STRENGTH, questions for the promotors:

I'll have to get back to you on our costs for creating the downloadable posters/flyers, yarmy. It's going to be all labour, as the actual printing of them will be done by those who download them. Mind you, we'll be printing a bunch ourselves to distribute around our area, so I'll be able to give you that cost as well. As for the rest of your questions, those are probably Jenna questions.

I have a Book Festival to go to on Oct. 1. Any chance the flyer will be done before then? I'd love to be able to hand them out.

Hi! Sorry-- I've been so wrapped up with the editorial end of things that I've had little time to work on the rest.

I got two cover mock-ups today from our artist, Kyle, and am working with him to make some changes. He did a cool job with the layout, but the image wasn't quite right.

I am planning to contact Lulu to ask if they'd donate part of their cost/profit as well. It would be impossible for them to completely donate the printing costs (that's a big outlay on their parts), but it would be cool if they'd donate their own part of the proceeds from it. Of course, they'd get some good press out of it, too.

Mike, my thought on sponsorships is this:

What if we just offer a flat-rate "ad" section in the beginning pages, right after the introduction?

$30 donation to the Red Cross or another approved charity for hurricane relief for a 40-word ad, or something like that.

The reason I mention "or another approved charity" is that we could wind up raising donations for two organizations this way. The Drawing Strength participants are raising money for Habitat for Humanity to rebuild homes, for instance. I like that cause, too.
My cost for the project thus far has only been the domain registration for www.storiesofstrength.com-- something like $14.

The ISBN will cost about $35.

I don't think there are any other necessary out-of-pocket costs. I will spend some money to distribute a press release through PRWeb.com. The rest of the costs are labor and anything we choose to do in terms of publicity-- mailings, review copies, etc.

BTW, hope this isn't too OT, I've just downloaded a nifty animated graphics program and am experimenting with creating 'buttons' to do little blog ads. If you need something like that, I'd be happy to volunteer...I'd like to help somehow (aside from buying copies), just let me know what I can do.

Christine N. said:

I have a Book Festival to go to on Oct. 1. Any chance the flyer will be done before then? I'd love to be able to hand them out.

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Based on Jenna's target of the 25th to finalize the cover, I'd say the odds are really good to have the flyer/poster done before the end of the month. We're ready to rock the moment we see the cover. I think it'd be great for you to have 'em to hand out there, Christine!

By the way -- could any of you folks from Europe verify that the two appropriate sizes for flyers/posters in your area are A4 and B4 respectively?

I would be happy to make a donation for the cost Jenna. 50.00 bucks help?

I will be advertising the book, how what and why in three daily newspapers.

? though.

If we want to purchase copies to sell locally, put in bookstores locally-etc, will we be paying full price.

I have a large convention-Christmas show and books sale related- at the IX (international expo )convention center in Cleveland in late Nov. I could take copies with me, and flyers.

We can all put it up on our websites.

I'm not looking to make any money for myself, of course. Just curious as to how it will work.

Denise should be sending my story back very soon.

Ken

$30 donation to the red cross or other seems truly miniscule amount. Is it really worth dragging the anthology into what might be perceived as an advertising gimmick for that kind of donation especially when you think that companies tend to have charitable budgets and aren't going to be changing their charitable budget one cent, just diverting from one to another - that's the reality of it.

I've got serious doubts about it - and it has nothing to do with me, I know, but I'm just voicing my concerns. Now, if you wanted to get global corporations who will actively promote the book to their staff eg in corporate newsletter or mass-emailing - i.e. a real publicity partnership - now THAT would be worth giving some add-space to, and worth far more than $30 too. Can we get any to agree to purchase n books for staff-incentives too perhaps?

And come to think of it, I'm not sure advertising is a good thing even then - perhaps just a 'with thanks to the following corporations for ....' and then a discreet list.

Just a couple of suggestions/thoughts (though I have very little experience in this):

1. I'm presenting at the Society of Professional Journalists conference in Vegas from Oct. 15-19. They have something like 10K members, 1K usually show for the conference and Judith Miller is one of the speakers. If you think there could be an opportunity to use that forum, please let me know.

2. What about advertising or asking writer's groups to publicize the book? For example, Poets & Writers League of Greater Cleveland would probably be willing to send something out to its members (I would ask the head, who I know casually).

