WebLit Quarterly Anthology

We could also include recaps of cons we've been to, with photos and stuffs. Maybe a Community Announcements section, for upcoming events inthe next quarter? Say, for example, that DN will have its whatever anniversary on this date and the DN gang will be doing such and such on that. Or this author is going to this con, or that author is hosting this webevent, etc. Not quite an ad section, but definitely promotional.

I could help proofread! Even the best of us miss typos sometimes... Yeah, even me.

Chris Tejeda was doing interviews. At least, he did a few. Not sure what he's up to these days.

And I have to ask a question: what the heck do you mean, "calendar, not astrological"? They put them on the calendars based on where they fall in the year astrologically!

ETA: Sharon was posting while I was typing, and I like her ideas too!

... ooo, I like that. I'm a little worried about information glut and racking up more content than most of us can afford to print, but I personally prefer to have to cut back on content then scramble to add enough to make it worthwhile. ^^;;

Well, if it's all digital to start with, then we don't have to worry about the printing part unless we want to!

Plus, we can always limit how long the Upcoming Stuffs section is; make it just a quick blurb with a link to the site in question for more details.

Technically, the solstices and equinoxes can fall the day before or after the calendar days they're assigned to. The calendar year doesn't exactly match the solar year. I have a friend who drives me BONKERS by pointing out the actual events every single damn time. ;_;

But then... why don't they put them on the correct day on the calendar? I mean, don't they do that?! I'm so confused.

OK. So. The calendar eq/sols all fall on the 21st. 12/21, 3/21, 6/21, 9/21. The actual solar year isn't exactly equal to the calendar year (part of the reason we have leap years), but we can actually calculate the exact moments of each of those quarters. They just don't always fall on the 21st of those given months. Sometimes the actual solstice can be (pulling a time out of my arse, this isn't actual) 8:32 PM 6/20.

Really? It only matters if you're a pretentious snot like a certain someone I know who won't hold a circle until the ACTUAL OMG SOLSTICE/EQUINOX, or just a dork who likes odd bits of trivia. Or the occasional astrologer. But really, the only reason I learned about that at all was because of the aforementioned snot.

I'm lucky if I get my altar cleaned once a quarter...

It's hard enough to remember to get my pantheon a new bottle of ritual wine. I call Halloween my Christmas and give all the rest of it a miss.

Uh, anyway, getting back to things, I'm a bit experienced with multi-page layouts in a magazines context. A *bit*, not greatly. I also know a lot of design theory behind content grids and layout and cover design so I volunteer my services there, but I'm always willing to get help.

A quarterly e-zine would be great content to host here - a way to draw readers in and something to give them that's original but also ties back in to promoting the authors' original works. Plus I LOVE collab stuff. If we want to get this done for winter we need to get started NOW, though. A lot of work goes into publication of any kind, as I'm sure all of you well know.

Also, keep in mind that if you want a print version of this, that'll affect page count. The page count will have to be divisible by four because parent pages are folded and stapled in half. (The parent pages are folded in half and are double-sided, making two pages on each side of each parent page.) There's a POD magazine service called MagCloud which could work very well for the print side. It would be nice if the print version and the online version were based off the same PDF because doing layout twice for one publication SUCKS ROCKS.

As long as page count is divisible by four, I could keep adding content into the layout and there'd be no problem. They have a page count limit of 100, though, and since they only offer saddle-stitched (folded in half and stapled). (That's because after 25 parent pages folded in half, the magazine gets too thick for saddle-stitching and you use perfect binding instead. I'm betting perfect binding is too complex for them to offer under POD as of now, but wouldn't be surprised if they offer it in the future if this starts paying off.) As far as I can tell MagCloud takes your page-numbered PDF and then re-orders the pages before printing to print on the signatures in the way it needs to bind them and such and have it all make sense. (If that's all Greek to you, don't worry too much about it. I worked at a couple of printers and had to do this sort of page number re-ordering myself, so I just know what's possible and some of what MagCloud will have to do to print this stuff. They might even be ordering the print jobs from some of the same types of printers I worked at.)

Uh, anyway. If 100 pages is too few, we can always separate out by genre. Depends on excerpt length, who wants to be in it, what content we have, etc. This is, of course, if you want to do it through MagCloud at all. It is pretty cool and shiny but POD books may turn out to be cheaper. (The paper and ink in them is, for one!) It's good to figure it out early on because for the best design and marketing you really need to figure out what you're designing for and marketing for early.

