Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Birth of "Love & Magick"



I was on a trip last June when I received an e-mail inviting me to be in an anthology.  I was thrilled and excited to be asked.  The other two writers are ones I respect and like.  One I love, since she is my sister!

Together we started our journey.  Each of us would write two short stories, ten thousand words each.  Each of us would have our own works edited.  Then merge the stories together, format and e-pub.  Easy, peasy right?

From one partner:  I learned that turning a 1500 word short story into a 10,000 word short story is as difficult as writing a 10,000 word short story from scratch

Myself I did the stories both ways too, and found writing a new story from scratch much easier.

We have had some unexpected obstacles along the way.  The biggest obstacle I would say is that we live far apart.  Not being able to communicate in person only through e-mail, is a draw back.  Using e-mail, as my grandson pointed out, there is no emotion and comments can be taken the wrong way.

We did meet once at Detroit Lake for a few hours to hammer out some details.  We discussed among other things the following:

 What should go on the cover & who our cover designer would be: http://duvalldesign.wordpress.com/ Karen Duvall is an excellent designer,
Legal agreement,
Banking,
Which editor to use:  kelly_schaub@comcast.net Kelly Schaub, wonderful to work with,
Publicity-bookmarks or trading cards.

Most things were worked out and jobs were assigned.

Here’s what I’ve learned from this experience.  I’ve learned I can write a lot faster than I thought.  Trying to learn a new formatting program, Jutoh, can be difficult.
The three of us using the same editor is really a great idea that way the editing style is carried throughout the anthology.

Working with two other women can be fun, but not always easy.

Today I was supposed to present our cover on this blog.  Not going to happen.  Three women, three different ideas what it should look like.

The cover is still in production.  (Check back at a later date.)

Would I collaborate on another anthology?  Yes.  Each time we’ll learn a more about the process and each time will be easier.


Have you ever collaborated on a book anthology, on a craft show or anything else?  What did you learn?

11 comments:

Kathye Thornton said...

Diana, sounds like a test of wills and a test of patience. I recently learned to use Skype (very easy BTW). That might be a good way to collaborate face-to-face over a long distance. Anyway, glad you worked it out. Looking forward to reading the stories.

Shobhan Bantwal said...

I was invited to co-author two anthologies.

The first one, Dreams & Desires (all proceeds went to a charity for Katrina victims), was published by Wild Child Publishing, so the publisher took care of editing, cover design, etc.

The second one was a travel anthology & was edited and published by a travel buff and accomplished writer. Fortunately I didn't have to do any of the detailed work other than submit a good story.

Diana McCollum said...

Thanks for stopping by, Kathye.

Shobhan, What a wonderful idea for charity. A great way for writers to give back to society.

Paty Jager said...

Hey Diana! You have been doing well considering there are three of you to "make happy".

I did a book with another author. She approached me with the idea for a book about two sisters who are separated as children and how they find one another again and the men they marry. It was fun coming up with the premise of the story and the backstories for the sisters. We even agreed easily on the cover.

Now, I'm in a Christmas anthology with ten other authors and we are all writing stories to fit in a town another author made up. Writing the Christmas story was more of a challenge. But it came together and the book will be on Presale this next week and releasing Nov. 18th.

Good luck with your book. I can't wait to read all three authors stories!

Sarah Raplee said...

Great post, Diana! I'd do it again, too.

Anonymous said...

Good to hear words from the trenches. My collaboration is due December 1. All advice welcome.

Diana McCollum said...

Paty, How did 10 of you decide on a cover, or did just one person take on that chore?

Diana McCollum said...

Sarah, Thanks for stopping by Sister!

Diana McCollum said...

Hi, Melinda!! So glad you stopped by. Will your collaboration be self-pubbed

Judith Ashley said...

Hi Diana, This is a journey with a few bumps in the road. One of the things I learned or had reinforced has to do with how visual a person is. Not as important when writing the story but vital to creating a book cover. My advice when working in collaboration is to know and understand how strengths and non-strengths play out.

As a non-visual person, I need to see something concrete to know what it 'looks' like and I need to see to know if I like it or not. In many ways my life would be easier and our journey to having Love and Magick's cover completed would also if I had that ability

Pippa Jay said...

I was lucky enough to have a story chosen to go into an anthology back in June, but as yet I've never co-authored or collaborated on anything. For me, writing is such a solitary thing that I can't imagine trying to work with one, let alone two, other people. Kudos!