It’s (not) Christmas!
the ideal present for your friends and family this year...
What with it being the beginning of June, it’s high time we started thinking about Christmas here at WWJ Towers
We have a proposition for you. How would you like to write something and NOT have it published? Would you be at all interested in submitting a short story, or maybe a poem, a recipe, some hints and tips, an essay even, to a Christmas anthology that will be guaranteed not to make you any money whatsoever; that won’t get you a publishing credit; won’t be available to buy online; will appear on the shelves of no shops anywhere? It won’t even have an ISBN number. Sounds good, eh?
Wait, come back. At least hear us out.
Here’s the plan – last year our editor put together a festive themed anthology for some of us to give our friends and family as Christmas presents, and the idea is to do the same this year. There will be two editions; one for the oldies and one for the kids. They will be fitted out with fancy bespoke covers and lovely fonts and things inside, just like real books. The difference is that they will be a one off. They will be professionally bound and printed on high quality paper, but only once. It won’t be print on demand, there will be no second editions, you’ll only have one chance to get your hands on copies. Orders will be taken in advance and that’s how many will be printed up.
This is very specifically NOT ‘publication’. We need to make that explicitly clear - it’s not going to make anyone famous or get them a publishing deal. It’s just a nice idea for a fairly unusual Xmas present for all those awkward buggers who are a nightmare to buy for.
Price per copy will be kept as close to cost as possible while making sure we don’t bankrupt ourselves.
So, what do you think? If you’re interested read on for the boring technical stuff. If you’re not interested go away so we can talk about you.
The boring technical stuff
Have they gone? Cool. Right, here’s the plan. Send us stuff, that’s the first thing. Around the 1000 word mark for stories or essays etc is the maximum. For poems we’re looking for no more than 30-35 lines. As ever with us these are guidelines only but please don’t go too far over them or we’ll have to hunt you down and kill you. Shorter pieces are welcome of course. Previously published material is fine.
You can submit up to one piece for each edition (Adult and Kids), but multiple entries are discouraged. Sending in more than one piece for each book won’t make us hate you or anything, but we might accidentally forget your birthday next year.
What sort of stuff do we want, I hear you ask. Well, anything really, as long as it’s vaguely winter holiday season related. We hold no truck with religious bias so feel free to go all atheist or pagan if you want. Fantasy, tragedy, comedy, drama, elves - it’s all good. All we’d ask is that you remember even the adult version is going to be given to various grannies and ageing aunties, so filling your submission with fuckity bollocky type language may not be the best idea (just this once). We therefore retain the right to edit all submissions accordingly.
Several of the regular WWJ contributors are likely to have bits and bobs included in the final package (hey, they have families they can’t be arsed buying presents for too). And yes, that includes Perry Iles and Derek Duggan. We haven’t yet decided whether this constitutes a selling point.
Last year there were so many submissions for inclusion that we went over the original estimated page count, which may mean we have to exert a bit of editorial judgement and therefore retain the right to refuse inclusion. Either way, contributing writers retain all rights to their works, including first publication rights. No ISBN, remember. However, some competitions and publications may be a little funny about you entering stories etc that have been printed up and bound in book format – just bear that in mind (though we won’t tell them if you don’t).
The final selection
Everyone who sends in a submission will be informed if they’re to be included by the beginning of September, and pre-orders will then be taken whilst we put the files together, make them look all fancy, and send you proofs to check over prior to print.
Another reminder is warranted at this stage - the whole point is for the people who have pieces in the books to give them to people they at least pretend to care about. There is no kudos to be gained from subbing stuff if you’re not interested in getting your hands on a couple of copies to show off with. Again - this will not make you famous, so don’t send anything in if that’s all you’re after. That would be daft.
Timescales
We need your stuff sent in by August 14th, that’s non-negotiable (trying out the commanding voice, there).
Delivery
All UK UK
Price
Cost-wise, until we know the word count we can’t give a final figure, but currently we’re estimating roughly £5.90 per copy based on the maximum number of pages we feel is suitable for the adult edition, and slightly less for the kids’ version. This INCLUDES delivery within the UK UK
The final prices will of course be announced before any orders are taken.
Right, have I missed anything? Oh yeah, how to submit.
How to submit
Thanks to unavoidable pregnancy issues, one of our junior underlings will be taking initial charge of things. Don’t let that put you off, he’s well-trained. Do anything for a biscuit, that one.
So, send submissions as a Word Document (that’s .doc and NOT .docx) to danny@wordswithjam.co.uk, subject ‘Christmas Book Submission’. It would make the wee soul’s life a bit easier if you included your name, email address word length, and which version (adult or kids) of the book the submission is for at the top of the first page. You can also send any questions or queries you might have to the same place. He probably won’t be able to answer them, but it’s worth a try.
Is that all clear? What do you mean no?
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