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?
