I have had a Big Idea!!!
Next Friday (March 16) is Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day day in the UK. What I’m proposing is to assemble and publish – in the space of just seven days – a paperback anthology of blog writing, that can be sold to raise funds for the charity.
The book will be called Shaggy Blog Stories: a collection of amusing tales from the UK blogosphere.
Here’s a short version of the Big Idea.
1. All UK bloggers are invited to select one post from their archives, suitable for inclusion in the book.
2. Because it’s Comic Relief, the watchword here is Funny. So I’m looking for posts with a pronounced comedic content.
3. Please e-mail your permalinks to me at mikejla@btinternet.com. Alternatively, you can mail me with a tickled-up version of the original text.
4. The absolute final deadline is 6pm UK time on Tuesday evening (March 13) – but please send your stuff to me as soon as you can, as I’ll be assembling the book on the fly.
5. The book will be published through www.lulu.com – a site which specialises in self-publishing, and which doesn’t require any upfront costs or pre-planning. Once they have the text, the book is more or less immediately ready to sell.
6. All money raised by sales – ie. minus the fees charged by the website – is donated to Comic Relief. I would expect to raise between 3 and 4 quid per book, as Lulu’s charges hover around 4 or 5 quid (depending on page count).
All with me so far? Good. Now, here’s how you can help.
1. By publicising the event on your own blog, and asking your readers to pitch in with contributions. Please link directly to this URL: https://troubled-diva.com/labels/rednoseday.html (Digg users can also do their Digg-stuff here.)
2. By contributing to the book itself.
3. By buying the book next Friday.
4. By pimping the book on your own blog, once it goes on sale.
If you’d like to contribute, then please follow these guidelines.
1. Brit bloggers only! You should be currently resident in the UK, or else an ex-pat Brit living abroad. (So, yes, foreign ex-pats in the UK are also welcome to join in.)
2. Please send me ONE POST ONLY. It’s your choice, not mine.
3. Posts should contain TEXT ONLY – we won’t be using pictures.
4. Posts should not include copyrighted material, e.g. song lyrics.
5. Short posts are preferable, i.e. under 1000 words. Absolute top whack maximum is 1500 words, if it’s a really really good one.
6. Although a couple of us will be proof-reading, it would greatly assist if you could check and re-edit your posts for grammar/spelling/punctuation before submitting them.
7. When e-mailing, please tell me the author name you’d like me to use. I know that many of you like to be anonymous on the web, and that’s fine – but as Google doesn’t index the printed page, this might be a suitable occasion to use your real name.
If you’re concerned about copyright: don’t be, as Lulu don’t retain any. The copyright rests with you. They don’t own your words.
If you’re concerned about not being “good enough”: don’t be. This is a quick-fire wheeze, not a major work of literature.
(Having said that: if I receive more material than I can squeeze into the book, then I’ll be enlisting the services of a small editorial team, to help me select the best posts for inclusion.)
And if you’re concerned about the workload I’m taking on: bless you, but don’t be. I’ve got clear evenings all through next week, and I’ll be taking Thursday off work to prepare the manuscript for publication.
My thanks to Lucy Pepper of Blogzira, who has kindly offered to design the cover – and also to Anna Pickard of little.red.boat, for her advice, encouragement and support.
So, people. We’ve got SEVEN DAYS to produce A BOOK! Are you up for it? Of course you are.
Hooray for collective collaboration! Book deals for all!
Now go forth and publicise.
Permalink: https://troubled-diva.com/labels/rednoseday.html
Links to this post: rARsh!, Tired Dad, Edvard Moonke, The skewed worldview of Lubin Odana, Blogzira, Mock Duck, the craic girl, Living for Disco, huskyteer, little.red.boat, I am livid, JonnyB’s Private Secret Diary, Tokyo Girl Down Under, Naked Blog, Everything Is Electric, Peach Arse, Becky’s T-Blog, David Belbin, pandemian, Merlot and Missives, Miss Tickle, Smaller Than Life, Reluctant Nomad, Cartside, Advancing the sum total of human knowledge and endeavour!, Rise, A sometimes blog, Mat Bowles, Darren’s Journal, The Sad Case Of Mr. X, My Boyfriend Is A Twat, Time For Tea And Cake, TheCatGirlSpeaks, Boob Pencil, Chicken Yoghurt, Tim Worstall (by proxy), This Is The Goo I’ve Got, Kitchentable, enduring ramblings, Nicole In London, you and me and the devil makes three, Random Reflections, An Unreliable Witness (which deserves to win some sort of prize), petite anglaise, blue cat, The Oracle, 1000 Shades of Grey, Struggling Author, Comfy Pants Production Co, meredic, DundeeMedStudent, Just A Blog, Stately Moans, [from fuck-up to] fab!*, Niles’s Blog, There’s life Jim, but not as we know it…, Grantham New Town, The Beauty Offensive, Rites of Passage in 60s/70s NE England, So Many People (you’re telling me), Wu Wei, Argy Bargey, Quinta das Abelhas, Better Oot Than In, Goodballoon’s paunch, Tampon Teabag, Music Man, The Cartoon Blog, eachman.com, Black-dove.org, Chocs Away, Old Girl!, problemchildbride.com, I’m A Seoul Man, Betty’s Utility Room, (Contains Mild Peril), Ignorminious’ Misty Mind, The Bargain Basement, Longstory, Incessant, pointless barking, journeying, Rullsenberg Rules, Savage Popcorn, papersurfer, The Girl with The Golden Mind, Blaugustine, For Which Relief Much Thanks, The Curmudgeon, rachel-catherine, The Windsor Castle Hot Air Balloon Festival, the further adventures of boz, Tomato And Basil Sandwiches (aren’t you just loving some of these blog names?), TGI Paul, Between The Pavement And The Stars, the (French) mountain dweller, Medication Time, itisi, A Simple Equation, what’s new, pussycat?, Clairwil, L’oeil de Mouche, Pickled Politics…
…and probably many more – but I’m going to have to stop linking to them, in order to give my full attention to the submissions. Many, many thanks to all linkers.
NEW: Click here for progress updates. And please note the revised deadline, which is now Tuesday at 6pm.
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