# Christmas Multi-Genre Flash-Fiction Anthology ... PUBLISHED



## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

We're creating a *Christmas*-themed multi-genre indie author flash fiction anthology to cross-promote ourselves to new readers. You're invited! Please submit stories by *Nov 10, 2016* so we can publish by Dec 1, 2016.

*The Plan:*


To create a cross-promo *Christmas*-themed indie author flash fiction anthology.
To introduce new readers to us - fine indie authors - so we can sell more books!
To have some fun working with fellow indie authors.
To publish it no later than Dec 1, 2016.
To publish it wide and *permafree* in ebook and *paperback* formats.
To distribute it to your mailing list free of charge.

*The Requirements:*


Any author is welcome who has at least one indie fiction title published, an author website (preferably on its own domain) and mailing list (no matter the subscriber count).
Pen names are fine as long as they meet the requirements.
Please submit up to 3 stories per author/pen name. At least 1 must be never-before-published. The other two must not have been previously printed more than once - printed meaning published in an anthology or periodical.
Submissions must be complete stories - with a beginning, middle and end - and never excerpts.
Story length: ideally 1,000 words or less. You can go up to 1,500 if you really need it.
You must have your story proofread and line-edited prior to submission, by you or someone else. Please don't submit messy drafts, only final work. Although I'm an editor and the editor of this project, this is unpaid volunteer work, so please pitch in (or hire me for a special flat rate of $10 per story - see below).
Stories are due Nov 10, 2016, which gives you about 10 weeks.
Any genre except erotica. (Only because we don't want the anthology getting hidden from searches and whatnot.)
Make it a new-ish story and make it a great story. This introduces not just participating authors but also the greater indie community of authors to new readers. Let's put our best feet forward.
*Submit* your stories here: https://goo.gl/forms/9ScMfvR9laCbdTux2.

*Theme:*

The theme is: *family*.
The title is: (I'm taking ideas)
The subtitle is: (I'm taking ideas)
The cover is: (pending - let me know your faves from these: http://www.goonwrite.com/book-covers-christmas_pre-made.htm)

*Any genre is acceptable* (except erotica). Just involve a family or family members or love somehow and (optionally but ideally) work some Christmasy element in, somehow. Lighthearted family stories, romance, alien families, it all works.

*The Schedule:*

Stories Due: Nov 10, 2016
Final Proofing: Nov 17, 2016 (I'll send you a draft of the anthology and ask you to proof your story and one other.)
Publish: Dec 1, 2016

*Please Help Me With:*


getting the word out to other indie authors so they can submit stories, too.

To hire me to line edit and proofread your story/ies for the special flat rate of $10 each, email [email protected] with the subject line: "Edit my flash fiction story for $10 please." This is entirely optional and not in the least required. It will get you a great editing job but not any kind of preference in the anthology.

If you'd like an editor credit, email me. I'll need you to proofread 20 stories for me and to bring in at least 10 new stories, including your own.

I'm open to your ideas/changes and ready to answer your questions. I'll keep this first post updated with important developments. Thanks in advance and I look forward to working with you!

*If You Need Help:*

If you need help with setting up a website or mailing list, email [email protected] and let me know what you need help with precisely. If there is a demand, I will schedule a video hangout and walk a group through the steps to create a website and mailing list.

*Rights:*

Here's the license I'm asking you to agree to. It's plainly visible at the end of the submission form:



> I affirm that I am the owner of the content provided herein and am granting a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license to use the content as part of the anthology "2016 Indie Christmas Anthology," (title subject to change) edited by George Donnelly in ebook, print, audiobook and translated formats. Once the anthology is published, I promise to promote it to the best of my ability through my author website, mailing list and social media account(s). (If you don't agree, please don't submit the form.)


*Money:*

Any income generated will go towards promoting this anthology and/or to future seasonal anthologies I'm organizing for Valentine's Day, May the 4th and July 4th (independence day). I might add a 6th seasonal or themed annual anthology as well (I'm open to your ideas but 6 is my annual max atm).

*If using Google Docs*

If you're using Google Docs, please share the story with [email protected] or just grant access upon request to that address. Ditto if you're using Dropbox and only want to share the file with a specific account/address.

*Updates:*

Sep 18: 1 submission.

Oct 4: 2 submissions

Oct 7: 4 submissions

Oct 17: 5 submissions

Oct 21: 7 submissions

Oct 22: 9 submissions

Oct 26: 10 submissions

Oct 27: 12 submissions

Oct 28: 13 submissions

Nov 1: 14 submissions

Nov 2: 15 submissions

Nov 8: 18 submissions

Nov 9: 19 submissions

Nov 10: 21 submissions

Thank you to Bill Hiatt for his generous donation in support of the paperback edition of the anthology.

Thank you to Heather Biedermann for her generous donation in support of the ebook cover for this anthology.

Thank you to J. Naomi Ay for her generous donation as well, which might be carried over to the Valentine's Day anthology.

_This is a sequel project (and book #3 in the Flash Flood anthology series) to the Indie Anthology 2016 which published Sep 19. Monster Maelstrom (book 2) is a Halloween anthology that published Oct 17._


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

Hm. Will have to see what comes up before the deadline. Something probably will, though. It usually does.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

she-la-ti-da said:


> Hm. Will have to see what comes up before the deadline. Something probably will, though. It usually does.


I'm putting my idea machine into gear, too.


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Thinking cap on.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Got our first submission today! It's happening!


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

Interesting timing.  I'd already decided that October is going to be dedicated to a short flash-fiction story related to one of my series.  Hadn't considered it as part of an anthology, though.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

We published the first anthology in this series. It's titled "Bite-Sized Stories" and is available on all the major retailers. Full details here:

http://georgedonnelly.com/bite-sized-stories-anthology/


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Marketing suggestion:

It would help the anthology climb the sales chart ranks and gain more visibility to non-subscribers if *everyone's newsletter subscribers were asked to download it from Amazon*, instead of getting it free as an attachment.

I'm in if you make this one change.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Cherise said:


> It would help the anthology climb the sales chart ranks and gain more visibility to non-subscribers if *everyone's newsletter subscribers were asked to download it from Amazon*, instead of getting it free as an attachment.


Thanks for the suggestion! I plan to offer my list all of the options: Amazon, Nook, iBooks, Kobo, direct download, etc, because I want them to actually read it, review it and buy more books from participating authors.

Each reader reads differently. Some have Kindles. Others like Smashwords. Others just want a PDF on their desktop. Others like to read on their iPhone via iBooks.

So I don't want to try and force authors to market a specific way nor readers to read a specific way. I wouldn't expect that to be successful.

Thanks again.


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

Something this short I might be able to squeeze in. I'll give it a try.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AliceS said:


> Something this short I might be able to squeeze in. I'll give it a try.


Super! I look forward to reading your story, Alice.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

We're up to 2 submissions and about 5 weeks to go. If this one is anything like the previous two, a ton of submissions flood in at the end.

I'm excited!


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

I have something brewing.

It may be a cup of tea or a story idea.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hehe, sounds like fun either way.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

I'm working on mine (or, my muse is). Right now, I have another story to finish for a different anthology, so it will come up after that. Unless the muse starts kicking me in the head, in which case it will be next. You know how those muses get.

If I can, I'll try to get another story for this before the deadline.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I do indeed know about that fickle muse. Awesome.


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## tommy gun (May 3, 2015)

started thinking about that.
Christmas.  Family.  Hmmm.  Aliens?  Rat men?  Something else....


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm also in the early stages and kind of wondering what to go with, maybe a zombie christmas humor story?


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I'm also in the early stages and kind of wondering what to go with, maybe a zombie christmas humor story?


Humor? It's too bad erotica is excluded. I chuckle every time I think about the idea of Christmas erotica. "Santa only has one night a year away from Mrs. Claus, so he has to make it count. For the man who controls the naughty-or-nice list, there are no limits..."

(For those of you who don't know me, yes, I'm kidding!)

I've always been a fan of cross-promotion, and I think these anthologies are a wonderful idea. Though I've never written flash fiction before, I had so much fun creating a submission for the Halloween one that I'll definitely make the effort for this one. When the thread popped to the top yesterday, several ideas occurred to me.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I would love to read more of your stories, Bill. The Halloween one is excellent.

Hey, you could always make your Mrs. Claus story a romance and gloss over the sex scenes.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I would love to read more of your stories, Bill. The Halloween one is excellent.
> 
> Hey, you could always make your Mrs. Claus story a romance and gloss over the sex scenes.


I'm glad you liked the Halloween one. I'll definitely submit one for Christmas, and I already have a Valentine's Day idea.

By the way, I picked up a copy of the first anthology yesterday. It looks really good. I could easily see these anthologies becoming a much anticipated event for a lot of readers.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> By the way, I picked up a copy of the first anthology yesterday. It looks really good. I could easily see these anthologies becoming a much anticipated event for a lot of readers.


I hope so. Anthologies are more work than a straight book promo or instafreebie but they also give you a deeper look into the participating authors.

I feel quite privileged that I get to put my name on the covers of these. All of the stories have something special. I hope we can keep it going for awhile.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I would love to read more of your stories, Bill. The Halloween one is excellent.
> 
> Hey, you could always make your Mrs. Claus story a romance and gloss over the sex scenes.


I actually created a humorous story without any explicit elements but with some suggestive content. If you don't think it's appropriate for the anthology, I won't be offended. I have some more serious ideas, so I could easily submit something else.

By the way, did you change the submission protocols, or did I screw up when submitted the Halloween one? I don't remember being asked for some of the info, like Smashwords author page, for instance, and I don't remember being asked to put my bio at the end of the story. If I made mistakes, I'm happy to correct them.


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## Sam Mariano (Oct 6, 2016)

I wrote a romance piece to submit for this, but I was just checking out the submission and it said no MailChimp newsletters? But... I use MailChimp. I don't have any other newsletter service. Can I still submit? :\


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

Sam Mariano said:


> I wrote a romance piece to submit for this, but I was just checking out the submission and it said no MailChimp newsletters? But... I use MailChimp. I don't have any other newsletter service. Can I still submit? :\


Huh...why no MailChimp? Curious as to your reasons. I'm still sorting out the newsletter issue myself.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Sam Mariano said:


> I wrote a romance piece to submit for this, but I was just checking out the submission and it said no MailChimp newsletters? But... I use MailChimp. I don't have any other newsletter service. Can I still submit? :\


Huh? I just submitted yesterday and don't remember seeing that.


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## Sam Mariano (Oct 6, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Huh? I just submitted yesterday and don't remember seeing that.


Ooooh, okay. Upon revisiting it with less tired eyes, it's not saying no MailChimp newsletters at all, just that you have to have a page for mailing list sign-ups on your author website, and submit that instead of the direct sign-up link. Gotcha.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

Yes, an actual page on your site, whatever it is. It's been a bit confusing, but it can work fine. You don't need anything fancy (goodness knows, mine isn't!)

George, the muse kicked me in the head, and I ended up finishing my story. It came out a bit long (just over 1300 words), but it needed them. I'll be uploading shortly.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I actually created a humorous story without any explicit elements but with some suggestive content. If you don't think it's appropriate for the anthology, I won't be offended. I have some more serious ideas, so I could easily submit something else.
> 
> By the way, did you change the submission protocols, or did I screw up when submitted the Halloween one? I don't remember being asked for some of the info, like Smashwords author page, for instance, and I don't remember being asked to put my bio at the end of the story. If I made mistakes, I'm happy to correct them.


I'm looking forward to reading it, thanks!

You did everything just fine. What happened is I learned a few things from the first anthology submission process and made a few changes to improve the efficiency of the process. Thanks for understanding! 



Sam Mariano said:


> I wrote a romance piece to submit for this, but I was just checking out the submission and it said no MailChimp newsletters? But... I use MailChimp. I don't have any other newsletter service. Can I still submit? :\


I guess I was unclear. Sorry about that. Mailchimp is totally fine, zero problems. I kinda like Mailchimp and where you host your mailing list is none of my concern. 

What I mean with that is that the link to your mailing list signup page should be a page on our website, not an eepurl link.

Does that make sense? Sorry about the confusion!

BTW, guys, we're up to 4 submissions.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

she-la-ti-da said:


> George, the muse kicked me in the head, and I ended up finishing my story. It came out a bit long (just over 1300 words), but it needed them. I'll be uploading shortly.


Spectacular, thanks! I'm looking forward to reading it!


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

George,
I've submitted one story and working on a second one.  
Sitting at home in the middle of a hurricane gives one plenty of time to write.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> What I mean with that is that the link to your mailing list signup page should be a page on your website, not an eepurl link.
> 
> Does that make sense? Sorry about the confusion!
> 
> BTW, guys, we're up to 4 submissions.


When I filled out the form both times, I referenced the fact that I have a signup widget on all pages, right at the top of the sidebar. If that isn't OK, I'll quickly create a page and send you the link, but so far taking signups from the sidebar has worked for me.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hurricane John said:


> George,
> I've submitted one story and working on a second one.
> Sitting at home in the middle of a hurricane gives one plenty of time to write.


Haha, excellent. I can't wait to read it.



Bill Hiatt said:


> When I filled out the form both times, I referenced the fact that I have a signup widget on all pages, right at the top of the sidebar. If that isn't OK, I'll quickly create a page and send you the link, but so far taking signups from the sidebar has worked for me.


That's totally fine. My goal is just to ensure there is a signup form or link to a signup form somewhere on the website because part of my goal is to get you mailing list signups.


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

On train, writing (or typing) out my story on my phone. Might get it finished before I get home! It's related to a series I've had brewing in my head for a couple of years. If accepted for the anthology it could serve as a nice wee intro!


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

Story is done and uploaded to Dropbox, so you should have it by now, George.

I have one more story to finish for a different anthology (it's quite a bit longer than flash fiction, but should be done tomorrow), then a novella to do for a Halloween cross-promo (hope to do that by the end of next week). I'm so pleased with myself for getting these things done by deadline, if not sooner. Usually deadlines make me freeze up and the muse packs it up and goes on holiday.

Then there's going to be some fun times with kitchen reno! Whee! Hopefully I can finish this novel I have about half done by the end of the month. I'm starting to think about 2017, which may be a bit late, but for me it's pretty good planning. Everything I can get done before the end of the year will be yummy extras.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

George,

Have you given any thought to also releasing the Christmas Anthology  in paperback format?
I think people might be more likely to buy a hardcopy as a Christmas gift for themselves or friend. Something they can put under the tree.  Just a thought.

Proceeds can go towards paying for future cover artwork.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Hurricane John said:


> George,
> 
> Have you given any thought to also releasing the Christmas Anthology in paperback format?
> I think people might be more likely to buy a hardcopy as a Christmas gift for themselves or friend. Something they can put under the tree. Just a thought.
> ...


I think that's a good idea, but potentially a lot more work than what George signed on for. Perhaps if someone were to volunteer to do the print layout. (I might be willing if there is sufficient interest.) We also need to make sure we have the right kind of cover.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hurricane John said:


> Have you given any thought to also releasing the Christmas Anthology in paperback format?
> I think people might be more likely to buy a hardcopy as a Christmas gift for themselves or friend. Something they can put under the tree. Just a thought.


I would love to produce paperbacks of 1 or more of these Flash Flood collections.

My vendor for the paperback formatting charges around $60. Then if we got a cover from my preferred vendor, it would likely be $50-$80 for the wraparound. If we could get either donated or price-reduced in exchange for advertising or promoting the vendor, that would help.

So we need roughly $140. I will buy the proof copy myself out of pocket and contribute $10 towards the formatting and wraparound cover.

That said, I am still hoping I might receive some small donations to cover the $30 cost of the Halloween anthology's ebook cover.

Bottom line: if we can find the money or in-kind contributions, I will gladly put in the necessary work.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I would love to produce paperbacks of 1 or more of these Flash Flood collections.
> 
> My vendor for the paperback formatting charges around $60. Then if we got a cover from my preferred vendor, it would likely be $50-$80 for the wraparound. If we could get either donated or price-reduced in exchange for advertising or promoting the vendor, that would help.
> 
> ...


Is PayPal a good way to donate? If so, I'll PM you for your PayPal email.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Is PayPal a good way to donate? If so, I'll PM you for your PayPal email.


PayPal works, sure. Bitcoin, too. My PayPal is [email protected] Be sure to include a note about the intended use of the donation. Thanks!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> PayPal works, sure. Bitcoin, too. My PayPal is [email protected] Be sure to include a note about the intended use of the donation. Thanks!


