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The updated list:

The list so far is:

1. Shelagh
2. Pam
3. Abe
4. Karina
5. Sue
6. JoElle
7. Malcolm
8. D.J. (Don) Stephens
9. Gordon
10. Rick
11. Zada
12. Ken
13. lin?
14. Don?
15. Kelly

I've set up a new album in the Gallery: Anthology

I've also added the first suggestion for a book cover. Please upload your own ideas for a cover.

This is the first of my suggestions:

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Shelagh,

I'm not on the list. I was looking for clarification about whether the copies per person meant we were all going to get boxes bof books to sell or whethey were being published/sold vier Lulu or some other entity.

Malcolm

Hi Shelagh,
I just read this thread and would love to be included. I haven't decided yet on a poem or short story-we'll see where the theme takes me.

And I do like the cover-I think it appeals to the type of person who would buy this book.

-Kelly
~
Canadian Fantasy Author
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Thanks Kelly, I'll add your name to the list.

Malcolm I will be publishing through Lulu.com. If anyone wishes to buy copies for resale, they can buy using paypal at cost price per book (that's cost of printing plus Lulu's cut). There won't be any royalties as such but buying at cost price means contributors can set their own retail price.

You are on the list (7). Is that okay?

Shelagh wrote:

I've set up a new album in the Gallery: Anthology

I've also added the first suggestion for a book cover. Please upload your own ideas for a cover.

This is the first of my suggestions:

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Cool Cover it's got my vote. btw does the poem have to be positive regarding friendship or can it be negative?

I've got the rough draft of my friendship poem started today. I'm currently about half way done with the rough darft, though I think it'll still need some fine tuning before it's done, but I am making progress on it.

rainbow689 wrote:

Cool Cover it's got my vote. btw does the poem have to be positive regarding friendship or can it be negative?

Thanks for the vote! As long as the theme is friendship, it should be acceptable.

Great news Gordon! When you've finished you can make a start on writing a short story.

Shelagh wrote:

rainbow689 wrote:

Cool Cover it's got my vote. btw does the poem have to be positive regarding friendship or can it be negative?

Thanks for the vote! As long as the theme is friendship, it should be acceptable.

Great news Gordon! When you've finished you can make a start on writing a short story.

I'll see, but ont thing at a time.

Okay!

I've just received the first submission -- a short story from Don Stephens.

Please send your submissions to:

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This is a web-based email address, so the submissions will be stored online!

Shelagh,
I need some clarification on the ground rules. You initially said 2,000 words, then you became a bit flexible when it came to poems. Also the date or deadline for submission is unclear.

My story started out with 4000 + words. I have been working on it and got it down to nearly 3000 words. I will continue to pare away to stay within your 2000 ceiling limit. If that limit is changed, please let me know.

Abe,

Here are the guidelines:

Theme: Friendship

Short Stories

Length: 2,000-4,000 words

Poems

Length: not more than 24 lines

Biographhy

Brief bio of 30-40 words

All submissions should be in by August 31st 2008

Send submissions to:

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Shelagh wrote:

rainbow689 wrote:

Cool Cover it's got my vote. btw does the poem have to be positive regarding friendship or can it be negative?

Thanks for the vote! As long as the theme is friendship, it should be acceptable.

You're welcome and thanks

I just checked the guidlines. How come you're not excepting flash fiction?

Sry Shelagh. I didn't like the cover at all. I would pass by this book in a book store. As the cover is too boring and doesn't look inviting enough.

Karina,

The cover is just a suggestion. Please add your own ideas to the new album folder:

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Flash fiction hasn't been mentioned. Maybe for the next anthology.

There are now three suggestions:

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Shelagh, as one of the oldest short story writers in captivity I have to say that writing a 2,000 word story is much harder than writing a 4,000 word story and writing a 4,000 word story is much harder than writing an 8,000 word story. Not that this has anything to do with your commendable project. I always think of word count in terms of publishers that pay per word - the more words, the bigger the check.

As I write mysteries and crime stories, can one of the friends kill the other? Probably not. How about "A Dog's Best Friend" in that collection you reviewed? First man kills second man, dog kills first man. Not exactly a bedtime story, I guess.

I'll give it some thought, Shelagh. Whatever comes of my thinking, you are a tireless, amazing woman!

No more amazing than you Dick! I know the word count is proving tough but if, out of 50 contributors, 30 wrote short stories of 4,000 words, the anthology would have 120,000 words plus 20 more pages for the poems (one page per 20 contributors). That would be a pretty good volume of work that would make good sales because of the number of contributors.

If the short stories were twice as long (8,000 words) from half as many contributors, the volume would be the same length but with half the number of contributors would make less sales.

It really doesn't matter how well written the stories are or how interesting; it is the number of people pushing the book that pushes up the sales.

The anthology, Stories of Strength, had Orson Scott Card, Robin Lee Hatcher and Wil Wheaton (the actor) listed on the cover as main contributors but the book only sold around 1,000 copies with 114 contributors pushing sales.

I'll look forward to seeing what you send.

Shelagh wrote:

There are now three suggestions:

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The first suggestion received two 2 star ratings. Thanks for the feedback. It's good to know what you don't like but it would be helpful if you would add a suggestion of your own. Anything would be better than nothing.

Thanks.

The second suggestion has received a four star rating. With a few more suggestions on how to improve/change/add a completely new idea we might come up with a five star rating!

I just think the cover needs to be more eye catching.

I'm sorry, I'm no artist so I can't help you come up with more designs, but I'll certainly give my opinion to any others that are submitted.

I've added three more suggestions:

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Suggestion 6 received a five star rating. Then a two star rating, giving an average of three stars.

The two comments on Suggestion 5 are about the picture. I used the photograph as an example that could be changed. Karina doesn't like it.

The picture was chosen to go with the title Forever Friends (from children through adulthood) and I'm quite willing to change both the title and the cover.

I only need suggestions. I can change backgrounds and fonts. So add a picture with a title. Add a comment below the picture file describing how you would like the final cover to look, using your uploaded photo or drawing.

The suggestions I've made are simplistic to appeal to a wide audience. Try to think of the book cover as a present for someone else, not for you. If you want aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, moms and dads to buy the book, what would appeal to them?

Think of mass market greetings cards and what appeals to most people.

Hi Shelagh,

Personally I like the picture, but I am, afterall, a hopeless romantic. I like the blues and fading green blue for colours, which all speak to communication, as opposed to the grey.

I am not too clever at the cover art creation, although I have a couple of ideas. I think having a picture of friends on the front is important, especially if the option were to have no pic, because apic says a lot about friendship, whereas a plain cover says...not much.

What about a sihloutte of two people-that way they could be boys/girls men/women and people project what they want them to symbolize.

Also, what is the age range for our target audience? I think knowing that will help folks narrow down their writing (I know it will help me to get focussed, for sure).

Thanks Shelagh - great job as always!