Oh! Also, in a magazine format, we can sell adspace, which I've seen even fanzines do. Selling adspace could be a convenient way of giving WebLit an advertising budget, or perhaps even the budget to start donating anthologies to libraries and such.

Printing stuff makes me excited. I almost never got to have fun at those jobs! But I need to wind down now, it's getting late. I have TL;DR'ed enough here so far. n_n;

I like doing author interviews! Don't know how good I am at them though.

Also don't mind proof-reading.

We'd need to pick someone who's the 'chief' though. Even though this is a collaborative work, and perhaps especially because it is a collaborative work, someone (or someones) need to have the final say when we can't make up our mind.

I'm a journalist so I can do interviews in my sleep. Suggested format: collaborative interview, on this site. We start each interview with a standard list of questions, i.e.:

Name, handle, age, sex, location?

Give us the elevator speech on your weblit writing.

What is the project you are currently most passionate about (with link)?

What is great about your weblit? What are readers going to come away with?

How did you get into writing?

How did you get into writing weblit?

What are your major literary influences? (Not limited to authors you have read: include life circumstances, turning points, inspirational people, creative influences in other media, etc.)

What other creative things do you do (with links)?

What is your "day job" and, if it influences your writing somehow, how?

What are your other interests and how do they intersect with your writing, if they do?

Tell us a bit about your home/family life (including pets). How does it influence your writing?

We want to ask one last question but we're drawing a blank, so please come up with one to ask yourself, and answer it.

Then we throw open the floor; follow-up questions can be asked by anyone and everyone in the comments.

Suggest we do promotional profiles of all of us on this site, not just the quarterly, using this format.

I'm going to bet that we'll have more content submitted than we can actually fit in each issue - so if there's non-dated stuff then it can roll over to the next issue, and so on. Also, we could put out shorter 'special issues' geared towards certain occasions or conventions. Kind of like when you get a short magazine sampler that's a little bit of content and mostly ads.

Also, keep in mind that for print promotion, sometimes you can get a better deal ordering at a local shop than from a POD place that's often paying the smaller shop AND making profit for the big boys. It'll often come to a difference in quality, though, and sometimes time is a big issue. A couple weeks worth of lead time is good when doing a print run of this variety too. (And of course the other bit - that you have to have money up-front for an order of books at a print shop, but on POD you just buy them when you need them, or readers can buy direct.)

It doesn't really matter whether the end product is done by POD or print shop, by the way - design and layout should be the same. So decisions like that can be made on a per-project basis.

Editor stuff - I'm willing to do design and consult on what content should be placed where and do the research and in general help with content pacing. I'm not the best judge of reading material, though, because my palate isn't broad enough. We might need a team of editors. Positions will probably rotate out at times, too, depending on people's schedules and whatever may come up, and new people showing up who are also good at this.

What Irk said re: printing. I also have a bit of a Support Your Local/Small Business kink, so going to a small local shop whenever possible makes me happy in my big-girl pants.

Editorly Hijinks - I'm good for this. Project management makes me happy. I definitely like the idea of having a team of editors versus one person calling all the shots, especially if we have content divided by genre or whatever. I'm also good for proofreading. I'm also currently underemployed and have time to throw at this.

POD vs local: The files should be put up on POD sites and ALSO available for anyone to download and take to a local print shop as well. Options, people, options! It's the brave new digital world we inhabit!

I think a web anthology would be awesome. I also think a colab blog for fiction writers would be pretty awesome too. I think we could do guest blogs from our characters or memes and host the interviews and things there and also have links to other interviews that are already posted and that people are already doing. Just a place where you can find everything compiled in one place and also gives people a chance to branch out and look at the works of their favorite authors, discover new authors and blogs, and discussions. We don't need to reinvent the wheel but perhaps having a post where everyone gives their opinions on a certain topic. There are a lot of people doing interviews all over. If we can just have a list of links where people can find these things, that would be cool.

Then once we get that together, we can have the resources for an online e-zine and even POD. Maybe we can hold some sort of contest where people get a free or discounted version of the zine. It would take a lot of work to get everything up and running, but look how fast this site came together and I don't think it's been on for more than a week. =)

I don't know, these are just some ideas.

Edit: It just occurred to me that there is A LOT of stuff out there. I'm not sure how we'd narrow it down, even if we want to narrow it down. I'm all for a web anthology and a colab blog too. XD

The effort we're talking about here has to be free. That's the entire point of it: This is a marketing effort. It has to be freely available in as many different formats as possible. If we charge for it, it defeats the purpose. That said, if someone wants to put together a for-pay zine, more power to you.

I'm wondering how hard it'd be to put a monthly podcast together.