I'm not familiar with Bitcoin, so I used PayPal.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Wow, I'm not sure what to say. Bill has funded the paperback for this collection in its entirety. How exciting and thank you, Bill! Here's another reason to contribute a story: there will be a paperback!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Wow, I'm not sure what to say. Bill has funded the paperback for this collection in its entirety. How exciting and thank you, Bill! Here's another reason to contribute a story: there will be a paperback!


And, as someone pointed out earlier, paperbacks are much easier to sell as holiday gifts.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Bill Hiatt said:


> And, as someone pointed out earlier, paperbacks are much easier to sell as holiday gifts.


Thank you Bill. Very generous of you to fund the paperback covers.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Hurricane John said:


> Thank you Bill. Very generous of you to fund the paperback covers.


My pleasure!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

We're up to 5 submissions. Yay!


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

I'll be submitting mine as soon as I can. Just have to tweak it slightly so it fits the family theme.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Nanny Ogg said:


> I'll be submitting mine as soon as I can. Just have to tweak it slightly so it fits the family theme.


Super! I'm looking forward to it but don't worry, you've got plenty of time yet.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Hi! I've been lurking rather than replying, but I have an outline for something now...just have to get it to fit under 1000 words!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> Hi! I've been lurking rather than replying, but I have an outline for something now...just have to get it to fit under 1000 words!


Magnificent. I would love to read it!


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Magnificent. I would love to read it!


Finished my first draft now! Just have to type it up and find out how many words I have to cut!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

I'm a bit stretched for time this week but will try to get something to you.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Libby13 said:


> I'm a bit stretched for time this week but will try to get something to you.


Yay! I'm looking forward to it, thanks.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I have something completed for this now *but* I'm about to move to a new website domain, so I can't submit quite yet!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I have something completed for this now *but* I'm about to move to a new website domain, so I can't submit quite yet!


No worries, we will wait for you! Good luck with the website work.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> No worries, we will wait for you! Good luck with the website work.


You probably won't have to wait long! I'm hoping it'll be ready in just over a week, but it's the switch from not having my own domain to having one, which I've never done before!

Also now second guessing whether my submission will pass rules! (I always end up doubting!)

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> You probably won't have to wait long! I'm hoping it'll be ready in just over a week, but it's the switch from not having my own domain to having one, which I've never done before!
> 
> Also now second guessing whether my submission will pass rules! (I always end up doubting!)


Having your own domain is wonderful. Highly recommended.

I'm not terribly strict about these things TBH. Is it under 1,500 words? A complete story? Christmas-ish? If so, I'm sure it is suitable.


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## BeMyBookBaby (Apr 18, 2016)

Hey George,

I'm going to write a flash, but I was wondering about the condition that you must already have at least one published fiction?

I'm not quite finished my current and first WIP, but it should be published before December 1st, seeing as my deadline is November 15th. Cover is ready and editing is booked, I'm just not quite ready to part with it. Is that ok? I already have a mailing list and web page.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Having your own domain is wonderful. Highly recommended.
> 
> I'm not terribly strict about these things TBH. Is it under 1,500 words? A complete story? Christmas-ish? If so, I'm sure it is suitable.


It's something I've put off but am finally sorting out!

Yep it's about 950 words, a complete story and definitely Christmassy (think rescuing the Sugar Plum Fairy from the top of a Christmas tree)

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Ellie Keating said:


> I'm not quite finished my current and first WIP, but it should be published before December 1st, seeing as my deadline is November 15th. Cover is ready and editing is booked, I'm just not quite ready to part with it. Is that ok? I already have a mailing list and web page.


Absolutely. Totally fine. Even if it came out on the 15th of December it would be fine. Thanks! I look forward to reading your story.



lauramg_1406 said:


> It's something I've put off but am finally sorting out!
> 
> Yep it's about 950 words, a complete story and definitely Christmassy (think rescuing the Sugar Plum Fairy from the top of a Christmas tree)


Sounds good! I'd love to read it!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hi guys!

We're up to 7 submissions. Please, please reach out to fellow authors via whatever medium is convenient to you and encourage them to participate.

We're a solid go for the paperback thanks to Bill Hiatt's donation. Heather Biedermann has made a donation to cover the cost of the ebook cover. You guys rock! Wanna help me pick out the cover? Let me know your faves from GoOnWrite's options:

http://www.goonwrite.com/book-covers-christmas_pre-made.htm

IT'S HAPPENING!!


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Hi guys!
> 
> We're up to 7 submissions. Please, please reach out to fellow authors via whatever medium is convenient to you and encourage them to participate.
> 
> ...


I know I haven't officially submitted yet but I like the cover with the two snowmen on and the wrapping paper one!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I know I haven't officially submitted yet but I like the cover with the two snowmen on and the wrapping paper one!


Those two snowmen (8513) are definitely cute.


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I've drafted something in my lucky writing notebook but not sure it works - will have a better idea once I type it up.

I like the 'Christmas in our little town' one.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

cecilia_writer said:


> I've drafted something in my lucky writing notebook but not sure it works - will have a better idea once I type it up.
> 
> I like the 'Christmas in our little town' one.


Super. I look forward to reading it!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Hi guys!
> 
> We're up to 7 submissions. Please, please reach out to fellow authors via whatever medium is convenient to you and encourage them to participate.
> 
> ...


The covers have very different feels. I wonder if it might be wise to see what direction the stories tend in before picking a cover.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> The covers have very different feels. I wonder if it might be wise to see what direction the stories tend in before picking a cover.


Not necessarily, IMHO, no. We want an eye-catching cover, first and foremost. Since we're going to have a great variety of stories, there will likely be no one cover that is going to really "fit."

I'm in no rush to choose a cover tho. I think we have till probably Nov 20th or so at the latest. And during that time James, the GoOnWrite designer, will likely issue some more Christmas-themed covers.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Submitted  Hopefully I've done it right, never tried to share a google doc before though!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> Submitted  Hopefully I've done it right, never tried to share a google doc before though!


Got it! Thanks! I'm sure it's fine but I'll let you know if there's any problem. Looking forward to reading it!


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## Sam Mariano (Oct 6, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Hi guys!
> 
> We're up to 7 submissions. Please, please reach out to fellow authors via whatever medium is convenient to you and encourage them to participate.
> 
> ...


I shared it with an author friend, in my author support group, and on a "looking for anthologies to participate in" thread. 

8517 is really cute. I kind of like number 3109, too.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Sam Mariano said:


> I shared it with an author friend, in my author support group, and on a "looking for anthologies to participate in" thread.


Thanks! Much appreciated.


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## wezelrox (Jul 16, 2012)

Hi George - I just read this post and am interested. Is there still room?  I won't be ready until next week. Should I wait until I finish the story before filling out the form - I don't have anything yet to upload.

Thanks


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

wezelrox said:


> Hi George - I just read this post and am interested. Is there still room? I won't be ready until next week. Should I wait until I finish the story before filling out the form - I don't have anything yet to upload.


There is definitely still room and I'd love to have you aboard. Next week is fine. Definitely wait until you have the story before filling out the form, yes.

Looking forward to reading your story!


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

I had to withdraw from the first anthology due to lack of a mailing list. At last, I have set one up with a sign-up form on my website. The withdrawn story is set at Christmas - is that Christmassy enough? If so, can I submit it for this anthology?

[Edit typo]


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I've been wrestling with Mailchimp today (there should really be a gif for this) and hope to get some sort of a mailing list going in time.
Have now got 2 stories - one is completely new, the other is a shortened version of something that was on Smashwords a while ago but has never been on Amazon. I will submit as soon as I have the mailing list working if that's ok.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Sam Kates said:


> I had to withdraw from the first anthology due to lack of a mailing list. At last, I have set one up with a sign-up form on my website. The withdrawn story is set at Christmas - is that Christmassy enough? If so, can I submit it for this anthology?


Please do, Sam, I would love to read it.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

cecilia_writer said:


> I've been wrestling with Mailchimp today (there should really be a gif for this) and hope to get some sort of a mailing list going in time.
> Have now got 2 stories - one is completely new, the other is a shortened version of something that was on Smashwords a while ago but has never been on Amazon. I will submit as soon as I have the mailing list working if that's ok.


Feel free to submit now since the mailing list need only be fully operational by publication time.

Also, call on me if you need help with Mailchimp. Shoot me an email at [email protected] I'm happy to help.

Looking forward to reading your stories!


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Please do, Sam, I would love to read it.


Will send it later this week. It was proofread originally by a couple of other authors but I want to give it a fresh look before sending.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

We're up to 10 submissions, folks! Please keep spreading the word to our fellow authors.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

I've submitted my story... I think. (Please would you let me know whether you could access it, George. I've never used Dropbox before.)


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Sam Kates said:


> I've submitted my story... I think. (Please would you let me know whether you could access it, George. I've never used Dropbox before.)


I can access it, Sam, yes. Thanks. I'm looking forward to reading it.

That makes 11 submissions.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I can access it, Sam, yes. Thanks. I'm looking forward to reading it.
> 
> That makes 11 submissions.


Excellent - thanks.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

I'm liking the "Christmas wrap" one so far. That's #8494. The snowman one is cute, too. With the right title, either could catch some eyes.

I'll be doing the promotion stuff tomorrow {by which I mean, for the Halloween one}, get the word out everywhere I can. I still have some packing up to do today so we can start repairing my kitchen floor. So exciting. Urgh. At least I'll have some nice, shiny sheet vinyl flooring afterward. The current floor is over 15 years old, and it's time to say goodbye. Plus there's a hole in the floor, so it's gotta go!


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I have Fridays off from my day job so I'm planning to finalise and submit my stories and take another (small) step with my mailing list. Sorry about the delay.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

cecilia_writer said:


> I have Fridays off from my day job so I'm planning to finalise and submit my stories and take another (small) step with my mailing list. Sorry about the delay.


That's great! No worries. There's still plenty of time.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

With the spinoff of a paperback edition, the Christmas  Anthology  has the potential to be even bigger and more popular than the Halloween edition.

Keep those submissions coming........ I'm working on my third submission.  

Tell all your writer friends and lets make this a huge success.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Hey, hate to be a complete pain but I had an issue with my Web demain so have had to change it from the one that's on my submission form, what would you like me to do about changing that?

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> Hey, hate to be a complete pain but I had an issue with my Web demain so have had to change it from the one that's on my submission form, what would you like me to do about changing that?


Please let me know once we reach the proofreading phase. It's no problem. Thanks!


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Please let me know once we reach the proofreading phase. It's no problem. Thanks!


Awesome thank you 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I think I've done the Google form and sent a dropbox link but just posting here to let you know in case one of these hasn't worked for any reason.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

cecilia_writer said:


> I think I've done the Google form and sent a dropbox link but just posting here to let you know in case one of these hasn't worked for any reason.


I think I see you in the database but it seems you did not include the link to your story. Perhaps re-submit and include the link, if that's the case? Thanks!


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I think I see you in the database but it seems you did not include the link to your story. Perhaps re-submit and include the link, if that's the case? Thanks!


Thanks very much, George - I've re-submitted. The stories are in a dropbox folder I've shared with you, but the link is in the google form so I hope that will work out all right. Hope the duplication of entries doesn't cause problems - when I got to the end I saw there was an 'edit' option but it was too late by then! Sorry for making such a meal of things.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

No worries, Cecilia! No problem at all. Thanks again for your submission.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

George! I got one I'm submitting. Will get it to you ASAP! in the next 2 days is my plan.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> George! I got one I'm submitting. Will get it to you ASAP! in the next 2 days is my plan.


Sounds good! I'm looking forward to reading it!


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

To get a feel wether I'm on the right track: I have a christmas story that is very science fiction-y. As in, interstellar exploration and teleportation/beaming technology are integral to the plot, but so are Christmas traditions.
Would something like that fit well or be the odd one out based on what you have so far?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

ThomasDiehl said:


> To get a feel wether I'm on the right track: I have a christmas story that is very science fiction-y. As in, interstellar exploration and teleportation/beaming technology are integral to the plot, but so are Christmas traditions.
> Would something like that fit well or be the odd one out based on what you have so far?


It definitely sounds like it has potential. If you take a look at our previous two collections, you'll see there's a large range of different stories, including multiple genres, so as long as it is Christmasy and vaguely can be said to relate to family, it would probably fit.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZIUFIW
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MA53T8D


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

We're up to 14 submissions, folks. I'd really like to get us up to 20, at least. Consider posting a link to the first page of this thread in your favorite author group on Facebook or elsewhere. The previous anthology in this series just spent several days in the top 1000 Free on Amazon.com.

And this one will be in paperback!


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

None of the covers really says "family" & X'mas to me. But I guess the ones I think will work would be:

8378 No Presents This Year
3183 Dearest Time
3105 Gifts We Bring

The cartoonish ones don't seem to fit and the food ones might make us look like a cookbook of recipes.


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## FadeToBlack (May 8, 2015)

...


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Leah Ross said:


> I just submitted the form with a link to three stories from me. Please let me know if you have any trouble accessing the folder, George. Thanks for putting this together!


Awesome! I look forward to reading them. Thanks. Leah.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

George

I just submitted another story. Let me know if you have any trouble with Dropbox


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Super. I look forward to reading it. Thanks, John!


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

AS for covers . . . . I like - 

3175 Festivities

3183 My Dearest Time (like the cover image, not the title)

8484 Festive Funtime


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## BeMyBookBaby (Apr 18, 2016)

Hey George.

As far as three submissions go, I've got one written, and I was toying with the idea of two more flash fictions that are related to the first, but all stand alone. Same universe as the series I'm currently writing, but outside of the timeline. Sort of showing snapshots of each main character at Christmas during significant events. 

My questions:

1. Is that ok? Or do you want them all unrelated?
2. Will the stories from the same author be kept together? Or are you jumbling them about? I don't think it impacts me either way. I'm just curious.
3. Is it a case of maybe submitting three, but you might reject two or, God forbid, all three?

Thanks for your time.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Ellie Keating said:


> 1. Is that ok? Or do you want them all unrelated?


Totally fine.



Ellie Keating said:


> 2. Will the stories from the same author be kept together? Or are you jumbling them about? I don't think it impacts me either way. I'm just curious.


I try to distribute them evenly throughout the book or section, definitely. I aim not to bunch them together.



Ellie Keating said:


> 3. Is it a case of maybe submitting three, but you might reject two or, God forbid, all three?


For the first anthology in this series, I think I opted not to publish 17 out of 50 submitted stories. For the second, I believe I published every single story that was submitted and my goal is absolutely to publish every story that is submitted.

I'm not asking for three so I can reject some of them, definitely not. I would be thrilled to publish three stories per author in every anthology and aim to produce three good stories myself for each one.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Anyone interested in submitting a story for inclusion in the Christmas Anthology - there's still time. 

Get those stories in soon.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hurricane John said:


> Anyone interested in submitting a story for inclusion in the Christmas Anthology - there's still time.
> 
> Get those stories in soon.


Thanks for the reminder, John! Indeed, we've got 3 days left but may be able to accept a limited number of submissions after the deadline, so there is definitely time to get in on this project.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Hey George

If the paperback version is still a go, I suggest you release that before the eBook format. (Release the eBook format a few days later)

Have you thought about a price?  I'm thinking 3.99 or 4.99 is a good stocking stuffer price. Depending of the final number of pages, it may have to be more.


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

Okay, finally got myself together and submitted.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

I'll be submitting something! Just need to edit it. It'll probably be longer than 1k but no longer than the extra five hundred word limit if that's still all right. I might try to get another story written by the deadline as well.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

John, I'm not sure yet.

Welcome, Alice!

Jessie, looking forward to reading another story from you.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Ok I've decided that for the cover, I kind of like 3187 too (Keeping Warm).

I can't wait till this comes out.


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

And off it goes. About 570 words of sci-fi romance at Christmas in deep space. Unusually saccharine for me, but then again, usually my mc doesn't survive my flash fiction pieces. Still, I've never done anything involving romance before.

The mailing list link is a placeholder, this will change in time for publication. I had stopped using my mailing list when redesigning my site earlier this year but can easily resurrect it.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Excellent, Thomas, thanks. I look forward to reading your story.


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## BeMyBookBaby (Apr 18, 2016)

I sent men yesterday as well, George! Hope you got it! 

Let me know if you need any help with anything!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Ellie Keating said:


> I sent men yesterday as well, George! Hope you got it!
> 
> Let me know if you need any help with anything!


