Tag: anthology

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One Book Launched, What Comes Next?

carolyncordon

I’m thrilled to say the launch of my most recent book, “Plague Invasion” was a success, with many copies of the book finding new homes, and many more to post to their new homes iin the following week or so.

Self-publishing a book needs so much more than just asking for submissions, putting them together, and then have a launch to give a copy of the contributors present, and actually sell some of the books.

So I’ve done that part now, and as I indicated, it was a successful day, with the money taken bringing me closer to breaking even, if I don’t factor in the time this project has taken, and other related costs. I’m enjoying what I’ve been doing, and so am happy to cover some costs.

And one of the costs is to send out books that have been ordered. I have postal addresses, so today I’ll be putting together the books to post, in Australia and beyond.

But I’ve already begun work on the next Covid-related book. Someone (I can’t remember who) gave me the idea for the title, and I’ve already begun a file on my laptop, with some contributions that didn’t get into this first book.

The second book has the working title of “Are We There Yet?” or possibly the slightly longer title of ‘Are We There Yet? Yeah, Nah …” This second, longer title will, I hope, lend a satirical tone to the project, and assist in bringing in a diverse range of creative writing responses.

I plan on this new anthology being ready to launch at about this time next year, hopefully during the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words 2022. So I am in the middle of getting all of these copies of Plague Invasion out, but I am also looking to the next book.

Am I mad? Or am I just enjoying myself with this so much, I don’t want the fun to end?! Maybe a bit of both. But if I can do this without sending myself broke, and give some previously unpublished writers the chance to have their work in a book, without getting ripped off, I’m more than happy to do that!

I have a sponsor (my mother), who I acknowledged in Plague Invasion, and she is one of those people who had their written work published in a book for the first time, and she read the short story she wrote at the book launch, a very prooud moment for her, and for me as well!

My Mum is great! I don’t know whether she will get hooked on this writing thing, and want to be in the next book, but if she does write something, I will certainly consider it, as I did for the works published in Plague Invasion.

The book, what will the cover for the next book look like?

I was stunned at the perfection of this book cover, and can hardly wait to see what may happen for the next book. I’ll have to wait and see what works may come in, once I’ve put the call out. Not yet, I need a rest! Patrick Millikan, the young man who created the from cover image has done fine work with this one, that’s for sure!

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I Love Book Launches, Do You Love Them Too?

carolyncordon

I have a new book that is going to be launched soon, and I’m getting excited about it! I’ve been to a good few book launches now, and I’ve loved them all, whether they are for my book, or someone else’s book! Bringing a new book out into the world is a beautiful thing!

This is the book that is going to be launched, “Plague Invasion” and it looks like this:

Looks great, doesn’t it?

This book has I think 43 contributors, and while not all of them can be present on the day, a good few of them will be, as will the clever young man, Patrick Millikan, who produced this awesome front cover for the book. And the book launch will be held at the Prince Albert Hotel, a venue I know well, and I’m going to get there early, and have a nice meal first, I hope lots will be there early too!

The actual event will include announcing the winners of the Adelaide Plains Poets poetry competition, then the book will be launched, and talked about, and book sales can commence. Once that is all wrapped up, contributors can read their pieces that are in the book, and after that, the usual Gawler Poets at the Pub will happen. People will be able to put their name down in our little book, and read when their name is called out.

Fun, fun, fun! The day’s event should be all over by 5pm, then people can go home, with their lovely new book to read, and can think about what was said about a possible new book that may come out into the world next year!

Words work well, and I love to bring books into the world, it brings me joy to help make it happen! I look forward to seeing you at the Prince Albert hotel, if you live in South Australia, or hearing from you here, if you’d like to know more about this anthology.

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And So The Book Is Here, Let The ‘Fun’ Begin!

carolyncordon
This is possibly my most important book yet …

I have written about important subjects in the past, Chronic Illness, Sex Abuse, for instance, and they are certainly both important subjects, but more on a personal level. This new book I have edited, ‘Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19’ is an important book on a global level, and may well become even more important historically, who knows.

I just know that when the phrase ‘plague invasion’ invaded my mind back in April 2020, I had to do something imporant with the phrase. That important thing, was to put the phrase ‘out there’ (online on this blog, and other places online), and see what happened. What happened is this book. An anthology of poetry and prose, filled with words about this awful coronavirus.

The responses go from the silliness of nursery rhymes, to the seriousness of brutal attacks and a wide variety of ideas in between. Covid has hit us all, but we are hitting back, remembering, reporting on, what has been going on.

