So, let's say...
Feb. 2nd, 2010 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomi_jay... hypothetically, I wanted to put together an anthology for charity next year. Nothing big, just something to make a statement and some cash for a worthy cause.
How the hell do I go about doing that?
How the hell do I go about doing that?
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on 2010-02-02 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-02 03:13 pm (UTC)...Which isn't really what I want...
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on 2010-02-02 03:30 pm (UTC)Then advertise the fuck out of it.
You will get sent a bunch of terrible stuff, but that serves its purpose in both lulz and helping you recognise the good stuff when it happens. When I was working on the Piping Shrike anthologies, the editing team had a system of each piece got a cover sheet, we ranked it from 1-5 (1 being the worst, 5 = MFY!) and could leave comments.
Once you get the ideal number of stories (ie, 20? 25? Depends on the length & quality of prose/poetry, I suppose and how much room you're willing to dedicate to them. We aimed for about 30 pieces and got a reasonable amount. Working on the Flinders Uni Writers' Club anthology, there was a policy that anyone who submits would get at least one piece published, that's providing that it was of decent quality), the hard part comes with choosing a style sheet for the anthology (what is your punctuation policy? Max caps, min caps, emdash vs semicolon? I have spent an hour talking with people over the purpose of a semicolon), stylistically what fonts you want to use, and the order that the stories go in.
Editing wise, light edits at first -- mostly for spelling and grammar. If there's a story that's good but obviously needs a lot of work, put it on the maybe pile just in case you have enough room to include it later and you can afford the time to go back and forth with the author about the changes you'd make. Leave the heavy edits for later, once everything's been reformatted and you're applying your style to the book.
Umm, I have no idea if you're going to get this printed -- I'm pretty sure most colleges have a printing service for readers and coursebooks, so you can always ask them for a quote vs a copy shop. We had a budget for about $3,000 for Piping Shrike to get it professionally bound, whereas FUWC had to fundraise most of their own printing costs and had to get a minimum of $1,000.
You're going to have to have the book complete at least one month (ideally, two months) before you plan to launch, if you're going with printing.
I haven't got any advice for ebooks, because I haven't made one, but I can imagine that once you get to the PDF stage of the manuscript that's when you upload rather than sending it to the printers.
Uhh, any artwork you have on the cover needs to be royalty free or at least have permission from the artist to use (or you could commission a piece). I don't know if you want to include mini-bios of all the authors, or a foreward, but they're kind of nice. You also have to get a blurb going.
But then? the fun part is the launch. Jelly cups are always awesome. It's still a fair bit of organisation, but given the effort and it's for a cause, it's completely worth it just to be able to say "hey, this is the product of N many months of work! look!"
ETA: Um, if you go ahead with this, I am more than happy to help out in whatever capacity I can.
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on 2010-02-02 03:33 pm (UTC)Eek, I'm going to sit down and think about this properly tonight. I really want to do it.
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on 2010-02-02 03:50 pm (UTC)Most of the time, any themes we had for our anthologies were happy accidents. Things like title and cover concept art didn't happen until later.
And even then, it still came down to one or two people checking the manuscript line for line to make sure everything was formatted/spelt correctly.
The thing is, it's not all going to happen at once. If it was, my head would explode on your behalf. We spent at least 6-9 months working on this. Since you're looking at ebook, it's probably going to save you a fair bit of time and stress because you don't need to sit and figure out color vs black and white, what GSM card and finish for the cover etc. etc.. Though, I'm pretty sure if you go with something like Lulu (I'll have to check), they also do print on demand, so if people want an actual, physical book to buy, they can.
I think it's a great idea to have an anthology for charity; the writers get exposure to new readers, a charity gets donations, and you get a big sense of achievement that you made this thing happen.
Like I said, I am more than willing to lend a hand in this even if it's waving pom-poms and giant squid from the sidelines. :D
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on 2010-02-02 03:52 pm (UTC)And I would definitely appreciate any help you can give, up to and including the involvement of a giant squid!
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on 2010-02-02 04:15 pm (UTC)I'm not sure how much of this would be useful to you, because well...each book is its own beast, and you may not encounter some of the things that I've had to deal with in the past (ie, you probably won't have to meet with faculty to get their yay or nay/edits on the project), but I'll comb through and see what I can salvage that might make the whole process just that bit easier.
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on 2010-02-02 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-02 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-02 07:50 pm (UTC)