Casually Writing Forum Publishing idea post mortem, o..

Is anybody out there? There's no point in having a group without group-like interaction.

I'm curious about what happened to the publishing project. I know there was interest initially, but then things petered out. Why?

Was the original idea to unfocused? Was it too problematic?

If we can answer these questions, we could formulate a project that might work. I assume that royalties were an issue, too.

I wonder if maybe a themed volume might work. Say, 4-5 authors who write "horror" get together and publish a collection of stories, perhaps a few per author, to get it to 100-150 pages. Sci-fi? Fantasy, etc. Royalties could be apportioned by a straight page count/percentage. Possibly the "editor" of the volume could take a larger cut.

The Casually Writing group could create a "publishing company" to make it look like something other than vanity publishing. I'm not sure how that would work.

I'm not sure how we'd go about publishing poetry, perhaps on a no royalty basis. Too many authors would make that task almost impossible.

Any ideas? This is the thread.

Again, here is the situation that we are facing as a group. Unfortunately, I have checked these fourms everyday to see if there was any interest and any new ideas to enhance the group and at least bring hope of motivation. However, things have been dead.
As of now, here is where the pub. project stands:

a. Royalties became an enormous issue. Some were ok with having a no-royalty policy (aka making no profit from the book, just covering production costs). Another group of writers were opposed to this idea.
b. Following a period of disinterest and later reorganization, I sent out an email and posted in the forum a sign-up for any writers that were STILL interested in writing. I only got responses from 3 writers. This is definately not enough interest to start such an undertaking.

Once again, I am still open to ideas, but this group is not at all interested in BEING a group. No one is commenting on other's work, etc., etc., and this project has not gotten off the ground.
If anyone is interested, let me know!

I wonder if we need some kind of group activity to stir things up. You'd have to send out another broadcast email once we come up with an activity. Perhaps we could nominate a story or poem that everyone should review (I mean really review) and discuss in a discussion thread. Something like that...

One we get more involvement, then we could bring up the publishing idea again, maybe discussing it in public, i.e. royalties, composition of book(s), editing, etc.

Nice idea! I will definately find a great story/poem to review. Expect an email shortly! Thanks for the suggestion!!

I've done a review and started a thread...

Might I suggest that you guys come up with a plan and then try to bring on other authors once you have formulated the idea. I'll help as much as possible.

Much thanks LaVerne for your offer. I think it is time to proceed with a plan. Lets pool our resources and use these forum to brainstorm. We need to set some guidelines for how to go about selecting authors, pieces of writing, etc. Any suggestions?

I suggest we have 5 authors who will contribute up to 20,000 words each, either in a single story or 2-3 stories. That way we can aim for a collection of up to 100,000 words with the royalties divided equally 5 ways - or 6 ways to pay whoever copyedits it, unless the publisher takes that responsibility. Someone will have have to copyedit it - a single person, so it is consistent throughout, i.e. all in America English and style, assuming that is our target market. We'd also need someone to design the cover and format for the book.

What is our target market?

We should probably stick to a single genre or theme. Anyone who is interested should submit a brief proposal on how they would take up their allotment.

Of the people that showed interest before, were there any prevalent genres?

Atlanta Carter,

That's a good idea. I had suggested to keep the number of author's small and limit the genre to just 1 idea. It would be easier to market.

I think you should choose a subject/genre for the book. So that those wanting to submit will know what they should be writing about. Then find a copyeditor, for a good price prior to submitting.