Oh, Jeff... we're... in a book

Okay, this is it folks. Hold onto your hats, horses and hollyhocks. Your poem or micro fiction entry to the Oh, Jeff... challenge is about to get into print. Not to mention Kindle. For the first time in the history of Vocal Media (I am guessing, please correct me if I am wrong) an unofficial challenge will be transmogrified into a book to be released into the real world. People will buy the book, read it, review it, see your magnificent work, among the stunning work of other writing stars, and be amazed.

Hon! I've just read this amazing book

For those who have yet to publish their first book, or have not yet seen one of their short stories or poems appear in print, this will be a great opportunity. You will be able to see your own work in print and use it to promote your other work, providing some valuable experience of the publishing process into the bargain. It might just give you that boost you need to complete your first novel or anthology. And it will certainly give you the satisfaction of knowing your work is out there in the real world.

To those Vocal creators who already have a book or books in print, this will add to your book list and provide a further opportunity to promote your work. Whether you are interested in a bit of promotion or not, it's always good to see one's work in print, isn't it?

Update One (of many...)

So far, the number of authors who have agreed to include some or all of their work in the book is

27

That's 27 authors, plus me, making 28 authors, many of whom wrote and submitted multiple entries. If we make it 50 stories to be included at an average of, say, two pages per story, we have 100 pages, plus introduction, contents, author biogs and links, and I figure at least 120 pages as it stands. More if we get more authors to agree to their work being included, or have new authors submitting work, which I think should be encouraged. The more the merrier.

Details of Oh, Jeff: the book publishing arrangements

What next?

Here's the to-do list as it stands. Please feel free to suggest anything I may have forgotten, not thought of yet, or anything else you think might help.

1. Continue to provide updates like this from time to time
2. Sort the stories into a running order
3. Compile all of the stories into a single, plain-text file
4. Mark up the text for headers and other formatting
5. Make the text available to contributors for comment / corrections
6. Pre-publication publicity (all authors)
7. Commence the process of KDP formatting
8. Pre-order promotion (all authors)
9. Cover design, possibly incorporating the featured image above
10. Complete content and cover formatting ready for publication
11. Final checks and further pre-order promotion (all authors)
12. Hit the PUBLISH button

And, then...

Oh, Jeff... we're in a book!!!

How can I help?

Many of you have kindly offered to help get this show on the road, and I am grateful for the support. I will probably do all of the editing and formatting myself, to keep things simple, but it would be great if you could read the manuscript, once available, to check your own work and to check for typos, formatting, and any glaring errors throughout. Please do make any other suggestions you think might help. I will not be editing any individual contributions unless I think we need to make a change for any reason (including any legal or technical reasons that might come up). If this happens, I will try to contact the author to ask them.

Permissions: I will assume that, having given your permission to use your work, I will continue to have your permission through the whole publication process without further agreement. I will notify the availability of the manuscript and any updated versions of the ms and formatting in updates on Vocal and will leave sufficient time for any response. I must ask each author to look out for these updates and to respond in good time if you need to. I will assume a lack of response to imply ongoing permission. If anything comes up that you are unhappy with prior to publication, of course please let me know. Any post-publication errors noticed will be deal with in subsequent editions, which I may put in place quite soon after initial publication if necessary or advisable.

If you would like me to keep you updated by email, please let me know your email address. Or send me a Facebook message. I will not use your contact details for any other purpose. My @gmail.com address is raymond.g.taylor

Publicity and promotion

The best help you can offer is to do all you can to promote the book. Make good use of your socials, your personal contacts, friends and family to ask people to buy the book. This is what it is all about. Whether you would like to help generate enough sales to provide a royalty to each author, or whether you just want to find more people to read your work, it is all about sales of the book. If you know anyone who would like to read a copy of the book for review purposes, please let me know. I will be providing each author with a PDF of the paperback version of the book which can be sent to any influencers you know who might be interested in reviewing. If you do this, please let me know the details so that I can track any reviews.

If each author helps to sell 10 books each, putting say £1 net (I haven't looked at pricing and royalties yet) into the royalty fund, that would mean £280 in the pot, therefore £10 distributed to each author. So that if you sell 10 copies, and every other author sells an average of 10 copies, you get pretty much all of the net royalty for the copies you have sold. That is, if I have figured correctly, and I may not have. Time will tell of course and we have all agreed that the most important thing is the book and not the profit. But, as I have said, helping to boost sales helps all of us either way. And remember, all profit from Amazon royalties, after any publishing costs, will be put into the royalty fund. If the total in the fund hits £5 per contributor, (£140 as it stands) I will arrange for this to be distributed in equal proportion to contributors. For more details see:

Oh, Jeff: the book publishing arrangements

I may do some limited paid promotion at launch and will do so at my own expense and at my discretion. My experience of paid promotion of books is that it costs more than the sales it produces. This may be justified at launch time, to give the book its best chance in the Amazon ratings.

I'll provide further updates as and when needed.

Thanks for your interest and continued support for this project. If you are reading this and would like to add a story of your own to the book, please check out the Oh, Jeff... Challenge and submit the story for consideration below, in comments.

If you are not involved with the project, directly, please consider buying a copy of the book at launch and reviewing it on Amazon. This will be a fabulous read, and your book could become a part of history.

It may also give you some ideas about publishing your own collection of work previously published on Vocal Media.

Thanks again for reading

Ray