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Anthology Anyone?

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Maddoris View Drop Down
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    Posted: 28 Nov 2018 at 7:47pm
I would definitely like to help. Editing/proofreading/organizing by genre/whatever you need that doesn't involve art :)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote T.E. Bradford Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Nov 2018 at 9:57am
Originally posted by Zebs Zebs wrote:

If there's still time for consideration, I'd love hear more.
I have a hard time reading the forum for things that require tracking responses, so I'm not sure what point everything is at.

Good luck to everyone working on this, in any case!

Absolutely there's still time! :)
I've got submissions open through the end of 2018. Check out details over on the Anthology Submissions thread.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Zebs Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Nov 2018 at 7:00pm
If there's still time for consideration, I'd love hear more.
I have a hard time reading the forum for things that require tracking responses, so I'm not sure what point everything is at.

Good luck to everyone working on this, in any case!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote fioOxf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 3:47pm
From memory, the minimum price (amazon and maybe smashwords) is determined by the file size, which is obviously affected by images/illustration. I know when an ebook I wrote was published a couple of years ago, my editors were keen to shrink or delete some of the images to keep the file smaller. It may have changed, and should be easy to find out. If not, I can asked my editors. Just drop me a PM if you need me to. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote T.E. Bradford Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 3:03pm
Originally posted by Talespinner Talespinner wrote:

Um, what about the money?

If it's published on Kindle IIRC it can't be given away; it can only be sold at a minimum price determined by Amazon.

Let's say it's sold for $2.99 a copy.

That's three bucks a copy amongst several writers, and larger slices for whomever puts their time into the drudge work. Is it worth it, or are we doing it for art, love and name recognition, with the money going to charity? 

If the latter, someone will have to administer it, engage accountants, take care of taxes which IIRC Amazon insists upon, even though in the UK they're masterful tax-dodgers: e.g. when I self-publish I'll have to tell them my details so that the Inland Revenue can take their cut at source (Amazon).

I mentioned this in a couple of posts, as you're right - it can get very tricky very quickly. All earnings made will be reinvested into marketing of the anthology, so as to best benefit the authors without actually having any taxable revenues. Essentially, it will show as a permanent loss tax-wise, while still drumming up name recognition, publishing credit and (hopefully) fan following for the authors included.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Talespinner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 2:46pm
Um, what about the money?

If it's published on Kindle IIRC it can't be given away; it can only be sold at a minimum price determined by Amazon.

Let's say it's sold for $2.99 a copy.

That's three bucks a copy amongst several writers, and larger slices for whomever puts their time into the drudge work. Is it worth it, or are we doing it for art, love and name recognition, with the money going to charity? 

If the latter, someone will have to administer it, engage accountants, take care of taxes which IIRC Amazon insists upon, even though in the UK they're masterful tax-dodgers: e.g. when I self-publish I'll have to tell them my details so that the Inland Revenue can take their cut at source (Amazon).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Talespinner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 2:34pm
In my experience, Tracy, the font change is the easy bit, except when in SF for example, fonts are used to distinguish voices: the robots usually get Courier or another monospace font; real peeps are Times Roman of course. 

The drudge lies in, e.g  soft/hard returns, para breaks, non-breaking spaces, consistent section breaks (centered * or what?) etc. Also, converting from pdf to .doc can be a pain?

I suggest trying a few before you commit. Your call...

Pat


Edited by Talespinner - 15 Nov 2018 at 3:02pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote T.E. Bradford Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 2:05pm
Originally posted by sarahnut sarahnut wrote:

Love this idea. Not sure if my story would be strong enough to be included but I'd definitely be interested in buying it! Also happy to help if I can - probably not as a judge but if you need any admin type stuff done, or anything that doesn't need any specific skills, let me know.

Don’t talk yourself out of it. Can’t hurt to try, right? I’ll definitely keep everyone here in the forums in the loop when it goes up for sale. And we can always use more hands. There will be plenty to do, I’m sure, so thank you for the offer. I added your name to the list.


Originally posted by bchabek bchabek wrote:

I’m on board! Let us know what we can all do to help!

Thanks! I will definitely put out calls for help once we get rolling.


Originally posted by kimand48 kimand48 wrote:

Gah! I've been away from the boards, too long! Please count me in as a helper/whatever. My husband is also an artist and I'd be happy to recruit him for free cover design work. (Unless someone else in the group here is interested in doing that.)

You've mentioned a major goal being author awareness, what do you think that might look like? Mini bios for everyone included? Links to personal websites? Perhaps a website might be better for that content rather than in a hard copy of a book...