I don't see the name "Ellie Keating" in the submission database. If you used a different name, that might explain it. Did you use the submission form? If so, I'm sure it's there. I'll soon post a list of the stories and if yours isn't in the list, definitely let me know. Thanks!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

George, I was going to add a story, but I see the form asks that it only be submitted once. In a case like that, should I email you the second story?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> George, I was going to add a story, but I see the form asks that it only be submitted once. In a case like that, should I email you the second story?


No, please go ahead and submit again. In the future tho I ask that folks only submit once per anthology so that I might minimize the time I invest in administrative tasks.

Looking forward to your second story.


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

George, I have a story that I'd like to submit if I get chance to do the necessary bit of tinkering in the next 24 hours so as to meet the deadline. I wanted to ask - I write in British English. Do you want submissions to use American English/spellings? (Apologies if that's a stupid question!)


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

MinnieC said:


> George, I have a story that I'd like to submit if I get chance to do the necessary bit of tinkering in the next 24 hours so as to meet the deadline. I wanted to ask - I write in British English. Do you want submissions to use American English/spellings? (Apologies if that's a stupid question!)


Minnie, whatever works best for you is fine with me. British English spellings are totally AOK with me.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> No, please go ahead and submit again. In the future tho I ask that folks only submit once per anthology so that I might minimize the time I invest in administrative tasks.
> 
> Looking forward to your second story.


Will do. I wasn't aware I was going to submit a second story, or I would have put them in together.


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Minnie, whatever works best for you is fine with me. British English spellings are totally AOK with me.


Excellent. Thank you!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Story submitted! Thanks for the opportunity.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

Just submitted


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to reading them!

It looks like we're up to 21 submissions, so we've reached our goal.

If anyone still wants to get a story in, please know I can extend the deadline for you. Just please get in touch.

I apologize in advance, I won't have any more information on the submitted stories until mid next week. I've got a couple of urgent projects I need to finish up first.

Have a great weekend, guys!


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> It looks like we're up to 21 submissions, so we've reached our goal.


Great news!


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

Hi George, I've just submitted my story but I'm a bit shaky with Google docs so I hope I've actually managed to let you have access to it!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

MinnieC said:


> Hi George, I've just submitted my story but I'm a bit shaky with Google docs so I hope I've actually managed to let you have access to it!


No problem, I am able to access it. Thanks!


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> No problem, I am able to access it. Thanks!


Wonderful, thank you!


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## Chris Ifill (Jun 12, 2015)

I just submitted a story for the collection. I hope you are able to access from google docs.

Let me know if you can't for any reason.


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

Sam Mariano said:


> 8517 is really cute. I kind of like number 3109, too.


As both a fan of minimalist covers and a non-christian favouring iconography that is not too obviously specific to one particular winter solstice holiday tradition, I second 3109 along with liking 8504


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

If I'm being honest, I'm not wowed by any of them. I think my first choice would also be 3109 (nice electric green Christmas tree), followed by 8478 and 8487 (both women opening packages and releasing a glow). I guess from a symbolic standpoint, I'd like a flash fiction cover that, well, flashes, electrically or otherwise. (It's too bad I'm not artistic; I keep seeing an image of a snowy landscape with lightning flashing above, maybe a motion-blurred sleigh speeding past.)

Are we married to that particular artist? I know a Kboards member who does an original ebook cover for $70 (paperback is $25 extra). (If that's a little beyond our current budget, I can make up the difference.) You can see some of her work in my signature (Angel Feather and The Devil Hath the Power are both hers.) You can see more samples at _http://julienicholls.com/artwork-for-sale/book-covers/_. Her work does lean toward fantasy, which she also writes, but she's extremely flexible. She consults personally via FB chat and gets client approval for the concept before moving forward. She's willing to adjust in any way if her first attempt isn't quite what the client wants, and she has a fast turnaround (24 hours or so).

I don't mean to be pushy. George is the editor, and I am only one member of this twenty-plus group. I'll happily go with whatever the decision is. I am merely offering an alternative.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm not particularly excited about any of those options either, TBH. I am open to other artists. Our budget for combined ebook and paperback is as much as about $110 IIRC (thanks to Bill's and Heather's donations).

If we're going to consider other artists, I'd like to give Jes at http://www.coverbistro.com/ a good look because she donated the cover for the first book in the Flash Flood series.

Keep in mind that covers are tricky. We don't want to try and engineer a cover. We want to give the designer free rein. Our only goals for the cover IMHO should be to (1) grab their attention (2) signal the content in a very general way. That's all it needs to do and trying to make it do more often leads to problems.

One concern I have with ordering a cover is that I may not like it. If I'm not going to be thrilled about it, it sounds funny but I'd rather know up front (i.e., use a pre-made).

One thing I like about GoOnWrite is that the design is quality. I know it looks professional from the get-go.

So I'll leave you with those thoughts.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I'm not particularly excited about any of those options either, TBH. I am open to other artists. Our budget for combined ebook and paperback is as much as about $110 IIRC (thanks to Bill's and Heather's donations).
> 
> If we're going to consider other artists, I'd like to give Jes at http://www.coverbistro.com/ a good look because she donated the cover for the first book in the Flash Flood series.
> 
> ...


I'd be happy to go with Jes. I liked the cover on the first anthology, and I like her custom work as well. It sounds as if she is in roughly the same price range as Julie and has a fast enough turnaround for our needs.

I'd also agree that trying to micromanage exactly how the cover will look is a mistake. For _The Devil Hath the Power_, Julie came up with a much better idea than I had originally. I've often had that experience with cover artists.

Assuming Jes confers enough with the client, I don't think there's too much risk of ending up with something you don't want from either Jes or Julie.

I guess my general preference is custom-made rather than premade. Particularly with a paperback, I'd like an image that really stands out, not one that is overly generic.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

We have to keep in mind the publication/release date of December 1st is coming fast. 
Can either cover designer create cover options we can all vote on in such a short time frame?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hurricane John said:


> We have to keep in mind the publication/release date of December 1st is coming fast.
> Can either cover designer create cover options we can all vote on in such a short time frame?


Good questions, especially since I can't give this issue my attention until Tuesday.

Keep in mind that voting is probably a bad idea. For the first anthology in this series I opened up the decision-making a bit and it led to some strife as people voiced conflicting opinions. I want to take everyone's thoughts into account but I probably need to maintain my emergency dictatorial powers.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Hurricane John said:


> We have to keep in mind the publication/release date of December 1st is coming fast.
> Can either cover designer create cover options we can all vote on in such a short time frame?


In order to have multiple options to vote on, you'd have to pay multiple cover designers. Even voting on one designer means paying the designer--nobody is going to do all the work on spec. If we want to go with something over than a premade, we'll have to let George decide for us--which I'm fine with.

Is there time to get a designer to do a cover? Yes. Julie has pretty close to twenty-four hour turnaround, and Jes I believe says a week to a week and a half.

I'd be happy to go with a premade if one of them was really eye-catching. To me, at least, none of them really grab me, though if most people feel differently, I'll naturally be content with whatever is decided.


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

ThomasDiehl said:


> As both a fan of minimalist covers and a non-christian favouring iconography that is not too obviously specific to one particular winter solstice holiday tradition...


I agree with this, if possible...


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

ThomasDiehl said:


> As both a fan of minimalist covers and a non-christian favouring iconography that is not too obviously specific to one particular winter solstice holiday tradition, I second 3109 along with liking 8504


It's George's choice but Jesus Christ, the theme of this collection is Christmas with the capital C. I'm not one to press religion on anyone, but I find this indirect slight very off-putting and in fact a bit offensive.

OTOH you are ok with yourself commercially capitalizing on a day that you find so disturbing?


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

I don't know whether my story even qualifies (it's definitely Christmassy; not so sure about the 'family' requirement), but I thought this was a Christmas anthology, as in to do with Christmas in the Christian tradition, irrespective of contributors' beliefs. As such, the cover should surely have some sort of Christmas motif, shouldn't it?


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I don't think the cover needs to be overtly Christian. There are plenty of things that say Christmas without alienating readers that would avoid it because it had a certain feel to it. 

Snowmen, robins, trees, snow, candy canes, reindeer etc. None of which scream Christian or commercialism but do say Christmas 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

AlexaKang said:


> It's George's choice but Jesus Christ, the theme of this collection is Christmas with the capital C. I'm not one to press religion on anyone, but I find this indirect slight very off-putting and in fact a bit offensive.
> 
> OTOH you are ok with yourself commercially capitalizing on a day that you find so disturbing?


Where I'm from, Christmas is not called that and is celebrated by people of all religions as well as those of none. The traditions are still mostly the same, it just doesn't involve Jesus as much as it does in America. It's just some holiday near the end of the year where the family comes together. Christians will have their annual church visit (or one of two, the other being at Easter) and many people will have a little crib model out of tradition, but that's mostly it as far as explicitly religious involvement goes.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

We're fiction writers and our purpose here is not advocating religion. I for one have no issue with the cover not being a message of religion. We shouldn't do that anyway. What I do find troubling is the language "winter solstice holiday". It really sounds to me like an unprovoked dig/insult at Christians. Also, if we're doing a Christmas themed collection, then why can't we even acknowledge that? Why do we have to hide the concept of Christmas and make it not too obvious specific? 

We all come from many different places. If Christmas is not called Christmas, there is nothing to stop anyone from publishing an anthology about multi-cultural holidays. But if we are doing a Valentines Day collection, or a Halloween collection, then shouldn't we stick with the theme, or should we hide those themes too because someone submitting a story is from a place where Valentines Day is considered a moral violation or Halloween is considered demonic? 

If someone wants to organize a Winter Solstice Celebration collection, or whatever else December means to them, they'll have my full support. I'll even help promote it. But respect goes both ways.

Sorry George. Putting you in a tough spot really is the last thing I want and it really is not my intention. Again, I'm not advocating for us to have a religious tone at all. All I want is to point out that it is offensive to mock anyone's religious beliefs. I'll take the poster's word that it was not an intentional insult and let this rest.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> We're fiction writers and our purpose here is not advocating religion. I for one have no issue with the cover not being a message of religion. We shouldn't do that anyway. What I do find troubling is the language "winter solstice holiday". It really sounds to me like an unprovoked dig/insult at Christians. Also, if we're doing a Christmas themed collection, then why can't we even acknowledge that? Why do we have to hide the concept of Christmas and make it not too obvious specific?
> 
> We all come from many different places. If Christmas is not called Christmas, there is nothing to stop anyone from publishing an anthology about multi-cultural holidays. But if we are doing a Valentines Day collection, or a Halloween collection, then shouldn't we stick with the theme, or should we hide those themes too because someone submitting a story is from a place where Valentines Day is considered a moral violation or Halloween is considered demonic?
> 
> ...


I understand completely where you're coming from, Alexa. I don't think anyone's intent was to try to suppress all Christmas references (which the stories themselves are no doubt full of).

I don't mean to speak for other people, but perhaps the intent of the original poster was to steer away from an overtly religious image (like the manger scenes) toward one that is still Christmas-themed but less overtly religious. I believe the poster's first choice was the green illuminated Christmas tree.

I can actually see a practical reason for such a preference. The stories in the anthology are no doubt diverse. I have two, and one actually is religious, while the other is a humorous story about Santa. A specifically religious cover might give people the impression that the stories are all religious and lead to some unhappy downloaders (or worse, paperback buyers). A Christmas tree or similar cover doesn't convey quite the same impression about possible content, at least not to me. (Yes, people should read the product description. No, everyone doesn't.)

I'm away the issue of acknowledging Christmas has become a bit more contentious in recent years. Last year I read an article from someone who was offended by the tendency for businesses to instruct employees to say, "Happy Holidays!" instead of "Merry Christmas!" The author took that as an attempt to suppress the Christmas spirit. My background, however, leads me to a different conclusion.

For thirty-four years I taught in a high school that had a very different religious demographic from the US as a whole. The single most common religion was Judaism, with Christianity (lumping all forms together) and Islam fighting for a very distant second place. I also had a few students over the years who were Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Baha'i, and Zoroastrian.

Some of the non-Christian students did celebrate Christmas in a kind of secular way (much as non-Irish, non-Catholics observe St. Patrick's Day or non-saint-revering Christians and others observe St Valentine's Day.) Some at the other end of the spectrum were hypersensitive about any reference to Christmas.

In that kind of atmosphere it always seemed more polite to say, "Happy Holidays" (since everyone observed secular New Year's, and the Jewish students observed Hanukkah at around the same time) to non-Christians and "Merry Christmas," to Christians. There was no official policy on that, and I wasn't trying to suppress Christmas. I was just try to honor each person's traditions in a pluralistic society (and a public school classroom in which religious neutrality was a necessity).

I know most of that detail isn't relevant. I offer it to show that people's motivations for wanting a somewhat more neutral cover can be extremely diverse and sometimes based, not on wanting to disrespect Christmas but on wanting to respect diversity. (I have the feeling I'm babbling a little, but I hope my basic meaning is clear.)

Irrelevant fun fact: my high school was probably the only one in America to give the students Nowruz off. (We had a large Persian population, roughly 30% of the school.) We were also the only school in the area to make Yom Kippur a holiday *and* give two days off for Rosh Hashanah.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Thank you Bill, for your patient explanation, and sharing your thoughts and experience. The inclusive environment you describe is exactly the kind of community I support too. And I never originated any post to advocate a cover with Christian religious overtone other than identifying one cover with a nativity scene that looks to me to be story telling, but along with several others that are giftboxes, reindeer, etc. Like the rest of you I do not want readers to mistake this for a book in the spiritual category. (TBH none of the Xmas premades on Jim's site looks "faith reading" IMO, but I can certainly understand if others don't want any images of Jesus or things from the Bible). I've said in each of my post above that I'm all for something that has no religious/theological overtone.

Perhaps it will help to clarify for OP and others who aren't aware. There are people who are against religion/Christianity who mock Christians for "stealing" the winter solstice and pagan celebration and making that into Christmas. This claim is used as one of their arguments to say why Christmas doesn't exist. Of course, we are all entitled to our own beliefs on that matter. However, I think it would be inappropriate to force this issue in a group project where there are people who celebrate Christmas as Christians, by referring to Christmas as "one particular winter solstice holiday". And it is true indeed that in recent times, the very existence of Christmas has been said to offend some people, and to not offend them, Christians should therefore go into hiding and not show any symbols of Christmas openly and in public, or even dare say "Merry X'mas". I'll say again then that I'm giving the OP the benefit of the doubt that his post was not an intentional insult. We can all respect each other, be inclusive, and make this book a success. Let's not put George in a tough spot. Whatever he decides, I'll support 100%. 

For the record, I currently write WWII fiction. That genre has a tendency to draw readers from the faith/spiritual category. Since my stories are not clean and wholesome, I actively avoid drawing that audience, even though sometimes it seems they wander over anyway. I'm not in any way interested in pressing a religious agenda.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Thank you Bill, for your patient explanation, and sharing your thoughts and experience. The inclusive environment you describe is exactly the kind of community I support too. And I never originated any post to advocate a cover with Christian religious overtone other than identifying one cover with a nativity scene that looks to me to be story telling, but along with several others that are giftboxes, reindeer, etc. Like the rest of you I do not want readers to mistake this for a book in the spiritual category. (TBH none of the Xmas premades on Jim's site looks "faith reading" IMO, but I can certainly understand if others don't want any images of Jesus or things from the Bible). I've said in each of my post above that I'm all for something that has no religious/theological overtone.
> 
> Perhaps it will help to clarify for OP and others who aren't aware. There are people who are against religion/Christianity who mock Christians for "stealing" the winter solstice and pagan celebration and making that into Christmas. This claim is used as one of their arguments to say why Christmas doesn't exist. Of course, we are all entitled to our own beliefs on that matter. However, I think it would be inappropriate to force this issue in a group project where there are people who celebrate Christmas as Christians, by referring to Christmas as "one particular winter solstice holiday". And it is true indeed that in recent times, the very existence of Christmas has been said to offend some people, and to not offend them, Christians should therefore go into hiding and not show any symbols of Christmas openly and in public, or even dare say "Merry X'mas". I'll say again then that I'm giving the OP the benefit of the doubt that his post was not an intentional insult. We can all respect each other, be inclusive, and make this book a success. Let's not put George in a tough spot. Whatever he decides, I'll support 100%.
> 
> For the record, I currently write WWII fiction. That genre has a tendency to draw readers from the faith/spiritual category. Since my stories are not clean and wholesome, I actively avoid drawing that audience, even though sometimes it seems they wander over anyway. I'm not in any way interested in pressing a religious agenda.


