write under the limit can give their space to someone else.

All we need is an editor to keep track of the word counts.

How are you planning to divide the profit? My suggestion would be for you guys to get maybe 10 writers together and put our more than 1 book. Each writer could be given 15-20 pages in the book. The royalty situation is a tricky one if there are going to be that many parties involved in the book.

And I would suggest that all of the stories be of the same theme. Do you all have a marketing plan? Suggestions for the cover design? And if you self-publish do you have a budget for the editing?

Hey I'm all for it.
I don't know enough about it to add anything too helpful but I'd be more than greatful to pay my part and get in it.

LaVerne (excuse the spelling should it be wrong) brings up a great point. As of now, the ideas with royalites are mind-boggling. So, we need a vote. In a single response to his post, respond with one of the following two options (whichever you are in favor of):

Creating smaller books with featured authors in each (about 5-10 authors per)

Keeping the regular, large anthology, but setting the price of the book to purely cover publishing costs and make no profit

Let me know your options. VOTING WILL END THIS SATURDAY! I will tally up whatever I get! Thanks-- Justin

Keep it like it is. I don't care about making a profit.

Keep

Keep

So you guys just want to get published and not make a profit? Are you just wanting to get your names out there in front of the public so in the future when you do individual books people will already know who you are.

If this is the case then might I suggest, someone who is already published bringing out the book. What I mean is it would be i.e. Jimmy Walker presents Blood Sweat and Tears the Anthology. There would be a small write up in the beginning of the book and each author would have a short bio before their story. I still suggest that it be only 10 authors so that you can have at least 10-15 pages to tell your story.

This would get you published and you all would be able to say that I have a short story published in Blood Sweat and Tears the Anthology, when presenting future books to publishers and agents. And I think that self-publishing it would not be a good idea.

Does everyone involved have a marketing plan? Are you each going to market the book effectively?

I am a published author with 3 books published. And I am a publisher.

After some tallies, right now splitting the project up seems to be in everyone's best interest...Keep voting if you haven't!

Keep!