So I am thrilled that I have produced this book, and humbled by the way others have stepped up to help me make this important document come to life, in the form af a book, a book well worth owning! If you sent me something to go in this book, and gave me permission to include it in the anthology, would love it if you sent me a message with your postal address, so I can get your free copy of the book.

Further copies will be available to contributors at the special price of $15 Australian dollars. If you would like futher copies, tell me, and I can include those copies too.

And if your words are not in the book, but you’d like a copy, the pre launch, and Festival price is $20 Australian dollars. The price after the Festival will be $25. The ‘Festival’ is the Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival of Words, which will run from 22-25 July 2021. The launch of this book will be at 3pm on Sunday 25 July at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler South Australia.

So if you’d like a copy of this book, please let me know, I have nearly 100 copies of the book, just picked up from the printer today, and they’re all looking for a new home!

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Anthology Getting Even Closer To Being Print-Ready!

carolyncordon

OK, so if you know me and my writing, you may well know what the Anthology mentioned in the heading of this post is. For those who don’t know, this particular is possibly the biggest and most important writing thing I’ve done yet.

The Anthology is “Plague Invasion” subtitled “Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”. I put out a call for submissions to this project last year, and the submissions rolled in, and kept on rolling in right up to the end date for it. I was overrun by an amazing variety of fantastic works all about Covid-19, the thing that has turned so many things upside down, and sideways.

So I had poetry, and prose, fiction and non fiction, and had to organise it all in a way that makes sense, and is easy enough to navigate for the interested reader. I could have gone with ‘theme’, but that would have been beyond me in terms of the work that might require, and I feel that may be limiting to some extent anyway.

Instead, I took the easiest way, and split the anthology in two sections, Poetry first, then Prose. And the pieces are in alphabetical order, based on the surname of the relevant writer. Simple, easy to work with and now almost all done!

I’ve spoken with the printer I wanted to use, and they have agreed to do the work, and have seen a first draft of the anthology, as has the person I approached for a foreword for the book, who has done that, and sent it to me, so is in the anthology, and the same for the person I approached for the back blurb.

So, I have the back cover done, a front cover on the way and almost done, and almost all of the inside matter of the book in place and ready. The next thing I needed to get done was getting the official agreement to publish, from each contributor, which is almost all done.

Most of the pieces in the book are from Australian poets and writers, but it was a thrill to get great works from writers overseas as well. Having such responses adds to the anthology, in terms of greater ‘oomph’ and cachet. it adds to the cost of sending the free copy out to each contributor too, of course, but I’m fine with that, and feel further book sales will cover that.

Contributors will be able to purchase further copies at a reduce rate, and the book will be available for purchase by the public, and libraries. So obviously i am going to have to be the book marketer, as well as the editor, and contributor also. And for such an important work, I am more than happy to put money into the project.

So, there is a date set in place for the launch of the book, and as soon as I have this anthology with the printer, (which will happen by mid next week, I hope), I will announce the details of when and where “Plague Invasion” will be launched. I’m so close to announcing this, it is exciting, and feels incredible that little old me, could achieve such a big and important thing!

covid 19

Step By Step, Inch By Inch …

carolyncordon

When you have the time, no looming deadline, you can afford to allow things to move along slowly, with the idea that they will move smoothly, and well. That’s how things are travelling along at the moment for my, with the Covid-19 focused anthology I’m putting together in the final stages, before I send a copy to an interested publisher, and then to talk to them about how we can possibly work together to make this book a best seller!

I need interested people to tell me exactly how interested they are is seeing this big idea of mine turn into an even bigger idea, and then an actual book, with nearly 120 pages! And that’s just at the moment, that page number. I’m still waiting on two, no make that three things that are definitely on the way, and another page that is a maybe.

And there are probably one or two more things right now in my email inbox, waiting for my to look at and decide on. Putting together an anthology like this (a phrase I love, big idea, idea grows even bigger, other people get excited, and join in, and then an editor of a publishing house I know and admire gets involved too, and BANG, this is potentially huge!

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I’m back again, and yes, there was an interesting email there, which has given me two great poems, and an idea for a possible new work role … I’ll talk about it in another post soonish. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday or Tuesday. It seems to be a role I’m quite good at …

So the foreword is written and will be sent to me soon, there are more things, as I said, on the way, and who knows what tomorrow may show, when I log in to my email inbox tomorrow!

Life is going well, for me, but I’m intensely away of how it’s going badly, terrible badly, for others. So stay safe, friends, and stay as well as you possibly can.