Thanks for spear-heading this T.E.! Let me know what I can do to help. I forget to come on here as often (not advancing... hurt feelings... blah blah blah ;) ) but if you email me or text me I'll be much more responsive. I'll PM you my contact info.
Kim

ALSO

I just had a thought. What would y'all think of recruiting some struggling artists to illustrate the first story in each group/theme? Too much? I love sending work to artists, and I love the illustrations on the NYCM webpage they do. They might be interested in the exposure as much as authors would be.

I think the idea to use your hubby and any other struggling artists in the book is GREAT!!! We could have the art represent the theme itself, which would represent of the stories with that theme by default. Maybe we can have some different genre art, since I know sci-fi / fantasy art might differ greatly from political satire.

I PM’d you back, so we can pick up the discussion via email. Smile

Originally posted by Talespinner Talespinner wrote:

I've got one story to offer for consideration (I'm holding the others back for my own independently published collection of short stories). Sorry, I don't have time to contribute actively; but I do have one suggestion:

Formatting...

NYCM's required standard format seems to me designed to ease reading by judges, which is as it should be: but marshalling all these stories into a unified format suitable for a book (fonts for body text, headers etc., para justification, line and para breaks, etc., etc.) will likely be a drudge.

Why not spread the effort? By defining a standard format (like standard manuscript format but print-ready) and asking contributing authors to use it to do their bit? 

Cheers,
Pat

ALSO

I would respectfully suggest not doing what I saw in one flash anthology on Kindle:

Intros said the stories came from prompts like [Crime genre/Scenic overlook/false moustache] which is like the magician introducing his audience to his identical twin helpers: only appropriate to an audience of magicians, or in our case, an audience of writers.

That said, I don't think writers should be the audience: with the thousand-odd peeps here NYCM doesn't need the PR, methinks.

IMHO the audience should be, as has been mooted, people with short attention spans, frequent bathroom breaks, or small screens.

I think a title featuring the word "flash" risks not attracting people unfamiliar with flash fiction. Entitle it, perhaps, "Stories for Metro Riders." Logline: one complete story between each stop and the next.

Just a thought,
Pat

Hi Pat.
No worries on holding back some of your work for your own collection. That absolutely makes sense. I think this is more about offering a platform for those that wouldn’t do this on their own, with the strength of a group of talent such as this contest generates to add to the allure of the collection. I am in COMPLETE agreement with you about not mentioning the writing prompts. This is purely a collection of shorts by a group of super-talented authors.

With regard to formatting, as long as people submit in the file format required by NYCM (*.doc, *.txt or *.rtf) it shouldn’t be too difficult to do a select all and set the font to a standard throughout. Thankfully I work in technology as a day job, so I’m handy with that kind of thing. But you’re right that we should make sure we ask authors to make any other formatting changes themselves prior to putting the stories into the book format. I’ll probably hold off and only ask this of those selected for the anthology as a prep step.

I’ll keep your title and logline suggestions to chew over. I have a feeling there will be more great suggestions before we’re there, and I don’t want to eliminate any just yet. Big smile


Beer
Thanks for all of the superb suggestions and offers of help, everyone! I will definitely be getting in touch with all of you as things get under way. Keep those suggestions coming.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Talespinner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 7:08am
I would respectfully suggest not doing what I saw in one flash anthology on Kindle:

Intros said the stories came from prompts like [Crime genre/Scenic overlook/false moustache] which is like the magician introducing his audience to his identical twin helpers: only appropriate to an audience of magicians, or in our case, an audience of writers.

That said, I don't think writers should be the audience: with the thousand-odd peeps here NYCM doesn't need the PR, methinks.

IMHO the audience should be, as has been mooted, people with short attention spans, frequent bathroom breaks, or small screens.

I think a title featuring the word "flash" risks not attracting people unfamiliar with flash fiction. Entitle it, perhaps, "Stories for Metro Riders." Logline: one complete story between each stop and the next.

Just a thought,
Pat


Edited by Talespinner - 15 Nov 2018 at 7:46am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Talespinner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Nov 2018 at 6:24am
I've got one story to offer for consideration (I'm holding the others back for my own independently published collection of short stories). Sorry, I don't have time to contribute actively; but I do have one suggestion:

Formatting...

NYCM's required standard format seems to me designed to ease reading by judges, which is as it should be: but marshalling all these stories into a unified format suitable for a book (fonts for body text, headers etc., para justification, line and para breaks, etc., etc.) will likely be a drudge.

Why not spread the effort? By defining a standard format (like standard manuscript format but print-ready) and asking contributing authors to use it to do their bit? 

Cheers,
Pat
Ch3 NC story SF/hospice/armband
Ending; Happy?
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