3. Bloggers - the blogosphere is pretty darn huge. While we all may have only 10-20-200 or whatever visitors, between us all, it could be a lot. For sure, I will do something to advertise the book on my blog and website.

Ok - that's all. Hope it sparks something that could help raise $$.

companies tend to have charitable budgets and aren't going to be changing their charitable budget one cent, just diverting from one to another - that's the reality of it.

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I know what you're saying. I was hoping that the money would be taken from their advertising budgets instead of charitable budgets, though, which wouldn't otherwise be used the same way.

More thoughts in a bit... hubby is going to kill me if I don't spend a little time with him.

I think one company that could be approached is amazon.com. There must be some way they can contribute - for example, carry the book on their front page!

That's a good idea Aruna. Don't know if Amazon will put a Lulu book on their site. I guess there's going to be a boilerplate press release that we all can get to send to our local papers? We have three here, plus the four local TV stations, affliates of FOX, et al...

Will there be a media kit? LOL Sounds weird, but I think if we had one to send to big media it would help.

Alphabet said:

And come to think of it, I'm not sure advertising is a good thing even then - perhaps just a 'with thanks to the following corporations for ....' and then a discreet list.

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Just two cents worth, but I agree with Alphabet. If ads were included, perhaps they should be in the back, not the front. Hopefully the readers would be feeling charitable and uplifted after they've read the wonderful stories - a better psychological response for the advertisers and the writers.

Let the 'touchy-feely' go first - then the commercial aspect.

I like the subdued, humble contributor's list in the back, myself.

I don't think you should include advertising. If a company wants to donate money or services, I recommend using a double-spaced aknowledgement page with each company's name centered on its own line, a la public broadcasting...

If you think advertising monies are required to justify the effort, sell tear-out cards at the back of the book, and don't sell them cheap.

I don't know if I'm showing the true extent of my ignorance by putting this out there, but

do you think it would make sense if we put any up-front money we receive in paying for sample copies to show to bookstores or for initial inventory, so bookstores would be more likely to carry them? We might sell more that way, and make up for the intial investment by the sponsors.

Shwebb... hands up from me here... I'm equally ignorant of what is supposed to be done LOL!

But it does seem to me that is a very dangerous road to tread. The last thing we want is to make people think that the monies we receive might not be going 100% to directly aid the victims of hurricane. I think unless a sponsor specifically allows/requests their donation to be used to further promote the book we should not even think of using a dime of it other than as claimed.

Alphabet said:

I think unless a sponsor specifically allows/requests their donation to be used to further promote the book we should not even think of using a dime of it other than as claimed.

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Yes, agreed.

The review copies have to be something that we do ourselves and pay for ourselves. NO ONE is required or pressured to buy copies of the book, but if you're up for it, one good way each of us can help is to buy one copy to send to a media source, along with a press release (or bring in to a local bookstore).

-NOTE: Anyone who does this, please make sure to post to tell us where you've sent a copy so we don't duplicate efforts. I'll start a separate thread for that.

If a company wants to donate money or services, I recommend using a double-spaced aknowledgement page with each company's name centered on its own line, a la public broadcasting...

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Cool. I'm used to having to bend over backwards for advertisers with low budgets, but I think you're all right in correcting my thinking on this. A "thank you to the following companies, who supported our efforts" type of page sounds good to me.

The compromise can be that I'll list them all (with links to their sites, assuming they all have sites) on the storiesofstrength.com main page.

A couple of questions: is the title decided on? "Stories of Strength?" Just curious.

Will the book be available in the UK, and how? I would be happy to act as a distributor if need be: packing and sending off the books. Unless it becomes a bestseller here and I get such an avalanche of orders I can't handle it! Just wondering.

I have contact to the Amazon Customer Reviewers Discussion Board. They are great, concerned people with lots of heart and generosity. When Guyana had a flood last January they collected for a member whose home was destroyed. There are lots of them, they are prolific book readers and BUYERS, and have family and friends... and write great reviews! People like Don Mitchell and The Rebecca Review can help get it into the public eye. I know them - virtually.

Pardon me for my ignorance, but I'm wondering how it works when people buy the book from a bookstore instead of through Lulu.com. I know that the price will be set (I'm assuming by Jenna, or somebody) and Lulu takes so much per book, the balance going to charity. Does the book price get posted on the cover? Then if the book gets sold at a bookstore, how do they get their cut?

I'm in process of contacting our local Red Cross chapter--I happen to know the Financial Development Director on a casual basis.