A Mooters' Anthology?

[Entlover]

Elvendrummer87 had a brilliant idea, which seems better to me the longer I mull it over:
why not publish an anthology of mooters' short stories, poetry, maybe essays? Some Tolkien-related, some not. Maybe the administrators have already considered this?

There are roughly 2,200 members. Obviously not everybody will want to submit things, and of those who do, not everybody would be able to be represented. Depending on the length of the book and the submissions, only about 200- 400 people would be able to be in it. But it would be a fun memento of the Moot.

We could do a Print on Demand, which only costs between $40 and $200 depending on who does it. It need not cost anybody anything; expenses could be taken out of the proceeds (since everyone in it would buy at least 1 copy); excess proceeds, if any, could be donated to some international charity, like the Red Cross.
What do people think?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Great idea! I bet they could sell it on the Tolkien Trail shop. That might be a good way for some of us to get "introduced" to writing. I'd buy at least one copy.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Of course, we'd need some form of selection guide. Somebody would probably need to make a list of all of the works, and a selection committee (most likely headed by IronParrot, as he certainly seems to be the best critic) would choose which ones to be published.

Maybe we could call it 'Leaves of Fangorn' or 'Onodrim Leaves'. Probably something having to do with Ents.

'The Ents Speak', perhaps?

[Aralyn]

The Ent's Speak sounds good. I would contribute anything we need to get together. I'm very organized so I could help.

[Celebréiel]

Hrmm. That is a good idea, and yeah, Id help out where help is needed. At my old high school they did something like that every year for the students. You should also consider adding maybe some art or photography even if just a little. Just a wider collection of creativity from the moot...*shrugs*

[Aralyn]

Yeah art!
Cool!!

But could we publish fanfic? Isn't it illegal? Like copyright or sumpin?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Bleh, don't expect any art from me. Can't draw worth...two cents.

[Lalaith_Elf]

great idea....... this means i can get on my english head.
*swaps heads*
hmmmmmm....... another short story...... oh and get lai to write poetry for it............

[Elf Girl]

Let's see... Everything we post belongs to Entmoot, and Entmoot belongs to bmilder, so if we actually want to publish it, he has to do it.

One section for Tolkien-related stuff? Please? *coughlongsadstorycough*

[IronParrot]

I think this is a neat idea, but don't expect it anytime soon. Right now, Ben already has his hands full with months' worth of Tolkien Trail fan art and fanfic submissions to put up on the website.

Since this isn't really something we'd sell in bookstores, and I'd imagine that the only people getting a copy would be us 'Mooters, I think such an anthology (should we eventually do one) would indeed be self-published and sold online. It's not a commercial publication or anything, so I don't know where we stand regarding the legality of publishing fanfic content, but I'll conduct a bit of research on the matter.

For the time being, if you want to see your stuff published, the best bet is the Tolkien Trail website itself. Though maybe wait until it's up-to-date first.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Everything we post belongs to Entmoot, and Entmoot belongs to bmilder

It does? Oh dear...

Well, not EVERYTHING...some of my stuff is copyrighted...

[Elf Girl]

Well, we could just annoy bmilder so much that he lets us use anything on the site...

[Elf Girl]

Or we could just email what we want in it to one Mooter and give them the rights to it. Then they could organize it.

[Ninquelote]

If indeed this does happen, how could we decide what is published in it and what isn't?

I would like some of my Lord of The Rings and Silmarillion poems to be in it...

[Elf Girl]

I think almost everything submitted would be in it, since there aren't that many writers here.

A nice PoD site is www.iuniverse.com .

I might consider covering the cost of the most basic package ($200) and handling the publishing if I get the royalties.

I wonder if we could really do this...

It would probably have to be paberback, is that okay with people?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Don't matter t'me, 'slong as it's published.

[Elf Girl]

If we're putting Tolkien stuff in it, how do we handle the legal aspects?

Non-Tolkien stuff to put in can be emailed to me now so I can format it.

[Elf Girl]

Okay. It says we need to have:


Our edited manuscript in MS Word or Word Perfect format.

An idea or artwork for our cover design.

Our author biography in 50 words or less.

A back cover description of our book in 200 words
or less.

A book marketing statement, which is a one or two
sentence sales pitch for our book.


I figured we could use the Entmoot logo (hairy naked armpit guy) on the cover, if bmilder lets us. If I'm doing the publishing, technically I'm the author, but I could go by the pen name 'The Members of Entmoot Board.'

But there's still Tolkien Estates...

[Anglorfin]

How many people would actually contribute? I expect if this gets off the ground it will become general knowledge to all the 'Mooters, not just specifically the ones that frequent this board. And, Tolkien-related material aside, do we know the parameters of the writings that would be included? Would we divide it into a section of poems, then a section of short stories, then some other sections whatever they might be . . . or will it be sectioned off by contributor? Who will decide what makes it and what doesn't? I'm probably getting a little ahead of myself though because it seems we have a while.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I know one thing for sure, I wouldn't contribute from my story. I plan on WRITING that, thank you very much! But my poem is less so, and it's copyrighted.

Would we really need all that stuff? Personally, I think it'd be better without a back cover description. Books like that tend to catch my eye, as they are out of the ordinary. But that might just be me.