Yes, I realized after the fact that I had misread part of your post. I think we agree there's nothing wrong with having a Christmas anthology or having a cover that suggests the holiday without implying that the content of the anthology is necessarily religious in nature. I'm assuming someone who took the view you cite above wouldn't want to participate, which would be fine too (though I doubt any of our authors really feel that way.

We also both agree that George, as the editor of the anthology, has then final word on the cover. I was happy with the first two and am sure whatever he picks will be fine.


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

AlexaKang said:


> We're fiction writers and our purpose here is not advocating religion. I for one have no issue with the cover not being a message of religion. We shouldn't do that anyway. What I do find troubling is the language "winter solstice holiday". It really sounds to me like an unprovoked dig/insult at Christians.


My apologies, that was not intended. To me this seemed the most neutral way of collecting all the different holidays around that time (Christmas, Hanukkah, pagan winter solstice, and whatever else there might be) into one description as opposed to just "the holidays" which could mean anything.

I did not mean to mock any belief, though I do realize my general lack of understanding religion can sometimes come across in such a way. This was not, and will in this place never be, intentional.

I will also not condemn the very uttering of the word Christmas or a phrase like Merry Christmas. Combining such a holiday of love, kindness, family, charity, and goodwill with any kind of oppression, seems an absurd thing to ask for. Quite the opposite, I would like everybody to have a very Merry Christmas come the day.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

ThomasDiehl said:


> My apologies, that was not intended. To me this seemed the most neutral way of collecting all the different holidays around that time (Christmas, Hanukkah, pagan winter solstice, and whatever else there might be) into one description as opposed to just "the holidays" which could mean anything.
> 
> I did not mean to mock any belief, though I do realize my general lack of understanding religion can sometimes come across in such a way. This was not, and will in this place never be, intentional.
> 
> I will also not condemn the very uttering of the word Christmas or a phrase like Merry Christmas. Combining such a holiday of love, kindness, family, charity, and goodwill with any kind of oppression, seems an absurd thing to ask for. Quite the opposite, I would like everybody to have a very Merry Christmas come the day.


Thanks Thomas and no hard feelings. I'm looking forward to reading your story in the collection.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

It's nice to read such a polite and civilized discussion about Christmas. 

I'm looking forward to reading all the stories in this anthology. If this book comes out in hardcopy, I'm pretty sure I have a few purchases lined up. 😆


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Guys, I was actually thinking of one with a young lady in a skimpy Santa suit. Any objections? 

Just kidding. Seriously tho...

On the issue of hiring a designer, I have to plead against this. I have a bunch of client work and I'm concerned about the cover not turning out to our satisfaction. It also opens the can of worms that is democracy and, well, we all saw how that turned out last Tuesday. 

Anyway, here are two that I found eye-catching. I think the first grabbed my attention due to the color contrast of the white vs the blue and the second because of the bold blue.

GoOnWrite has a slim selection so feel free to search elsewhere for premades and let me know if you find anything good. Be sure to link directly to any images you want to suggest or embed them in your forum post.

It's important to keep in mind, IMHO, that with anthologies like these, we're going for eye-catching and general. That's all we need. After that, we need to keep the focus on marketing in order to accomplish our goals for even doing these anthologies in the first place. That's just my sense of it and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

Thanks! More information coming soon on the submitted/accepted stories and more.


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

I prefer 8507 as a generic cover. The other one is leaning toward cozy, and I'm not sure if that is generic enough. But since you've read all the stories, you would know which matched better. I'm happy to go with the consensus.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AliceS said:


> I prefer 8507 as a generic cover. The other one is leaning toward cozy, and I'm not sure if that is generic enough. But since you've read all the stories, you would know which matched better. I'm happy to go with the consensus.


I haven't actually read the stories yet and, from a marketing POV, it doesn't matter (IMHO). The job of the cover is just to give an idea of the genre and grab attention so browsers will check out the blurb.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

8507 got my attention. Especially the Santa salt shaker.    Ho, Ho, Ho!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

I'm not a huge fan of generic Santas. How about this one in terms of color contrasts, plus the considerations expressed last week:


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I'm not a huge fan of generic Santas. How about this one in terms of color contrasts, plus the considerations expressed last week:


Bill

I like this cover at the blown up size, but I'm wondering if it isn't to busy at a smaller size when displayed on Amazon's website?

For example -


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Hurricane John said:


> Bill
> 
> I like this cover at the blown up size, but I'm wondering if it isn't to busy at a smaller size when displayed on Amazon's website?


That's my first try at posting an image. I have no idea why it came out that big, but I was looking at it in a smaller size when I first saw it.

Just a second, and I'll see what I can do with a smaller one.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

OK,I just shrunk it to 160 X 160 in PS. (That's the size Amazon uses in search lists)








It lloks to me as if the author name needs to be a different color, but otherwise it still looks OK, and it will look nice on the product page, where it's bigger.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

There's a nice collection here: http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com/index.php?option=com_author&view=search&searchword=christmas


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I like the baubles but don't like it as a cover. I agree that it's a bit too fussy. However I do think something like that as opposed to a Christmas character like Santa is better. Just from a marketing POV readers could mistake it for short stories just about that character 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> OK,I just shrunk it to 160 X 160 in PS. (That's the size Amazon uses in search lists)
> It lloks to me as if the author name needs to be a different color, but otherwise it still looks OK, and it will look nice on the product page, where it's bigger.


I'm not excited about it for a couple reasons:

(1) the author name is not well-contrasted against the background.
(2) At a small size, I can't immediately tell that it's Christmasy.

When I spoke of color contrast, the gold standard is that blue-orange thing. For example:


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## blancheking (Oct 15, 2015)

Is there room for one more author?  I'll have something by Friday


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

blancheking said:


> Is there room for one more author?  I'll have something by Friday


Absolutely, that would be wonderful! I look forward to reading your story.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Guys, there is a 99c promo at the beginning of December. We can't have our book in it if it's free. So I'm wondering how my fellow authors feel about leaving the book at 99c until this promo is done (so we can participate) and then setting it to permafree?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd91LDI9OZwCwb6VC_eNwfIVK-FxYK6PHy0VqagrD5F5Scrdg/viewform?c=0&w=1

We were actually disqualified from a previous one by this same author for Halloween because Monster Maelstrom went permafree so quickly.

Your thoughts welcome. 

(Any income generated I would direct towards future publishing expenses for this Flash Flood anthology series.)


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Guys, there is a 99c promo at the beginning of December. We can't have our book in it if it's free. So I'm wondering how my fellow authors feel about leaving the book at 99c until this promo is done (so we can participate) and then setting it to permafree?
> 
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd91LDI9OZwCwb6VC_eNwfIVK-FxYK6PHy0VqagrD5F5Scrdg/viewform?c=0&w=1
> 
> ...


Any idea what the track record is with this particular series of promos? Unless the sales from it are huge, I think its easier to market if we hit permafree as fast as we can. "Free Everywhere" is easier to advertise than "Free Everywhere Except Amazon Until After a $.99 promo." I'd also be concerned that people would buy it, then see it free almost immediately afterward and be irked. There's also the ranking. I'd rather start moving up the free chart ASAP than building a little ranking on a list we'll never be on again.

On the cover issue, I totally see your point. Suggestion withdrawn. I'll see if I can find anything else.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Here's a thought:









Title and author are much clearer, and the blue is pretty vibrant.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Those are solid concerns, Bill, thanks. You've definitely given me something to think about. I like to do promos because they give us a significant jump in the rankings that we don't get just for being free and promo-less. I wonder if entering permafree at a higher paid rank would give us a higher permafree rank?

Your second cover suggestion is definitely interesting. How much is it?


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Those are solid concerns, Bill, thanks. You've definitely given me something to think about. I like to do promos because they give us a significant jump in the rankings that we don't get just for being free and promo-less. I wonder if entering permafree at a higher paid rank would give us a higher permafree rank?
> 
> Your second cover suggestion is definitely interesting. How much is it?


$79.

I could be wrong, but I think paid and free ranking are now completely divorced from each other.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Possibly even better color contrast:


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Possibly even better color contrast:


Also $79.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Possibly even better color contrast:


I like this one.


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Possibly even better color contrast:


Very nice balance between generic and specific, I like it. The one before that, as well.

I would like to point out those look very different from the other two anthologies, but I'm not really concerned by that. Readership for both is probably going to be different people, anyway.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

ThomasDiehl said:


> Very nice balance between generic and specific, I like it. The one before that, as well.
> 
> I would like to point out those look very different from the other two anthologies, but I'm not really concerned by that. Readership for both is probably going to be different people, anyway.


I think the first two covers didn't look all that similar either, except to the extent that both were drawn, but I liked both of them very much.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hi guys, thanks for your submissions! I appreciate very much your trust and confidence.

We have 26 stories from 22 authors. I expect this to increase to 29 stories from 25 authors before we're done.

I'll proceed now to read them and decide which ones to include - hopefully all, like with the Halloween anthology.

There is still time to submit your story/ies. Just give me a heads up.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Hi guys, thanks for your submissions! I appreciate very much your trust and confidence.
> 
> We have 26 stories from 22 authors. I expect this to increase to 29 stories from 25 authors before we're done.
> 
> ...


It's nice to see how the anthology is growing. I think that's partly a tribute to how well the preceding ones did.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I've posted the announcement for the Valentine's Day anthology, btw. Hope you'll join us for that as well. Please spread the word widely:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,244252.0.html


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Possibly even better color contrast:


Oh I like this one better than any of the Goonwrite ones.

BTW George, my story is done. I finished the final edits and the version on Google doc is final.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Guys, there is a 99c promo at the beginning of December. We can't have our book in it if it's free. So I'm wondering how my fellow authors feel about leaving the book at 99c until this promo is done (so we can participate) and then setting it to permafree?
> 
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd91LDI9OZwCwb6VC_eNwfIVK-FxYK6PHy0VqagrD5F5Scrdg/viewform?c=0&w=1
> 
> ...


Any chance for a 99c Bookbub?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> Any chance for a 99c Bookbub?


I feel like that might be an option for a future anthology in this, or another, series. Have any of us done a Bookbub before? I'm wondering how much it would cost. If someone wants to work on that, by all means, go for it.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I feel like that might be an option for a future anthology in this, or another, series. Have any of us done a Bookbub before? I'm wondering how much it would cost. If someone wants to work on that, by all means, go for it.


As a frequent Bookbub reject, I'm pessimistic. They do take new releases, but I think we'd need a pile of positive reviews on at least one of the earlier anthologies. Our current record on Amazon is 4 reviews (3.5 stars) and 1 review (5 star). I know some people get in with a relatively small number of reviews, depending on genre, but mostly it's much higher. Yesterday's email has books with 36 and 4.7, 81 and 4.2, 211 and 4.1, 14 (!) and 4.6, 194 and 3.9, 15 (!) and 3.3 (!) (but description says over 700 five star reviews on Goodreads), 69 and 4.7, 871 4.4 (NYT Bestseller), and the new ad type they're trying has one one, 40 and 4.7. I wasn't checking the publishers carefully, but I went back and checked the two with the lowest number of reviews, and they're both trad published. So are at least two of the others. (Remember that the trads are waking up to the Bookbub potential and now snap more ad space.  (I signed up for fantasy, science fiction, and young adult, so all the titles above fall in those categories. I've heard romance novels need crazy review numbers to get it.)

I'm not saying don't do it. It costs nothing to try. I'm just saying don't get your hopes up. Our anthologies sell really well. The Halloween one still has a decent rank despite being out-of-season now (and 12 downloads from my own, not very heavily trafficked website, so that has to mean something!) We should be proud of those results. To snag Bookbub, though, I think we need more reviews, and reviews are hard to come by. We could try to cultivate reviews, but that takes time.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I feel like that might be an option for a future anthology in this, or another, series. Have any of us done a Bookbub before? I'm wondering how much it would cost. If someone wants to work on that, by all means, go for it.


Last time I submitted for a free book promo at Bookbub it was 350.00 for promotion within the USA ony and double that to promote worldwide. A 0.99 cent book would put you over the thousand dollar mark for a worldwide promo.

Not sure where we'd get the funds for that?


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

George

Does the December 1st release still seem doable?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

To get more reviews, the Flash Flood mailing list may help, which is currently at almost 150. I just sent a request out for reviews to the list yesterday.

We may also need to spend some money in order to reach out directly to known reviewers. Possibly as much as a couple hundred dollars.

Our actual Bookbub might be cheaper than others since it would be an anthology and anthologies in general aren't as popular as other book types. Where would the money come from? Great question, John. I'm sure we can come up with something.

One obstacle we may face is that some people don't like flash fiction. It's relatively painless for us but are readers happy with it? We should give that some thought.

We may want to dream up something really grand for our 7th anthology, currently unscheduled, with longer stories and a huge number or selection of stories or all the stories in one genre or all written from the same concept. That kind of focus could predispose both greater buzz and better reviewer reception.

We may want to woo best-selling authors, big name authors, and give some thought to how such a project could serve them.

Let's keep strategizing about this for a future anthology. I like the idea. And I *love* having a long-term large-scale goal that we're chasing because it's going to focus and motivate our efforts from here on out. Definitely. *You're thinking big, Alexa. Kudos!
*
I think one good strategy is to focus on our fundamentals: do the social media sharing of our new releases, email our lists, grow our lists, write our blog posts, etc - because so far not every author in the past 2 anthologies has been keeping their promises on that. It's a drag that slows us down.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hurricane John said:


> Does the December 1st release still seem doable?


It's doable but I am a bit behind schedule and overbooked.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

7th anthology idea...I've seen anthologies done where all the authors are given the same character description or setting and they do their spin on it.

Or something like fairytales/Shakespeare/classic books reimagined. That kind of thing is pretty popular, though I think stories would possibly need to be longer. (However I may be biased in this regard considering I've written fairytale retellings before)

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> 7th anthology idea...I've seen anthologies done where all the authors are given the same character description or setting and they do their spin on it.


I like this idea.

Another idea came to me as well: A Donald Trump anthology. Some Facebook friends said they like the idea so I'm going with it no matter what. I think it's going to be a blast. Here are the details:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,244289.0.html
http://georgedonnelly.com/donald-trump-flash-fiction-anthology/


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I like this idea.
> 
> Another idea came to me as well: A Donald Trump anthology. Some Facebook friends said they like the idea so I'm going with it no matter what. I think it's going to be a blast. Here are the details:
> 
> ...


Thank you! As a reader (well and an author) I love seeing how people twist well known characters!

Haha I love that idea! Not sure I know enough about Trump to actually take part! (I'm UK based not just ignorant of the man!)

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

lauramg_1406 said:


> Thank you! As a reader (well and an author) I love seeing how people twist well known characters!
> 
> Haha I love that idea! Not sure I know enough about Trump to actually take part! (I'm UK based not just ignorant of the man!)
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


May I suggest a post-apocalyptic bromance between Trump and Farage, for any UK readers.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

cecilia_writer said:


> May I suggest a post-apocalyptic bromance between Trump and Farage, for any UK readers.


But Farage is so unimportant it's untrue! He's not even an MP!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

cecilia_writer said:


> May I suggest a post-apocalyptic bromance between Trump and Farage, for any UK readers.


Hahaha, hilarious!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> To get more reviews, the Flash Flood mailing list may help, which is currently at almost 150. I just sent a request out for reviews to the list yesterday.
> 
> We may also need to spend some money in order to reach out directly to known reviewers. Possibly as much as a couple hundred dollars.
> 
> ...


I'll donate something if we have a chance for something as big as Bookbub. However, if at some point we want to go for that, we will probably have to do it as a permafree book, not a temporary $.99 book. From Bookbub submission requirements: "The best deal available. We won't consider a book if it has been offered for a better price in the last 90 days, or if it will be offered for less in the near future." Just staying at $.99 wouldn't be an option, and making the book free afterward definitely wouldn't be an option. Actually, we'd have to price higher than $.99 initially so that we could be offering a bargain price. That's putting a lot of eggs in the basket of the BookBub promotion. That's why permafree is the way to go on that.

I would have recommended a Choosy Bookworm Read and Review program entry, except that they're currently overbooked and not accepting new clients right now. 

