18 May 2011

Call for Submissions: My Funny Valentine Humor Anthology (Funny Books)

Post date: 18 May 2011
Deadline: 1 July 2011

We’re fairly open on genres: so far we’ve accepted a book chapter, blog essays, a comedy routine and a cartoon. Good light verse might work.

A length limit of 1500 words seems usual and sensible, but we wouldn’t turn down a hilarious item if longer.

Our preference is for material actually dealing with Valentine’s Day (or closely related material: a rapsheet on Cupid or comic history of the day have been suggested) rather than Love in the more general sense. So far accepted material has ranged from light humor in the Erma Bombeck vein, to more biting neo-feminist bits (but funny), a little racy, girrrlz debunking of lingerie, and typical hubby/wife stuff. We’re wide open, but have to draw the line at explicit X material. It’s a fun book people will want to snap up to get a chuckle from their love object, is the idea. Plus comedians stealing material, of course.

WHAT WE OFFER

As mentioned, there is no monetary pay-out to contributors, but that hasn’t been a problem with writers so far, due to the underlying concept of this anthology, which is not like most books.

It should be fun for readers, but to writers My Funny Valentine is best viewed as a promotional tool. It’s not far-fetched to think of it as a writers’ publicity co-op. With some additional privileges not generally found in anthology projects.

1. This is “platform”. Or recognition, or brand-building, or whatever you choose to call it. Your work will be featured on amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Ingrams, Bertrams, and most other outlets– available to order from almost any bookstore in the US, UK, Canada, European Union, etc.

The amazon listing will include the “look inside” feature, including the table of contents, so will be a verifiable reference to your published status.

The contributor pages will list your other books, websites, performance or agent page, evil corporate overlord–whatever aspect of your brand you are trying to make readers aware of. This is a key concept in the creation of this book, and highly synergistic.

Our website will feature your picture, bio…and more links to your projects or profiles. We will abet and enable writers’ followings and announcements online to whatever degree we can.

2. This is a sum greater than its parts. It’s not just you trying to push your book: it’s dozens of writers pushing the same book and everybody involved will benefit from all efforts of the entire group. The more books sold, the more people will see your work, your name, your page or book listing. Once available in print, we will co-operate with authors and send them packets of promotional information aimed at drawing as many buyers as possible to the book, and thus to your listing.

We will support the book with videos, with references on book listing sites, and other promo opportunities and support, including semi-tangibles like recommendations on LinkedIn profiles.

3. The topic and nature of this book lend themselves well to signings, seasonal publicity, and recognition and we will work with our chosen authors to maximize publicity and show you ways to use the book to spread your name and reference to your work. Another main concept behind choosing a holiday theme was that it’s easier to get local media attention for a timely, topical story than for a common book. We suggest that writers submit to local news shows and periodicals in search of special Valentine coverage, gift lists, and novelty items.

4. A special feature of MFV: we will allow included writers to buy books wholesale to resell at maximum profitability off their websites, gigs, signings, and fairs. You can offer signed books online by mail through PayPal or eBay or your website. You can consign them at local stores, coffeehouses, wherever you are known or wish to be known, also establishing your writer status in your community. You can offer them as prizes in local contests or charities. As an example of tips on how to maximize this, we suggest you place your personal bookmark in each book marking your contribution’s page and providing another reference to your other projects and brand. Several of our contributors feel that they can make more on such sales than they would with the token payments most anthologies offer.

RIGHTS

In keeping with the concepts of mutual promotion, we don’t care if your piece was published before, so long as you own the rights to it. We will register copyright for the book, so your piece will be protected, but our contract does not impede any other use of the work. If it’s in another book and you are submitting it here to help promote that book, that’s what it’s all about. Understand, that’s our attitude. Your relationship with other publishers is your own affair.

TIMELINE

We hope to have the book available for sale around the first of the year, giving time for an advance “soft launch” and time for sales and publicity events for Valentine’s day 2012.
We will look at work through the first of July, but would like to see submissions early. There is also a limit to how much we can run, so getting to us quick helps your cause.

The entire process of writers ordering books requires some time planning, but we will work to make this easier and advise contributors as the dates grow near.

Submissions can be mailed, pasted into body of email, to: myfunnybooks@gmail.com. (Don’t worry about losing formatting: if we like your piece, we’ll tell you how to get a full-featured document to us)

Contact Information:

For inquiries: myfunnybooks@gmail.com

For submissions: myfunnybooks@gmail.com

Website: http://myfunnybooks.biz/
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