I'm a little late to the party, still, but I think this is a great idea, and I'd be willing to help/contribute/etc./what have you.

~Lyn

I don't know how I can help, but I'd be happy to.

Jim

The anthology I figured would be free, though if an online reader WANTS a shiny paper copy and it's available POD, it could be possible for them to buy it from MagCloud at cost. (I'm not sure how/whether to fund mailing them a copy for free when they can download it for free and get it printed themselves.) Giving out paper copies at cons would mean buying a bunch of them for no return, which is basically just a question of capital for whoever's attending the con. (Or whoever's sponsoring them.)

The only way I figured any money would be made would be if it were magazine-style and advertising were featured. I've seen ads for $20 a pop in similar publications, and usually it's advertising for sites that are related to magazine content. The money for that could cycle into buying paper copies for handing out. (It'd be equivalent to a donation.) These are all just options, mind. Advertising is pretty easy to fit into a pub without making the magazine look like a sellout, and in this case it'd be for WebLit related things we're trying to promote anyway.

I went through and decided to go ahead and start getting all this together. According to this thread, this is what we have and the spots we need to fill:

Content Editors
These would be the people who manage one section of the anthologies. They'd be in charge of going through the submissions for their section, proofing them, and submitting them for layout. If you're feeling particularly bad-assed, grab more than one section! Also, these sections aren't set in stone yet. I basically just grabbed the list MeiLin has in the tag for the site.

Essays -
Creative Nonfiction -
Poetry - Lyn Thorne-Alder
Short Fiction - Lyn Thorne-Alder
Novels -
Serials -

Interviews - Karen Wehrstein

Guest Content Editor
Guest content would include things like con reports, meetups, and... stuff. It's mostly up to this section's editor. This person should probably be comfortable regularly coming up with ideas for this section's content and soliciting submissions.

Layout - irkdesu
If you have experience with Adobe InDesign and want to help with layout, let us know!

Proofreaders - Clare K.R. Miller, A.M. Harte (There's room for more, if you're interested!)

Advertisement - We're not planning on having ad space this round, but by Spring '10 I'd like to have someone willing to handle ad submissions. Some knowledge of page layout would be lovely, since it would involve playing Tetris with different ad spaces to make something attractively coherent.

Chief Editor - Char
Overall project management, filling in for open spots when necessary.

Accounting - At some point, I'd also like someone to handle funding. This is probably going to not be specific to the anthology, but it would be nice to have someone who can manage the ad income from the anthology advertising, as well as any other donations or stuff we get. Part of the reason we decided to leave ads out this time around is because of the income management question. Ideas on this would be appreciated!

Timeline on stuff that needs to get done:

Content Submissions -- due October 12 (when samples should be in, as well as any articles/interviews)
Content Editing -- due October 26 (have stuff proofed and ready for layout to slap into place)
Ad Submissions -- n/a
Ad Approvals -- n/a
Layout Design -- due November 23
Proofing -- due December 7
Release -- December 21

We're going to need submission guidelines, too. I can do those too, but I'd like the input of the people who are adopting the content editor positions. They'll have a better grasp on what is a realistic set of limitations for those formats.

Poetry and short fiction, yo.

Also, accounting, if needed.

~Lyn

Oh good, you took the two sections I'm most worried about re: submission guidelines. XD The rest of them can be reasonably limited to 2000 words per submission, but what should we do about poetry and short fic?

Poetry should be limited to essentially one 1/3-column page, I think - not sure how many words that is but I can come up with a guideline. In essence, no epic poems. Those count as fiction. Call it 500 words or xxxx lines.

Short fiction - are you thinking microfiction? I'd call it 1000 words.

~ Lyn, who likes both poetry & microfiction

I'm limiting my involvement to this website.

Let me think about this awhile.

Meanwhile, may I toss this in: I've been in a couuple of anthologies of the "only bought by contributors for their shelves and family and impressing chicks at Starbucks" type and one of the BIG benefits to writers is that the book gets listed on amazon.com (which any POD book through Lightning Source will get)

But most of them list the authorship as "Zappo.com writers" or whatever, which is of no use to contributors.

Let me suggest that it's important to list all (comma seperated) authors as such... which gives each of them an amazon listing.

MeiLin: I kind of guessed. You're a super-busy lady already!

Lin: Doing a book anthology is a nifty idea, and I might even tuck that away for doing down the road. What we're working on here is magazine-styled, and it's going to contain work excerpts instead of full works. I don't know if that would even count as a publication credit, and really, that's not the goal that we're aiming for with this. It's a way to market WebLit.us as a whole, and to spotlight the writers to direct traffic to their sites.