Bestselling authors are worth taking a shot at too, but they aren't going to be interested unless they think they can increase their own reader base. That means, as you were suggesting further down, that at least one of the anthologies probably has to be a smash hit before a really big writer would be interested. We're doing well, but not quite so well as to be able to lure someone.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

lauramg_1406 said:


> 7th anthology idea...I've seen anthologies done where all the authors are given the same character description or setting and they do their spin on it.
> 
> Or something like fairytales/Shakespeare/classic books reimagined. That kind of thing is pretty popular, though I think stories would possibly need to be longer. (However I may be biased in this regard considering I've written fairytale retellings before)
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


Classics with a twist would certainly interest me. It would also lend itself to somewhat longer stories, maybe in the short story range (5000 words or so). If people knew far enough in advance, they could do it.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Classics with a twist would certainly interest me. It would also lend itself to somewhat longer stories, maybe in the short story range (5000 words or so). If people knew far enough in advance, they could do it.


My only concern with classics is that they require more work from the author than just giving them a concept, setting or character. The less research required, the more submissions we'll get.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> My only concern with classics is that they require more work from the author than just giving them a concept, setting or character. The less research required, the more submissions we'll get.


On the other hand, I bet most of us have a favourite classic book and coming up with something for that would probably be fairly straight forward!

I say this but my favourite classic is Dracula which, let's face it, has no possible unique retelling possibilities!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I say this but my favourite classic is Dracula which, let's face it, has no possible unique retelling possibilities!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


One word: _Twilight_. (Not a fan, I hasten to add. Of T, that is, not D of which I most definitely am.)


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Sam Kates said:


> One word: _Twilight_. (Not a fan, I hasten to add. Of T, that is, not D of which I most definitely am.)


That's what I meant! Dracula has been done to death what with vampires being so popular! But it's fine, if we went for classics then i'd just pick something else gothic...or go completely the other way and pick Little Women

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

lauramg_1406 said:


> That's what I meant! Dracula has been done to death what with vampires being so popular! But it's fine, if we went for classics then i'd just pick something else gothic...or go completely the other way and pick Little Women
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


Or mashups (Little Women meet Dracula!) Jo was writing horror stories at one point, as I recall.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> My only concern with classics is that they require more work from the author than just giving them a concept, setting or character. The less research required, the more submissions we'll get.


I don't know. Are there that many writers who aren't also readers? I was thinking more in terms of people playing with something they'd already read and were pretty much familiar with. I'd suggest broadening the concept to include modern literature, but that would involve copyright issues. I doubt there are many people who couldn't do something with a public domain classic. Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein, Dracula, Huck Finn, etc. gives a writer a lot of potential ground. There are also a lot of different possibilities: plot twist, changed setting, mashup with other work, etc.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Or mashups (Little Women meet Dracula!) Jo was writing horror stories at one point, as I recall.


Don't put ideas like that in my head!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I don't know. Are there that many writers who aren't also readers? I was thinking more in terms of people playing with something they'd already read and were pretty much familiar with. I'd suggest broadening the concept to include modern literature, but that would involve copyright issues. I doubt there are many people who couldn't do something with a public domain classic. Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein, Dracula, Huck Finn, etc. gives a writer a lot of potential ground. There are also a lot of different possibilities: plot twist, changed setting, mashup with other work, etc.


I do think Shakespeare would be fun!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bad news: I've got more client work yet again and have not had time to review the Christmas stories yet.

I will probably skip the group proofing stage, do my own proofing only and go straight to publication. I will likely circulate the ebook proof tho and ask for your help with that.

Good news: GoOnWrite is running a sale. It appears that due to price reductions on the paperback cover and his custom covers that we can afford a custom cover for this project instead of a premade. Please feel free to suggest design ideas that I can take to him.

http://www.goonwrite.com/blackfriday.htm


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Bad news: I've got more client work yet again and have not had time to review the Christmas stories yet.
> 
> I will probably skip the group proofing stage, do my own proofing only and go straight to publication. I will likely circulate the ebook proof tho and ask for your help with that.
> 
> ...


This is just me, but I keep seeing plays on _Flash_ in my head, like a winter sky filled with lighting, or lightning shooting out of the title lettering. (Yes, I admit it's corny.) I also see motioned-blurred sleighs. Something that brings Christmas together with flash fiction.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I had an idea for the cover! Well actually two but I've already dismissed one of them.

So its basically a box in the middle (the box is a present) with the title and stuff on it. Then around the outside Christmas characters (I.e. Santa, Rudolph, a fairy, a snowman etc) arw looking down into the present.

Wow that is an underwhelming description! I promise the idea looks better in my head than it sounds!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I had an idea for the cover! Well actually two but I've already dismissed one of them.
> 
> So its basically a box in the middle (the box is a present) with the title and stuff on it. Then around the outside Christmas characters (I.e. Santa, Rudolph, a fairy, a snowman etc) arw looking down into the present.
> 
> ...


That could be eye-catching.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

If you come across any covers, anywhere, premade or already in use, that you think have the kind of vibe we should go for, please let me know.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> If you come across any covers, anywhere, premade or already in use, that you think have the kind of vibe we should go for, please let me know.


In that case I'll renominate this one:









and this one:


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I saw this one that I quite like!

https://thebookcoverdesigner.com/premade-book-covers/winter-treasures/

This snowman is pretty cute too!

https://thebookcoverdesigner.com/premade-book-covers/christmas/


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

That snowman I like. It feels light, non-religious Christmasy and very classy. Thanks guys!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I saw this one that I quite like!
> 
> https://thebookcoverdesigner.com/premade-book-covers/winter-treasures/
> 
> ...


Both of those are good!


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

Aww, the snowman is cute! I like it.


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## ThomasDiehl (Aug 23, 2014)

Happiest snowman ever and some holly? Perfect!


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

George, are we still on target to release on Dec 1? What's the target release date?

I've got some other promo stuff coming up around Dec 7 and was hoping to be able to tell my subscribers about this anthology when I send out a newsletter Dec 8. Just want to know what is our timeline on this?

Do we even have time to do a custom cover anymore?

BTW I've seen that snowman before. It's from a public domain photo/images site (can't remember what the site is at the moment). I'm using it right now as the wall for one of my FB pages. It's very cute.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It doesn't look like we're going to make the Dec 1st deadline on the Christmas Anthology release, but hopefully it will be available soon.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

George's editing business is evidently booming, so he deserves a big congratulations on that. He may not have anticipated how busy he was going to be at this point. I'm sure we've all been there.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Please accept my apologies for the delay. I'm currently evaluating the submitted stories.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hi guys, we have 17 stories, about 20,000 words.

Fantasy: 5
Romance: 4
Science Fiction: 3
The rest are a mix of genres or of indeterminate genre.

Unfortunately there are 13 stories that I do not wish to include, for a variety of reasons. I'm going to give them a re-read before publishing but I think they're definitely out.

We're left with about 20,000 words which seems a bit slim to do a paperback. By comparison, book 1 was 37,000 words and book 2 28,000.

I'm about to order the ebook cover. I purchased a credit for the paperback cover at a significant discount (Black Friday deal) but I'm thinking we save the paperback for either the May 4th or July 4th editions, which could promise greater participation and more widely-read and -targeted genres (space opera and thrillers, respectively).

What do you think?

Once again, my apologies for the delay. Indeed, I had a bunch of paying work and have been a bit under the weather the last couple days.

P.S. The Valentine's Day anthology has gotten zero love so far (haha) and may have to be scrapped.

P.P.S. For post-July-4th, I'm still looking for anthology ideas other than flash fiction in order to continue doing this.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Hey George

When will you be letting us know which stories are being included for publication. 
From the chosen genre's you mentioned, this sounds like the oddest Christmas Anthology ever. 

Not sure if that's good or bad. Guess we'll find out soon enough. LOL

BTW - Dropping the paperback edition is disappointing, but it's your decision to make.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Hurricane John said:


> Hey George
> 
> When will you be letting us know which stories are being included for publication.
> From the chosen genre's you mentioned, this sounds like the oddest Christmas Anthology ever.
> ...


It's not a firm decision yet, but it seems like the wisest given the small number of stories. I'm interested to hear what others think, especially Bill, since he's funding it.

The stories I have opted to include:

A Tale of Two Magis
I'll Be Home for Christmas
The Christmas Package
MISTLETOE
Green Christmas
The Best Gift
Just Marie
The Sugar Plum Fairy's Rescue
Entertaining Unawares
Naughty or Nice?
The Ice Bridge
A (Somewhat) Silent Night
Happy Diversidays
Angelica
Wings of an Angel
Blood Song

Anyone whose story/ies I did not include, feel free to email me as to why. I'm just one guy here so I'm not prepared to send out emails explaining my decision. I say that with regret, so please don't think I'm being cavalier about this.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Thanks for the update George.

I think we should skip the paperback because it's already Dec 3. At this point, we should get the book out while we can to capture the X'mas & holiday audience. Paperback will take more time with formatting and uploading, and when all's said and done, we'll probably miss the boat on paperback sales for gifts anyway. Best to save it for next time, and save you the headache.

If we can get this release by Dec 7, I can still include it in my promo activities Dec 7-10. My dates aren't flexible because there are many other authors involved with my Dec X-promo activities. I got a lot of new Instafreebie subscribers last month and I'd love to be able to include an announcement about this anthology with my upcoming newsletter.

Alexa


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

George, is there anything we can help with to take some of the workload off you?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Thanks guys. At this point, I am just formatting the final text and waiting on the cover. I think I can hit publish after that.

In the future, I could use a fellow editor to help me evaluate the stories, definitely.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Thanks guys. At this point, I am just formatting the final text and waiting on the cover. I think I can hit publish after that.
> 
> In the future, I could use a fellow editor to help me evaluate the stories, definitely.


Just let us know! I'm sure we're all willing to pitch in to help!

I've been planning something for the valentine's day one btw (but if you decide not to run it then it's no problem, it'll work for something else anyway!)

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Hi guys, we have 17 stories, about 20,000 words.
> 
> Fantasy: 5
> Romance: 4
> ...


With regard to a paperback, I'm not necessarily concerned with the length, (shorter is cheaper), but I am concerned with the timing, since we're getting awfully late for it to be a good gift suggestion. However, I'm not sure how much demand there would be for a paperback at any other time of year. What I would suggest is saving the paperback funds for a combo paperback for next Christmas. That could be this year's Christmas stories, plus next year's (being an optimist and assuming there is one) plus highlights from the other anthologies. We'd have enough content, we'd hit the right season for paperback sales, and you could take your time getting it formatted (format the pieces you already have whenever, and then add the new Christmas content to get it ready for release next Christmas season).

With regard to Valentine's Day, I did intend to submit. Perhaps others did as well. I think everybody's focus is on the holidays right now, and you did throw that Trump anthology out there, which people probably did first if they were going to. perhaps other people could indicate what their plans are, but that seems a bad holiday to miss.

With regard to selection, I'd certainly help next time. I already offered to help with paperback formatting when the time comes if you're too busy.

BTW, it's long after the season, but I'm gathering from its ranking that the Halloween anthology hasn't completely fallen off a cliff. The first one is still around 1,000 in the free store. I hope people realize the importance of this kind of cross promotion in terms of getting their names out there. I'm a little alarmed at what looks like a drop in participation.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Bill Hiatt said:


> With regard to a paperback, I'm not necessarily concerned with the length, (shorter is cheaper), but I am concerned with the timing....


How about using an 8x5 paper size and promoting the paperback as a stocking stuffer? I agree with Bill, I'm not sure that any other time of the year would warrant a paperback version.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> With regard to a paperback, I'm not necessarily concerned with the length, (shorter is cheaper), but I am concerned with the timing, since we're getting awfully late for it to be a good gift suggestion. However, I'm not sure how much demand there would be for a paperback at any other time of year. What I would suggest is saving the paperback funds for a combo paperback for next Christmas. That could be this year's Christmas stories, plus next year's (being an optimist and assuming there is one) plus highlights from the other anthologies. We'd have enough content, we'd hit the right season for paperback sales, and you could take your time getting it formatted (format the pieces you already have whenever, and then add the new Christmas content to get it ready for release next Christmas season).


That's an interesting idea.

I just don't feel like 17 stories / 20K words is worth the expense of a paperback. I regret very much that the paperback doesn't seem viable but nor do I want to charge forward spending money if the situation isn't right.

We might do a best flash fiction of the year anthology kind of thing?



Bill Hiatt said:


> With regard to Valentine's Day, I did intend to submit. Perhaps others did as well. I think everybody's focus is on the holidays right now, and you did throw that Trump anthology out there, which people probably did first if they were going to. perhaps other people could indicate what their plans are, but that seems a bad holiday to miss.


Indeed, I think it's the holiday focus. At the same time, I also wonder if the idea of flash fiction anthologies is becoming worn out. I also think we need to expand our pool of potential authors as the submissions trend is headed in the wrong direction.

IOW, we need to market these opportunities outside of KBoards. And we need to show authors how this helps them.

I actually have some stats and a draft author survey around this topic but haven't found the time yet to polish it up and email it out to all the Flash Flood authors.



Bill Hiatt said:


> With regard to selection, I'd certainly help next time. I already offered to help with paperback formatting when the time comes if you're too busy.


Are you set up to do the paperback formatting? Because we could save some money if that's the case.

If someone could step forward to commit to co-editing with me, at least for a single book (maybe folks could take turns for each book if no one wants to commit to working on this indefinitely), that would be a help. It's the evaluation of the stories phase that is the biggest bottleneck.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

How do you feel about lengthening the word count in the future George? Just thinking maybe some more people would be interested if they were doing longer stuff. That way 17 stories would be longer anyway?

I'd be happy to help with evaluating, I'd just worry that I wouldn't do it right!  

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> How do you feel about lengthening the word count in the future George? Just thinking maybe some more people would be interested if they were doing longer stuff. That way 17 stories would be longer anyway?
> 
> I'd be happy to help with evaluating, I'd just worry that I wouldn't do it right!


I'm definitely open to doing different lengths of stories. That's one of the main questions I have for my fellow authors. Of course, a 3,000- or 5,000-word story is more work than a 1,000-word one.

It's all subjective, in the end. I'm just looking for stories that I understand and that have some kind of impact on me.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I'm definitely open to doing different lengths of stories. That's one of the main questions I have for my fellow authors. Of course, a 3,000- or 5,000-word story is more work than a 1,000-word one.
> 
> It's all subjective, in the end. I'm just looking for stories that I understand and that have some kind of impact on me.


It is more work, but what it could allow for is standalone short stories that link to other works. That's not really as easy with flash fiction but it could be a selling point for longer submissions!

If you're happy to send a list of criteria (and think I have the right kind of outlook on the stories) then i'd be willing to help 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> That's an interesting idea.
> 
> I just don't feel like 17 stories / 20K words is worth the expense of a paperback. I regret very much that the paperback doesn't seem viable but nor do I want to charge forward spending money if the situation isn't right.
> 
> We might do a best flash fiction of the year anthology kind of thing?


Something like that would be good, but definitely put it out prior to Christmas, as that seems to be the best season for indie paperbacks.


GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Indeed, I think it's the holiday focus. At the same time, I also wonder if the idea of flash fiction anthologies is becoming worn out. I also think we need to expand our pool of potential authors as the submissions trend is headed in the wrong direction.
> 
> IOW, we need to market these opportunities outside of KBoards. And we need to show authors how this helps them.
> 
> I actually have some stats and a draft author survey around this topic but haven't found the time yet to polish it up and email it out to all the Flash Flood authors.


That's a good idea. I don't think most people really understand the value of cross promotion. At least two of the anthology projects I was involved with in the past died for exactly that reason. Everyone liked the idea, but no one could find time in their schedule to bang out a short story. In one of the two cases, I was involved in trying to recruit people in places one would expect to find short story writers, like a short story writing FB group. I should mention this particular anthology was a generous offer from a writer whose novels had sold around 35,000 copies at that point (many more now). The short stories were going to be in the same volume with a new novella of his he estimated would sell about 8,000 copies. The primary value would have been exposure, but he was also paying $100 for the one-time use of each story. You would have thought people would have jumped at it, but the project folded because he couldn't get quite enough stories. I think in the end he bundled two or three of his novellas together instead. The other one was from a small publisher who couldn't even get its own authors to submit stories for it, let alone outsiders like me; there were only three short stories including mine when the project folded.

I can't tell how much the Halloween anthology benefitted my US sales because of the new-release promotion I've been doing, but I think the anthology had a definite impact on my international sales, which in the past haven't been all that promotion-sensitive. I know the anthology did well in some of the international markets, and suddenly I had what for me was an avalanche of international sales. November was my best month ever in the UK, Canada, and Australia, but I also had sales in France, Germany, Italy, and Mexico (first sale there ever). Australia is still going strong this month, with 11 sales in the first three days. KU is also strong, and I've even gotten KU pages in Mexico, which I forgot even had KU. There could be other factors involved, but some of that had to have come from the anthology.


GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Are you set up to do the paperback formatting? Because we could save some money if that's the case.


Yes, assuming we're talking about the same thing. Interior formatting, right? Yes, if you tell me what you want, I can get the layout down fairly easily.


GeorgeDonnelly said:


> If someone could step forward to commit to co-editing with me, at least for a single book (maybe folks could take turns for each book if no one wants to commit to working on this indefinitely), that would be a help. It's the evaluation of the stories phase that is the biggest bottleneck.


I thought I already said this, but yes, I'd be happy to, at least for one volume. We'll see where it goes from there.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

What about "forcing" authors to participate? Obviously I don't mean telling them they have to participate but something like advertising for authors using a writing prompt to advertise. I know if I see something like that then my brain kicks in and just won't let me forget about it until I've done something about it.

It would probably mean that it would be more specific theme wise. Unless you used something like "She saw a shadow in the moonlight, the silouhette of man..." (not a great example I know) which could open it up to a variety of genres.

I don't know why anthologies don't get more traction, especially when there's incentives like the one you described Bill! Not only are they good for cross promotion (if they're done well like George's!) But they also give authors a chance to try new things or write a different genre or just use it as a pick me up if they're struggling to finish something!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

The thing about anthologies is that there's a lot of them out there now. Many with bestselling authors involved. Many with proceeds going to charity. Many with a lot more stories than we have. So it's a difficult sell. 

As for getting more participants, there's the usual problem of pressure on time. We all have WIPs to concentrate on. For those of us juggling writing with full-time regular jobs, it becomes even more difficult to make time to pen a story for an anthology. I've regretfully passed many opportunities to be included in anthologies because to be included would have meant sacrificing writing the next few chapters of the second novel in the trilogy, or whatever. 

To attract writers from far and wide for a new project would need some sort of hook. The involvement of a bestseller, for example. (That's why 'Stories on the Go' didn't lack for participants - Hugh Howey was a contributor.) I don't know how we would go about that - I struggle to market my own stuff so I'm the last person to suggest strategies. Telling people that cross promotion is good clearly isn't enough.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Are submissions really a problem? It sounds like we got a good number of submissions this time too, but only some can't be included for various reasons.

I do think a writing prompt is an interesting idea. I've never seen an anthology like that and it could be a different hook. But our promo has to be better than just a couple of random object. It also can't be so specific that it limits the story to only one or two probable genres. Maybe an interesting photo as a prompt?

I still think the holidays are a good idea. It's all just a matter of whether people have time to write something to submit.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Only twenty-one days left until Christmas. 

Does anyone think this Anthology will continue to sell in Jan-Feb after the Holiday Season is over?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Guys, here is the cover. Hope you like it. I aim to start uploading this evening.

Now that we have something going here, we definitely have to think about how to take its usefulness and focus to 10x.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Guys, here is the cover. Hope you like it. I aim to start uploading this evening.
> 
> Now that we have something going here, we definitely have to think about how to take its usefulness and focus to 10x.


The cover came out well!


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Fantastic! Thanks George!

I think it'll sell through into Jan. The Halloween anthology is still going. 


George, I'm confused about something: are our stories in this anthology exclusive? Can we use it elsewhere at a later date after this book has been out for a while? what's the policy?


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Guys, here is the cover. Hope you like it. I aim to start uploading this evening.
> 
> Now that we have something going here, we definitely have to think about how to take its usefulness and focus to 10x.


Awesome cover. Nice job George!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> George, I'm confused about something: are our stories in this anthology exclusive? Can we use it elsewhere at a later date after this book has been out for a while? what's the policy?


I only ask for exclusivity until the publishing date of the anthology.

Glad you guys are happy with the cover.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

AlexaKang said:


> Fantastic! Thanks George!
> 
> I think it'll sell through into Jan. The Halloween anthology is still going.
> 
> George, I'm confused about something: are our stories in this anthology exclusive? Can we use it elsewhere at a later date after this book has been out for a while? what's the policy?


Alexa

Here is what you are agreeing to (from George's first post)

I affirm that I am the owner of the content provided herein and am granting a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license to use the content as part of the anthology "2016 Indie Christmas Anthology," (title subject to change) edited by George Donnelly in ebook, print, audiobook and translated formats. Once the anthology is published, I promise to promote it to the best of my ability through my author website, mailing list and social media account(s). (If you don't agree, please don't submit the form.)

Since it's non-exclusive, I assume you can use your story elsewhere.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Sam Kates said:


> The thing about anthologies is that there's a lot of them out there now. Many with bestselling authors involved. Many with proceeds going to charity. Many with a lot more stories than we have. So it's a difficult sell.
> 
> As for getting more participants, there's the usual problem of pressure on time. We all have WIPs to concentrate on. For those of us juggling writing with full-time regular jobs, it becomes even more difficult to make time to pen a story for an anthology. I've regretfully passed many opportunities to be included in anthologies because to be included would have meant sacrificing writing the next few chapters of the second novel in the trilogy, or whatever.
> 
> To attract writers from far and wide for a new project would need some sort of hook. The involvement of a bestseller, for example. (That's why 'Stories on the Go' didn't lack for participants - Hugh Howey was a contributor.) I don't know how we would go about that - I struggle to market my own stuff so I'm the last person to suggest strategies. Telling people that cross promotion is good clearly isn't enough.


Those are all great thoughts. I'm not sure we can hook a bestselling author. It's also hard to donate proceeds to charity if the anthology is free. However, I might have a solution to the second one. George, if you can give me a rough idea of how many downloads to expect, I'll donate an amount (X per download to charity Y, up to Z.) I'm a little too busy at the moment to recruit a charity, though. Once we work at amounts, if someone can find a charity that is willing to be associated with us, that would be great.

As for the time point, that's what makes flash fiction convenient. Are you really going to have to sacrifice (really, delay would be a better word) the next few _chapters_ to write 1,000 words? I can work that into what could be promotional time, since the purpose is basically promotional. Having a story read by hundreds, maybe thousands of people is a good organic way to grow fan base. For someone whose advertising budget is relatively limited, it could also save money.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Guys, here is the cover. Hope you like it. I aim to start uploading this evening.
> 
> Now that we have something going here, we definitely have to think about how to take its usefulness and focus to 10x.


Hi George,

Love the cover. Just a quick one, I mentioned a while back that my web domain had to change due to some issues with it being recognised by external sources. You said I'd be able to catch that in editing. What's the best way to sort it now?

Thanks 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

That's what I like about flash fiction, too. It's not a huge commitment for the author.

As for associating with a charity, to be honest, I do not see the point. I don't believe for a nanosecond that associating with a charity moves books. I feel it's not a useful thing to get involved with.

I think our sweet spots are in:

- getting more authors involved by sharpening the call to action for authors and the benefits they gain from this
- getting more readers by focusing on genre and concept; i.e., targeting future anthologies by genre and giving them intriguing concepts that haven't been overdone. For example, fairy tales is overdone and should be avoided IMHO.

The idea of getting better-selling authors involved appeals to me but it's not a high priority. Once our Flash Flood mailing list reaches, say, 500 (currently 15, we will be in a solid position to start doing newsletter promo swaps with bigger authors/lists. I'm part of a Facebook group where significant authors are doing these kinds of swaps daily. That will give us a boost similar to that of working with a better-selling author.

Also, we can start doing our own ~50-book 99c promos to the Flash Flood list as well, once it reaches say 1,000 subscribers. This will demonstrate more concrete benefits for participating authors.

I think we need to keep plugging away and also get more creative now that this thing is off the ground.

So, bottom line, more targeted genre/concept and better marketing to authors are our next steps IMHO. Would definitely love to hear more ideas tho.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> Love the cover. Just a quick one, I mentioned a while back that my web domain had to change due to some issues with it being recognised by external sources. You said I'd be able to catch that in editing. What's the best way to sort it now?


Ah, right. Best to email me. Thanks!


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Ah, right. Best to email me. Thanks!


Will do! It's only a small change!

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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

The longer I look at this cover, the more I realize what a great paperback cover this would have made. (I know, it's a moot point.)


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Ah, right. Best to email me. Thanks!


Done! Sorry for being a pain!


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

Oh that cover looks fantastic! Thanks again for all your hard work.

I don't know if it was suggested before, but for a future anthology, what about something that involves a unique world that we'd build ourselves (not too involved, but a basic setting, some rules, a genre) and all of the stories would take place in this setting? Again, not sure if it was already suggested, but I figured I'd offer the thought anyway!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

jessie520 said:


> Oh that cover looks fantastic! Thanks again for all your hard work.
> 
> I don't know if it was suggested before, but for a future anthology, what about something that involves a unique world that we'd build ourselves (not too involved, but a basic setting, some rules, a genre) and all of the stories would take place in this setting? Again, not sure if it was already suggested, but I figured I'd offer the thought anyway!


I don't think it was suggested before, but it sounds like fun. It could be popular, too. I can't recall the fame, but I remember a fantasy series, each volume of which was composed of interlocking short stories written by different people, that ran to about 11 volumes.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

I wasn't suggesting we should attach ourselves to a charity - merely that charity anthologies are examples of what we're competing against for readers. 

The cover looks lovely. (My story isn't a good fit with the 'In Love' part of the title, but that doesn't matter, I guess, for one out of 16 or 17.)


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

jessie520 said:


> I don't know if it was suggested before, but for a future anthology, what about something that involves a unique world that we'd build ourselves (not too involved, but a basic setting, some rules, a genre) and all of the stories would take place in this setting? Again, not sure if it was already suggested, but I figured I'd offer the thought anyway!


I like that idea. Definitely.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

George, is the book available yet?


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

AlexaKang said:


> George, is the book available yet?


George mentioned that he planned on uploading it on Dec 5th, but it hasn't appeared on Amazon yet.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Ok George is really swamped. I'm helping him with formatting the book and final review of some of the stories. Meanwhile, can you guys please help put together a list of category keywords, and suggest 2-3 main categories, so he can just copy and paste?

Thanks!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Ok George is really swamped. I'm helping him with formatting the book and final review of some of the stories. Meanwhile, can you guys please help put together a list of category keywords, and suggest 2-3 main categories, so he can just copy and paste?
> 
> Thanks!


Categories:
Fiction/Anthologies
Fiction/Short Stories/Multiple Authors
(Not sexy, but with so many genres, what else can you do?)

Key Words:
Flash Fiction, Christmas, Winter Holidays, Present

I would fill in the rest of the keywords with the most prominent genres and/or something else that represents the content.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

If there are prominent Christmas characters in the story (Santa/Father Christmas or whatever name you prefer to call him!) Then we could use those as key words 

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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Here are a few suggestions

Categories:

Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Holidays
Literature & Fiction > Short Stories & Anthologies > Anthologies
Literature & Fiction > Short Stories & Anthologies > Short Stories
Literature & Fiction > Short Stories > Single Authors

Keywords: 

Christmas, Holiday Season, Flash Fiction, Anthology, Love Stories, Short Stories


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## jec (May 13, 2015)

Hurricane John said:


> Here are a few suggestions
> 
> Keywords:
> 
> Christmas, Holiday Season, Flash Fiction, Anthology, Love Stories, Short Stories


Short read might be a good keyword to add to this list.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

If any of you have time, please look through the Amazon Category KW list and compile a list of all applicable KWs. We'd do best to first pick from these. Thanks.

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A200PDGPEIQX41#keywords

i'm hoping with our help, George will be able to upload soon. THX


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Hey Alexa

Sounds like you should get an editing credit on the cover of this book.  
Thanks for helping George get the final product uploaded.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Hurricane John said:


> Hey Alexa
> 
> Sounds like you should get an editing credit on the cover of this book.
> Thanks for helping George get the final product uploaded.


Nah I didn't do enough to warrant that. I reviewed some things George needed help with. I'm running 2 Xpromos right now and was hoping to sneak this one one but guess we won't make it. George is working on this now and I think we'll be ok.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Do we have an ETA yet? I'm getting a newsletter ready, and it would be helpful to know what the projected release date now is.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm aiming for Monday the 12th. Keep in mind, we don't know how long the permafree request at Amazon will take.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I'm aiming for Monday the 12th. Keep in mind, we don't know how long the permafree request at Amazon will take.


Thanks! (And yes, I know.)


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Is today the big day?


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Hurricane John said:


> Is today the big day?


I hope so. I've been holding off on my newsletter in hopes of being able to include the new release.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I hope so. I've been holding off on my newsletter in hopes of being able to include the new release.


I hope so too. I'm waiting to read the content, so I know how best to promote book.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I just finished uploading it to KDP. I'll do the other retailers tomorrow.


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## jec (May 13, 2015)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> I just finished uploading it to KDP. I'll do the other retailers tomorrow.


Just grabbed my copy. Thanks so much for all your hard work on this. It looks great.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

It looks fantastic! Thanks for everyone's hard work  

Just tried to add it on Author Central, but my name's not listed in the contributing authors. Do I need to contact Amazon to be added? 

Thanks in advance!


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

George

Downloaded my copy last night. Looks great. There are some wonderful stories in this collection.....proud to be a part of it.

All the stories are good, but my 3 favorites (in no particular order) are...... 

Just Marie
Entertaining Unawares
A (Somewhat) Silent Night


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

jessie520 said:


> It looks fantastic! Thanks for everyone's hard work
> 
> Just tried to add it on Author Central, but my name's not listed in the contributing authors. Do I need to contact Amazon to be added?
> 
> Thanks in advance!


Jesse

You can either have George add you to the contributing author list or you can contact Amazon to have the book added to your Author Central page.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

Hurricane John said:


> Jesse
> 
> You can either have George add you to the contributing author list or you can contact Amazon to have the book added to your Author Central page.


Thank you!!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

It isn't linked to me yet, but it appeared in search results for my name, so that's good.

I'll wait to advertise until it's up on the other venues, but it's definitely looking good!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

jessie520 said:


> It looks fantastic! Thanks for everyone's hard work
> 
> Just tried to add it on Author Central, but my name's not listed in the contributing authors. Do I need to contact Amazon to be added?
> 
> Thanks in advance!


Amazon only allows me to add 10 author names through the KDP interface. I'll send them a support request shortly to add the remaining names. Sorry about that.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

Oh it's no problem George. I sent them a request also because I figured you'd be busy & didn't want to add to your workload.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Thanks for all the work George. I claimed it! 

I want to throw this out there: The book is selling pretty well. Ranking at 45k right now. Should we consider keeping it at 99c until the Xmas season is over? Assuming we all send newsletter out this month, this could bump us to the HNR list, and we can benefit from the exposure. My own experience is that free hasn't been that  effective on Amazon in the recent months because they're doing everything to hide the free books. Free also seems to sit on people's devices without being read. This may be my experience because of the genre I write it, and it is entirely possible that the PN/Syfy reading crowd still loves free. I just want to throw this out there as a suggestion.

I am part of another anthology that was released in Nov. We were going to offer it free, but we ended up seeing it doing well at 99c and have since decided to keep it at 99c indefinitely until we see any good reason why we should offer it free. Our ranking has remained in the 5 digits the entire time since release, mostly in 50K and under. We did a stack promo for 4 days last week and our rank went as high as the 4Ks. We've sold over 400 copies since. Granted, we were a lot more organized in our efforts to promote, and each of us had contributed to a modest promo budget. But we think we're actually getting more exposure with it being 99c than free because of it is ranked in the Kindle store and not hidden.

We did offer it for free for 3 days in an Instafreebie Xpromo, so that worked out well.

Also, I think we should submit the book for promo to Mybookcave. I think Shawn is still accepting books for promo, cost free. I've had good results with them.

Any thoughts?


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Thanks for all the work George. I claimed it!
> 
> I want to throw this out there: The book is selling pretty well. Ranking at 45k right now. Should we consider keeping it at 99c until the Xmas season is over? Assuming we all send newsletter out this month, this could bump us to the HNR list, and we can benefit from the exposure. My own experience is that free hasn't been that effective on Amazon in the recent months because they're doing everything to hide the free books. Free also seems to sit on people's devices without being read. This may be my experience because of the genre I write it, and it is entirely possible that the PN/Syfy reading crowd still loves free. I just want to throw this out there as a suggestion.
> 
> ...


I'll second this! If its selling fairly well at 99 then leaving it at that seems like a good plan, especially as it could help a future flash flood budget!

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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I'll second this! If its selling fairly well at 99 then leaving it at that seems like a good plan, especially as it could help a future flash flood budget!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


I'll third it.  This makes good sense. People download tons of free books and never read them. Someone who buys a book (even at 99 cents) is more likely to read it.

BTW - 95 pages is the perfect length for a Christmas Anthology stocking stuffer priced at 4.99 (just saying).   Maybe next year?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> We did offer it for free for 3 days in an Instafreebie Xpromo, so that worked out well.
> 
> Also, I think we should submit the book for promo to Mybookcave. I think Shawn is still accepting books for promo, cost free. I've had good results with them.
> 
> Any thoughts?


Let's see how it goes. I just wonder if any of the authors would be upset about this plan. I haven't made the time yet to upload to another store and request permafree so until I do, let's see how it goes. We've got 7 sales so far.

What do we need to submit it to Mybookcave?


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Let's see how it goes. I just wonder if any of the authors would be upset about this plan. I haven't made the time yet to upload to another store and request permafree so until I do, let's see how it goes. We've got 7 sales so far.
> 
> What do we need to submit it to Mybookcave?


I have mixed feelings. If the purpose of the anthology is exposure, it seems as if people are reading the previous anthologies--reviews keep appearing--and I'm betting we get more downloads than we will sales, hence more exposure. We have to realize most of those seven sales are probably to us. Also, the other anthologies had good ranking last time I checked, which suggests that they aren't being all that well hidden by Amazon.

On the other hand, if the anthology isn't live yet on any other platform, realistically we probably aren't going to get it permafree on Amazon much before Christmas, anyway, so it's probably a moot point.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I have mixed feelings. If the purpose of the anthology is exposure, it seems as if people are reading the previous anthologies--reviews keep appearing--and I'm betting we get more downloads than we will sales, hence more exposure. We have to realize most of those seven sales are probably to us. Also, the other anthologies had good ranking last time I checked, which suggests that they aren't being all that well hidden by Amazon.
> 
> On the other hand, if the anthology isn't live yet on any other platform, realistically we probably aren't going to get it permafree on Amazon much before Christmas, anyway, so it's probably a moot point.


Apparently, if you email a link from the istore directly to amazon then they should price match within 24 hours! Never tried it, so this is just hearsay though!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I've uploaded it to Google Play, iTunes, Kobo, Nook, Smashwords, Instafreebie. I'm standing by with my support request to add the additional authors and request permafree until one or two of these go live.

I'll send out the mobi, epub and pdf files to you guys very soon.

I promised permafree when I announced this so I think I have to stick with that. We've got 8 sales total at this point but I am hesitant to change course now. All it would take is one fellow author feeling deceived and I would feel horrible about that.

Instead, since so many of us are interested, let's consider brainstorming a for-pay project. There is another format that might work for us called the mosaic novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_novel

And BitTorrent recently announced a Discovery Fund to finance marketing for artists such as us authors:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/09/bittorrent-discovery-fund/

Keep in mind that this could turn into a huge time spend, but we might brainstorm a concept/setting and some characters, then we could each write 5,000 to 40,000 words in the shared story world and piece it together in a suitable manner to form a novel. Each of us would write a part of the loosely-connected novel, then put it together and publish it.

The BitTorrent Discovery Fund would not pay us to write it but we might apply for funds to support our marketing effort once the novel was in an advanced stage of completion. The fund does not need any of its money back, assuming it decided to support us, so we would keep any profits.

Just keep in mind that these kinds of projects are tricky. I initiated one with a group of authors a few months ago and had to remove myself after awhile because I felt there was some intransigence on an aspect that was going to hamstring our marketing effort.

With respect to the Flash Flood project, at this point, I think the Valentine's Day one is dead. Let's look ahead to the May 4th one and then decide whether or not to do one for July 4th.

After that, we may want to keep this to a once-pear-year thing and call it the best indie flash fiction of 2017 - that kind of vibe. These volumes we've done so far I feel are excellent work (tho please don't read my contribution to the Christmas anthology, it did not turn out as I'd hoped). They will remain in circulation for quite some time.

Our greatest challenge/priority is to bring new writers into this project as, over time, it's only natural that our numbers will decline unless we take corrective action.

I think one angle we can take is to build an author support group and make these kinds of projects the prime expression of such a group. There's value in that for all kinds of authors I suspect. Let's all see what innovative ideas we can come up with.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I love the idea of a Mosaic novel, it sounds like fun and a challenge! 

Could you maybe theme it around one event (like a natural disaster end of the world type event) and have the different stories based around what's happening there? I read a book (was all by one author) that was made up of interconnected short stories that spanned generations and how the past effected the future. I'll have to see if I can find what it was cause it was an interesting concept!

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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I remembered! It's this one that I meant: https://www.amazon.co.uk/25-Perfect-Days-Plus-More-ebook/dp/B01ERVHWI0/


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

lauramg_1406 said:


> I love the idea of a Mosaic novel, it sounds like fun and a challenge!
> 
> Could you maybe theme it around one event (like a natural disaster end of the world type event) and have the different stories based around what's happening there? I read a book (was all by one author) that was made up of interconnected short stories that spanned generations and how the past effected the future. I'll have to see if I can find what it was cause it was an interesting concept!


Yes, that's one way to do it, absolutely. There's a lot of room for creativity in how the individual stories are linked to each other.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Yes, that's one way to do it, absolutely. There's a lot of room for creativity in how the individual stories are linked to each other.


Honestly I'll be down for just about anything! I enjoy the writing process and once an idea has taken hold that's it I'm off!

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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Instead, since so many of us are interested, let's consider brainstorming a for-pay project. There is another format that might work for us called the mosaic novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_novel


I'm all for a project that makes money, and I love mosaic novels (though we used to use the term short story cycle for them). Thieves' World was the one I couldn't think of earlier in the thread.

That said, I'm going to be Ebenezer Scrooge for just a minute and say, "Humbug!" but that's a soft humbug, not a hard one. I don't think the idea is impossible, but I do think it poses some unique problems.

First, we have difficulty getting people to cough up 1,000 words. Now we're going to ask for 5,000 to 40,000? My fear is a few poor souls will invest a lot of time, nobody else will end up doing anything, and the whole thing will be a bust. (And yes, I'm speaking from experience.)

Second, if someone doesn't come through on a regular anthology, that might not be a big deal. If someone doesn't come through on a project like this, potentially there's a big hole in the story that someone else will have to fill.

Third, coordination came be a nightmare. If we're willing to settle for short stories in the same world rather than a novel, that might be OK, but a mosaic novel requires a lot of revision. If you're writing a later piece of the novel, and someone does something unexpected in an earlier piece, you may have to rewrite, at least to some extent. The alternative is to have the pieces written sequentially, which means of one of the earlier people ends up hitting a snag, the rest of us sit and twiddle our thumbs until the person gets done.

Fourth, we introduce a whole new layer of bureaucracy to divide the royalties. That probably should mean written contracts, and it definitely means George spending time on a financial end of things that doesn't exist right now.

Which brings me to fifth--George, do you really have time for this? Your editing business is prospering, which is great, but are you doing the same thing I have a tendency to do (taking on more than you have time for)? You had trouble getting a much shorter and simpler project out on time. I don't intend that as a criticism. If we all had paying clients, we'd all also have the responsibility of meeting their needs in a timely fashion, and we would all have to do exactly what you did. However, that does raise a natural question: do you really want to add a much more long-term and complicated job to what is already a congested schedule? I've made that exact mistake in my life on a number of occasions, including quite recently, so I'm sensitive to that issue.

Not only do you need to think seriously about how much time you have, but so does everyone else. This is not the kind of thing someone can say yes to and then flake on. At some point it would have to take precedence over our other projects, at least for a little while. Are we all willing to do that?

So yes, I love the idea, and I think it's a good one--if there is really enough time and enough commitment to make sure it actually happens.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Great questions, Bill. I'm just throwing out ideas in an informal brainstorming session. I'm interested to hear more ideas.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

What if the stories were written in chronological order? If we had a master document which you can add to once you're done and if we can all access it then it can be added to as we go which *might* help cut down on inconsistencies. 

I'd be happy to offer to read through the whole thing at the end and search for any glaring inconsistencies/an initial proof read. I've done a lot of beta reading before and apparently am ridicolously detailed about it (no idea what they were comparing to!)

I think it would need a longer deadline, and wouldn't be a quick project to say the least!

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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Yes, it would be a bigger project than these anthologies, but it could also be a higher-impact project. If we put a lot of strategic thought into it and placed it into a genre that sells, maybe even mashed up two high-selling genres, it could become the kind of signature project that takes our respective careers somewhere new and interesting. It could be the introductory book to a series of series in the shared world.

I think it's worth giving some thought and consideration to but definitely not something we should take on lightly.

Like I said, I'd love to hear other ideas as well. I think my primary goal for a project is reaching new readers. So anything that serves that end is of interest to me.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I've seen something done before where there was a character given (let's call him Fred). 

Fred has dark hair and brown eyes and lives next to a really creepy gothic church with gargoyles on it.

Each author then creates their own story surrounding Fred, in a genre of their choice. The point isn't consistency (which Bill pointed out could be a  issue with  a Mosaic novel) but rather each author's interpretation of what they've been given. 



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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

That's an interesting idea, too. There is power in authors working together so I am definitely interested in seeing what else we can do here.

The latest craze is the group promos, the instafreebie promos, stuff like that. And, I have to say, it makes me dizzy after awhile and if I don't have other content prepared, I end up worrying about shoving too many promos down my subscribers' throats. Group promos are cheap and easy but they're going to get worn out.

We could get ahead of the trend by inventing new ways for authors to work together on promotion.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

There is power in it! It also has the added advantage of stretching our creative minds too!

I'm taking part in a couple of those kinds of things (actually it might be 3) but I'm wary of doing any more because I worry readers (and my subscribers) will get bored of them. 

I'll have a think about what we could do to be different and promote! Problem is that everything seems to get old so fast :-/


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

True, things do get old fast. Good thing we're creatives. 

I think these anthologies are solid moves but can suffer from exhaustion both of the authors and the readers. For a truly high-impact project, it will be worth the effort. We just need to figure out what that might be.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Amazon has added the remaining authors and they've said they'll have a permafree decision by the 17th. It's sold 11 copies now.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

hey guys, you're all moving so fast, I can't keep up!!!

George, I think the reasons why the Valentine's Day collection got no response are: (1) It was Nanowrimo. I know I was buried in that and couldn't think about anything else (on top of that my own recent releases, promos, X-promos, anthologies, etc.; (2) like Bill said, you added the Trump collection and people are writing for that one, (3) holidays came around and we're all busy with families.

About free v. 99c, no problem, I just wanted to make sure we get maximum exposure. Amazon does its own marketing these days with their own emails, and I've found that to really help my own sales once I hit the algo right. Zon doesn't promote the free books so we'll lose out on that. I'm not sure that we have a promo plan so I thought it would at least help to be on the HNR for 30 days if we can. But it's what it is.

For MyBookCave, just go their site and submit the book. There are a number of cost free promo sites but nowadays, MyBookCave is about the only one that delivers.

Also, does any fantasy/PN/Syfy authors in this collection post on Reddit? I know authors in those genres usually can get a big boost if they post and let people know there's a new free book out. I don't write in those genres so I have no credibility there, but if someone does, this would be a great way to get exposure too.

As for new projects, I agree with everything Bill said. I think we need to keep the basics simple, to make sure the project is doable, and also not making too much work for George. We also all have our own books to write. I'd say the original idea of a writing prompt, but authors submitting something that's their take on what was happening could be really cool. I recently did an online interview at www.thisiswriting.com and one of the interview questions was for me to give new writers a writing prompt. Got to boast a little bit here, I think I answer that one better that many other writers interviewed on that site. It's not that it's the greatest writing prompt ever or anything, but I gave a REAL writing prompt, where as others just gave some not very helpful advice on how to write. (Took me like 2 hours to come up with it!)

So this is the prompt I gave:

_On an ordinary Saturday night, Dylan, a college sophomore, returns to his campus alone from an off-campus house party after his roommate ditched him for the cute freshmen. On his way back to the dorm, a girl with long, jet black hair in a short leather jacket passes Dylan. Under the night light, they exchanged glances. A teardrop falls from her eye. What happens next?
_

By the way, the site owner, Scott Mullins, is looking for new authors to interview. You guys should really submit your own. He does it for free and profits by affiliate links. But it's a good way to get some PR and have something to tell your readers in your newsletter. Scott is very nice and very responsive. Check this out: http://thisiswriting.com/category/author-interviews/


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

There's a good selection of prompts here: https://www.facebook.com/Journalister.co/posts/1208304142586044

The advantage a prompt would give us is that it would matter less exactly how many people got involved (obviously the more the merrier and all that!) What word count would you be thinking?

I enjoyed your writing prompt Alexa! It's an intriguing one! And thanks for the link, going to check it out now!


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

A prompt is an interesting and low-impact idea, definitely. I'd want a very conceptual thread in a genre that sells well, if we're going to do a for-pay project. For example, urban fantasy, military scifi, techno thrillers, romance, etc. And we might try stories of up to 5,000 words, I wonder?

I post on reddit. I've been meaning to do a thread about this series but haven't made the time yet.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> George, I think the reasons why the Valentine's Day collection got no response are: (1) It was Nanowrimo. I know I was buried in that and couldn't think about anything else (on top of that my own recent releases, promos, X-promos, anthologies, etc.; (2) like Bill said, you added the Trump collection and people are writing for that one, (3) holidays came around and we're all busy with families.


I agree. Before we declare that one dead, George, if you have the time, it might be nice to send out a quick email to people who previously submitted asking who planned to submit. I have a story idea ready to go but won't start writing unless I know the anthology is still alive.

It's clear at least a few of us are very enthusiastic and have a lot of good potential ideas. I agree with George that doing something original might be every energizing--and I'm also getting tired of group promos. They sound like a good idea in theory but seem to be producing diminishing returns. Group anthologies and other projects, though, I retain my enthusiasm for.

I also agree an annual flash anthology might be a good idea. There is less deadline pressure, so people's schedules could more easily be accommodated.

As far as doing something more ambitious (and potentially for pay), I'm in if enough other people are to make it work. I just want to make sure we don't throw ourselves into a project that won't get finished.

An alternative to the mosaic novel might be a frame story. (Think Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, _The Arabian Nights_, or Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_.) We'd agree on a premise for the frame. Basically, people would come together to share stories for some reason. Depending on the tone you want it could be anything from passing the time to trying to placate the psychotic who will kill them all if he isn't entertained. (That's just an example, not a serious suggestion.) The frame is basically a narrative premise for bring people together to tell stories. We'd need to agree on the tone for the frame, which could be composed at the end, after the stories are written. We'd also agree on the mix of characters, and each of us would take one and write a story that fits the characters. The beauty of that is that the stories themselves wouldn't be dependent on the plots of the other stories, and if someone dropped out (as long as too many people didn't) it would be easier to accommodate than with a mosaic novel.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

What about doing something like Shakespeare in UF or sci-fi form or something like that?

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

lauramg_1406 said:


> What about doing something like Shakespeare in UF or sci-fi form or something like that?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


Wouldn't that be complicated as a group project? It sounds good, though.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Wouldn't that be complicated as a group project? It sounds good, though.


Maybe not if we were loose enough with parameters...so if we said it had to be a certain genre (say UF) and it had to be based on a Shakespeare play (even limiting that to just tragedies or just comedies could still work).

Might need a slightly longer word count (say between 3,000 and 7,000) but it could provide an interesting collection!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

lauramg_1406 said:


> Maybe not if we were loose enough with parameters...so if we said it had to be a certain genre (say UF) and it had to be based on a Shakespeare play (even limiting that to just tragedies or just comedies could still work).
> 
> Might need a slightly longer word count (say between 3,000 and 7,000) but it could provide an interesting collection!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


Ah, yes, I think you mentioned something similar before. I think it is an interesting idea.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Ah, yes, I think you mentioned something similar before. I think it is an interesting idea.


I may have done! I think you maybe suggested something similar with Classics on the back of that (which is another interesting idea!) I just like the idea of doing something I wouldn't otherwise!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I agree. Before we declare that one dead, George, if you have the time, it might be nice to send out a quick email to people who previously submitted asking who planned to submit. I have a story idea ready to go but won't start writing unless I know the anthology is still alive.