A book anthology IS a nifty idea down the road, and I think doing the sampler magazine anthology will give us some of the experience it takes to slap together a good one. I'm comfortable with magazine format but making a professional-looking book anthology is a bigger step that I think we need a warm-up before. Also, I think a book anthology with enough content to really be worthwhile wouldn't be feasible to hand out for free (at least in dead tree form). So it'd lose a lot of viability to fulfill the purpose we're going for right now, which is marketing to the reading public.

(A book anthology would market more to the reviewing public, though, but since it's essentially self-pub I'm not sure how many reviewers would give it their time besides the very awesome Self-Pub Review. Worth a look, but I can't think about ti til slightly further down the road. Someone else is free to take the helm on that if they want it earlier.)

Also, Lin, if you have some good ideas on how best to order stories in an anthology, feel free to join the editing team. Some of this will be excerpt rather than short story, but it's sort of like a Unitarian Church: ALL ARE WELCOME (to volunteer to do editing work <3).

I think this is a wonderful idea. Do we want to specify number of stories per issue, number of articles - that sort of thing? Or will all that be added once the submission guidelines are hammered out?

I was thinking two or three per category, with the number of articles being a bit more flexible. We have a 96-page limit to work with, so there's room for give and take per issue.

Is it just me, or do we need more nonfic people around? I think everyone I've seen sign up for the site thus far has been some strain of fiction writer.

We need to put the word out on the various hashtag chats. Right now, it's pretty much the Usual Suspects. If you belong to any writing forums, folks, tell them about this.

Okay, a general idea of how I think this might be laid out, so you can have an idea of pagecount:

Cover: Your main promotion means, what entices people to pick this thing up, a way to highlight a few features.
Inside cover: Info on who makes the publication, like staff and such, and how to contact them.
First page: Table of contents. May roll over to second page if there are many contents, but it depends how it's all labeled.

That's all pretty clear and kind of comes as a given. Then there's the back end, which is a little more iffy. The back cover or inside back cover should probably be a big mention of weblit.us and a list of places that are useful for info. Basically a short list o' links and such. That might mean that it would make sense to put the upcoming events page near or adjacent to the back cover/back inside cover, if that makes sense. The inside back cover is the last page readers will see, so it's what you're leaving them with or where you're telling them to go next.

The back cover itself I'm not too sure on, really. Printed, it would have most of its impact when other people glance at someone reading it. Back covers are often prime ad space. Maybe the back cover can be a big panel for weblit.us. Either way it needs to be very attractive since it's part of the wrapper for the book, but it's seen less since you don't see it when you pick it up and you see it last when reading an online version. So I'm not sure if vital info should be put there - that's why I think the directory/useful links page should be the inside back cover, since it's more likely to be seen by a reader. Also, if a reader wants to detach the page from the printed version for later reference, making it part of the back cover means you're not sacrificing useful content. Not sure if that's so much of an issue but it's an interesting point Char made.

So, that possibly covers 5 or 6 of the 100 pages of the magazine. The other 95-94... well, guess it depends on submissions!

...They do? Um, I guess I entirely ignore that in favor of the actual date, then. I've never heard of anyone who ignores the actual date in favor of always putting it on the 21st, until now, I guess!

Back on topic (sorry!) I have more questions, as I am easily confused. What's the difference between "novels" and "serials"? And you mean excerpts, right? Though it would be kind of neat to serialize an original story in the actual magazine...

I'm also a little confused on the deadline stuff, but that can be worked out later.

For the purposes of the magazine, novels are uploaded all in one go and are completely finished; serials are ongoing works.

A web anthology would be fantastic, especially for web lit writers who are talented but are underrepresented.

That's what it's all about--getting the talented but underrepresented out there. Sadly, that's all of us. But it's changing! It's changing!

Yeah, and we're the ones changing it! WOOOOOOO!

Wow, I'm late to the party. I want to help! I'll check the posts above and see where I can lend a hand.

Okie-dokie. I can help with layout and advertising. I loves me some InDesign!

Okay, I won't mind helping out with the proofreading... motherhood with its attendant joys notwithstanding (have two daughters, one just 2 months!).

EEEEEEEE NEW BABY. <3 I miss the baby days. That may be the lack of sleep talking, though. Mine are 4 and 5.

OH YEAH RIGHT I'll add you to the proofreading list. ^_^;;

So I am late to the WebLit.Us game and am now playing catch-up on older threads.

Did anything ever happen with this?