I've had it on my todo list for a few weeks now to send an email to all Flash Flood authors as well as the authors that the editor of Stories on the Go sent me. I'm going to include stats on how things are going as well as a survey with some of the ideas we've discussed to measure interest levels ongoing.

At this point, I might ready it and schedule it to send around Jan 5.

I honestly think the Valentine's Day one is dead at this point. We've got zero submissions and no buzz in the thread. I'm leaving the door ajar but I'm not going to try and force it.

I'm thinking at this point we should try out Alexa's prompt idea for the May 4th anthology. Space opera is big and, if we make an effort to pitch it to authors, we could have an impact.



Bill Hiatt said:


> I also agree an annual flash anthology might be a good idea. There is less deadline pressure, so people's schedules could more easily be accommodated.


Yes, I'm thinking an annual flash fiction plus 1-2 prompt-driven genre-specific anthologies in the 3,000 to 20,000 word range per submission.



Bill Hiatt said:


> An alternative to the mosaic novel might be a frame story. (Think Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, _The Arabian Nights_, or Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_.) We'd agree on a premise for the frame. Basically, people would come together to share stories for some reason. Depending on the tone you want it could be anything from passing the time to trying to placate the psychotic who will kill them all if he isn't entertained. (That's just an example, not a serious suggestion.) The frame is basically a narrative premise for bring people together to tell stories. We'd need to agree on the tone for the frame, which could be composed at the end, after the stories are written. We'd also agree on the mix of characters, and each of us would take one and write a story that fits the characters. The beauty of that is that the stories themselves wouldn't be dependent on the plots of the other stories, and if someone dropped out (as long as too many people didn't) it would be easier to accommodate than with a mosaic novel.


This is a great idea, Bill, thanks. I'm going to read up on it and see what ideas come to me.

P.S. I created a group for us on Facebook in case folks find that more convenient: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1658049297825973/


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

Sent a request for the FB group


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

It looks like Amazon is not price matching. What shall we do? Shall we all contact the Zon? 

ETA: I also can't find it on Nook. Haven't looked elsewhere. Have you guys announced it to your readers yet?


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> Have you guys announced it to your readers yet?


I've been waiting for it to go free.

It's showing as free on itunes: 




Edit: typo


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

I've still got the May 4th one in my calendar. Just waiting on a theme (is there going to be anything more specific than space opera?)

As for mosaic, I think it's best to avoid trying to make it too tight. Something like Canterbury Tales would make sense, though that is basically a set of themed short stories. Or a time-spanning series based around an event (there's one out now called the Wormholes or similar where each author wrote a short story set on one world where wormholes keep appearing).


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

AlexaKang said:


> Have you guys announced it to your readers yet?


Yes, but I left the price out of the announcement. If you wait any longer it will be after Christmas. 

https://jdonovels.wordpress.com/2016/12/16/christmas-in-love-a-holiday-flash-fiction-anthology/


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

I notice that it's now free in the Amazon Kindle Store.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> It looks like Amazon is not price matching. What shall we do? Shall we all contact the Zon?
> 
> ETA: I also can't find it on Nook. Haven't looked elsewhere. Have you guys announced it to your readers yet?


They didn't communicate with me but I noticed this morning it's now permafree.

Here it is on B & N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-in-love-george-donnelly/1125327458?ean=2940157287887

My apologies. I have dropped the ball pretty badly this time around, which is another reason why the Valentine's Day one is best cancelled.

I'll re-evaluate my situation in early February and announce the May 4th one then if I think I can do it right. Nothing drives me battier than not fulfilling my own commitments.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

It's doing okay. 8,315 overall in US and 22 in Anthologies. 1,519 overall in UK and 8 in Anthologies. Hopefully, it hasn't peaked yet.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

Sam Kates said:


> It's doing okay. 8,315 overall in US and 22 in Anthologies. 1,519 overall in UK and 8 in Anthologies. Hopefully, it hasn't peaked yet.


All that without much promotion.


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

I noticed that the first rating (no review) on Goodreads is 2 stars


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Hurricane John said:


> I noticed that the first rating (no review) on Goodreads is 2 stars


It's rating has climbed. I'm sorry to hear about the Goodreads rating. In my experience, the people who leave no review tend to rate books lower than those who leave a review.


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

Sorry, I got distracted and almost forgot this (going into hospital after Christmas) - will try it on my FB page, Twitter etc for UK downloads.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

I have tweets set up. Blog post gone live, gone out in my newsletter & set up as my current copromote fb boost! 

I really enjoyed reading this too! So humbled that George picked my story to share book space with such good contributions! 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

It's currently 2,072 overall in US and 6 in Anthologies. 578 overall in UK and 2 in Anthologies. 

Of course, we only have a small window due to its extremely seasonal nature, but that's not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

It was downloaded 96 times yesterday. 17 so far this morning. It's at #1859 free in the US store. And we got this wonderful Amazon review:










... which warmed the cockles of my slacking heart ever so slightly. Even tho I suspect one of us commissioned that review. 

Side note, I found all the stories to be wonderful, tho my own I am a bit ashamed of.

It's interesting to note that despite me dropping the ball something awful, we're still approaching the top 1,000 free on the US store.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> It was downloaded 96 times yesterday. 17 so far this morning. It's at #1859 free in the US store. And we got this wonderful Amazon review:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well, people clearly still have an appetite for flash fiction, and the other two anthologies built a base. Our publicity efforts were probably a little uneven--my post and tweet go out today--but even so, it's doing OK.

Also, stop beating yourself up about dropping the ball. We've all been in a situation in which we've committed ourselves to too much; I know I have--many times! The impulse to do that comes from a good place, even if it brings extra stress into our lives. The fact that the project all worked out well in the end, though, tells you it was worth it--and it would not have happened without you.

By the way, although I would have agreed with Sam that a seasonal anthology would probably drop off the charts after the season, the Halloween one still has good days, and there were recently eight downloads from my (low-traffic) site, so clearly it hasn't died just because the season is over.

Also by the way, I'm still seeing more action in international markets than normal. Part of that may be a very successful new release, but I can't help but think some of those international readers found me through the Halloween anthology, which, as I recall, did well in some of those markets.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Indeed, Monster Maelstrom is still performing nicely. It's the only one of the three which has a clear genre correlation (horror). Which, I think, is an endorsement of the idea that future anthologies be tied tightly with genres. May the 4th: science fiction (space opera and military scifi). July the 4th: (thrillers, suspense, mystery). Romance we can tie to Feb 14th but we're going to need to penetrate (no pun intended, I swear!) the ranks of romance authors for that to work.

What date can we tie fantasy to? Detective fiction? Because those are pretty good, too.

Here's an idea: we make an annual schedule of anthologies tied to genres and for each one, line up an expert in that genre who will give us say a 1 hour webinar training on how to write to market for that genre. That could bring a lot of new authors into contact with us. Then we run some (optional) followup activites like writing sprints, critiques and such in order to maintain contact during the writing process. Then we publish the results.

This could turn this project into a way of improving authors' skills, building connections with fellow authors, getting published and marketing. That seems like a decently attractive package.

Jan: romance
April: science fiction
July: thrillers/suspense
October: horror

^^ those seem like the highest impact.

Then we could add in fantasy, detective fiction, christmas(?) and maybe an annual roundup one (like Bite-Sized Stories and Stories on the Go), as editorial/authorial resources permit.

And we could make each one revolve around a conceptual prompt/premise in order to give it greater cohesion and branding.

I'm liking this plan but am very interested to hear your thoughts.

Side note: I'm an expert in beating myself up. Definitely a fault of mine. 

P.P.S.: A very nice person blogged about us! I didn't solicit this...

https://sheerak.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/christmas-in-love-a-flash-fiction-anthology/


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## Hurricane John (Jul 12, 2010)

George

How many download's have Anthology #1 & 2 received thus far?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

As of November 17th, I'd compiled these stats:

BSS: 2,342
Amazon 1916
iTunes 73
Barnes & Noble 69
Google Play 37
Kobo 2
Smashwords 233
Instafreebie 12


MM: 2,031
Amazon 1,264
iTunes 17
Barnes & Noble 37
Google Play 13
Kobo 4
Smashwords 109
Instafreebie 587


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

This is the first time I've participated and I am very impressed with the quality of this and with the work you've put in, George - well done! And thank you very much.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

We all know about beating ourselves up, but seriously George you don't need to! It's all worked out (and I personally really enjoyed your story!) So thank you for your hard work!

Love the idea of tying it into "author training", I think it's a great idea! 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

P.s. I've had 65 clicks onto Christmas in Love from my newsletter yesterday and another 25 from tweets (if I'm reading it right!) Plus it's reached a few people via copromote so hopefully that'll help!

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> P.P.S.: A very nice person blogged about us! I didn't solicit this...
> 
> https://sheerak.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/christmas-in-love-a-flash-fiction-anthology/


It's someone I know (in the online sense). She heard about the anthology through me, though I didn't ask her to blog about it. She's great like that and, yes, very nice.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Indeed, Monster Maelstrom is still performing nicely. It's the only one of the three which has a clear genre correlation (horror). Which, I think, is an endorsement of the idea that future anthologies be tied tightly with genres. May the 4th: science fiction (space opera and military scifi). July the 4th: (thrillers, suspense, mystery). Romance we can tie to Feb 14th but we're going to need to penetrate (no pun intended, I swear!) the ranks of romance authors for that to work.
> 
> What date can we tie fantasy to? Detective fiction? Because those are pretty good, too.
> 
> ...


I like the training idea.

I'm a little less sold on tying each anthology to a genre. The first anthology (multi-genre) has been out longer, yet has a higher rating than the second one. The second one has a common theme, but actually still represents multiple genres, with about as much humor as horror, and a fair amount of fantasy. Anyway, if the purpose of the anthology is cross promotion, how effectively does an author cross promote by writing outside of his or her normal genre? (The process doesn't mandate that, but the alternative is for a writer to stay on the bench for most of the year.) There's nothing wrong with stretching, of course, but it doesn't always work right away. Is "Mediocre Romance Stories by People Who Don't Usually Write Romance" likely to be the kind of product we really want? Aren't we better off letting writers follow their passion?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm talking about the branding and the positioning. IOW, for May 4th a scifi cover, a scifi title, scifi categories and a scifi-friendly prompt. People can still write in whatever genre they want. We could come up with a prompt about asteroid mining and you could still turn that into a horror, fantasy or romance story, if you wanted.

The fact is that genre is the starting point for everything.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

I do agree with Bill on this one. I'm pretty sure my current readers won't cross-over to what appears to be clearly sci-fi, and the readers attracted to this next anthology are not likely to check out my current works even if I have submitted a story that fits this anthology. I'll definitely cheer you guys on but will most likely bow out.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> It was downloaded 96 times yesterday. 17 so far this morning. It's at #1859 free in the US store. And we got this wonderful Amazon review:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Fantastic! I'm going to run my promos among my peeps and followers too starting today.

ETA: I want to thank George and everyone who participated. I've just set my newsletter to go out to my subscribers to give them this Holiday/X'mas gift! There's no way I could have had time to write even a novella for free to send to them so this is really awesome.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Hey guys, I sent out my newsletter about 4 hrs ago. Our ranking is now at 630. My data showed so far:

Amazon: 184 clicks

Apple: 16

Nook: 7

More than half of the remaining subscribers haven't opened their mail yet so hopefully we'll climb even higher later in the day.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Thank you, Alexa!

We had 355 downloads of Christmas in Love yesterday. Major wow! Currently at #598 in the US store.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Thank you, Alexa!
> 
> We had 355 downloads of Christmas in Love yesterday. Major wow! Currently at #598 in the US store.


Awesome. I just checked my Mailchimp report again:

Amzn - 376 clicks
Apple: 44
Nook: 21

I told my subscribers this is our X'mas gift to our readers. Some even emailed me back to thank me, and I've never heard from them before! George, we have to do this again next year.

Alexa


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Awesome. I just checked my Mailchimp report again:
> 
> Amzn - 376 clicks
> Apple: 44
> ...


I'll second that. It's clear it appealed to people very much.


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> I told my subscribers this is our X'mas gift to our readers. Some even emailed me back to thank me, and I've never heard from them before! George, we have to do this again next year.


I'm thrilled that this has been useful for you. That is awesome and very encouraging to me. 

I definitely want to keep working on these kinds of projects. I just want to find the sweet spot(s) that get all of us the kind of amazing results we're looking for.

Thanks!


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Hi George, et al,

The book has reverted back to 99c on Amazon. George, can you please look into this when you have a chance? Some of my readers are asking me about it.

Is it possible to put a copy on Instafreebie or Bookfunnel in the mean time, so we can give our readers the link in case they ask before we can fix this on Amazon?

Thanks.
Alexa


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Has this happened to anyone before? Weird...

Here is the instafreebie link: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/JXzXs


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

GeorgeDonnelly said:


> Has this happened to anyone before? Weird...
> 
> Here is the instafreebie link: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/JXzXs


Thanks!

There are scattered reports of other books bouncing in and out of free. I think a bot malfunction of some kind may be to blame.


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I've had a permafree for years and it very occasionally reverts to paid and then goes back to free on its own within a day or two. I think sometimes people try and hurry things along by reporting it free again but I'm not sure that makes any difference.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

I was wondering why the ranking took a dive. Hopefully it resolves itself!


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

jessie520 said:


> I was wondering why the ranking took a dive. Hopefully it resolves itself!


I love the cat picture!

The ranking took a dive because it's paid ranking, not free.

George, when you get a chance, can you nudge Amazon? Yeah, we can tell our subscribers to download from Instafreebie, but it would be nice to pick up browsers on Amazon, which we obviously were prior to the shift back to paid.


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## jessie520 (Jul 26, 2015)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I love the cat picture!
> 
> The ranking took a dive because it's paid ranking, not free.
> 
> George, when you get a chance, can you nudge Amazon? Yeah, we can tell our subscribers to download from Instafreebie, but it would be nice to pick up browsers on Amazon, which we obviously were prior to the shift back to paid.


Thanks! 

Anything we can do on our end to help things along? Report it, etc.?


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Meanwhile, another problem seems to have surfaced. I can't find the book on iTunes at all. When I search, I get nothing. When I search the Internet, I get a listing, but clicking on it takes me to the download page for iTunes. Sigh!


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Meanwhile, another problem seems to have surfaced. I can't find the book on iTunes at all. When I search, I get nothing. When I search the Internet, I get a listing, but clicking on it takes me to the download page for iTunes. Sigh!


This is probably why the book reverted to 99c on Zon. I think George will have to upload it back onto iTunes before Amazon will change it to free.


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## jec (May 13, 2015)

My newsletter went out today to 600 subscribers. With an open rate of 175 so far, there have been 27 clicks to Instafreebie. Not a ton but every little big helps. I have another newsletter to a different list going out Friday. Hopefully this will be fixed by then so that I can direct people to Amazon to help our ranking there.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

jec said:


> My newsletter went out today to 600 subscribers. With an open rate of 175 so far, there have been 27 clicks to Instafreebie. Not a ton but every little big helps. I have another newsletter to a different list going out Friday. Hopefully this will be fixed by then so that I can direct people to Amazon to help our ranking there.


I think it took a long time to fix, but it is fixed now. It's too bad we had to divert a lot of people to instafreebie who might otherwise have contributed to our Amazon ranking, but at least everything worked out OK in the end.


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

You beat me to it Bill! Our .com rating isn't too bad at least! 

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## lauramg_1406 (Oct 15, 2016)

It's back to not free :-(

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

Bill Hiatt said:


> Meanwhile, another problem seems to have surfaced. I can't find the book on iTunes at all. When I search, I get nothing. When I search the Internet, I get a listing, but clicking on it takes me to the download page for iTunes. Sigh!


Indeed, there is an issue I have to fix with iTunes.

This free / not free yoyo is very disappointing and I apologize for it. I'm not sure why it's happening.

I am going to do a better job with the May 4th one, promise. I'll probably announce it early in February.

Thanks everyone for your hard work and support. It's amazing working with you and I wish you a wonderful and successful new year!


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

It's been free the last few days. Current free rank is 9086. Is that good or bad?

George, can we submit this book for some no-cost promo?  Or is it too weird now that Christmas is over?


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## George Donnelly (Mar 5, 2012)

AlexaKang said:


> It's been free the last few days. Current free rank is 9086. Is that good or bad?
> 
> George, can we submit this book for some no-cost promo? Or is it too weird now that Christmas is over?


It's not bad but not as good as some of the other ranks we've achieved.

Please feel free to submit or email me about opportunities and I will do it. No harm in trying.


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