It’s only been a few weeks since the first update of this year, but we’ve since welcomed more members and that alone makes it a good idea to bring everybody up to speed on a few things.

 

Featured Author

Having recently fine-tuned my method to obtain our monthly Featured Author, I believe I’ve found the ideal formula.

– I used the Sociograph tool to confirm all active members on our IASD Facebook page during January – up until the third last day of the month. To be ‘active’ a member only had to appear to ‘like’, ‘comment’, or ‘share’. Yes, it really is that simple.

– I typed all the names onto a new document.

– I deleted any of the members who have already been featured.

– I dropped the remaining list of names into a randomiser programme … and I noted the top three names. The first person was offered (secretly, as usual by me), and responded. If there was no response (as has happened three times in the past), it leaves me time to offer to the next of the three.

– When I get the info back from our randomly chosen member I work like crazy to prep the page on the IASD website.

– For all you recent members, a point to note on the aforementioned system. In the top five, there were two people who’d been with the group less than a month. At number fifteen was another recently added member.

New Anthologies

As I mentioned in my first update of this year we have a whole bunch of anthologies underway. If you’d like to have a story included in any of these anthologies, please get in touch with the project leader directly via PM on Facebook. Starting a thread with such a request tends to expand the initial post into a discussion.

1. The ‘Freedom’ themed anthology is being managed by Ian D Moore.

The cut-off date for entries is 28th February 2018. Ian will report progress and confirm such things as cover, title and of course all the authors who have submissions in the book.

 

 

2. Children’s books are being dealt with by Sylva Fae and Denise McCabe. These books might now number three. The organisers are working on how to break down our submissions. In this area, we have to consider age groups, illustration and how many books to produce. At present it appears that we’ll have three books at least, spread out over the year by season. Sylva will be our liaison.

If you have any illustration talent please get in touch with either Sylva or Denise.

 

3. Our Horror anthology has a leader. Eric Lahti has taken over the reins of this shadowy monster and due to a proposed publishing date of October, we have plenty of time for Eric to set up his stall. Please watch out for any messages regarding submissions – it all takes time to collate. For those unaware, we have an IASD Horror Anthology page on Facebook.

In each case, apart from submissions, the guys will need beta readers, and the editing process will go on until the individual team leaders are content that the job is as good as it can be. We don’t cut corners on quality simply because it isn’t our individual name on the front cover. The anthologies are a group effort so it’s important that as many members as possible have the opportunity to get involved.

Royalties from anthologies

We have a great bunch of people in our group and we all want to do what is right. Yes, it’s a wonderful thing to donate proceeds/royalties to a charity — but how many of you have tried?

As those who have dealt with charitable donations will tell you, it is an area fraught with rules and regulations. I’ve personally been down this road and you eventually start to question the amount of red tape involved.

i.e. Do you guys want my money or not?

I’ve put the charity donation topic to our three anthology liaisons and a workable compromise is what we hope to achieve when the group reads this update.

Ian spearheaded our efforts with our first group anthology and I recall he spent many hours and days wading through officialdom so we could organise funds to go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

I subscribe to a number of good causes, but I believe wherever the charity is located, if it deals with cancer – it is a charity which deals with a common international enemy. There might be the argument that there are similar charities local to some members, but if we go down that route we are complicating our good intentions.

If our first selected charity had been situated in the US, Canada, Australia, or elsewhere I’m pretty sure no member from the UK would argue about the donations. We simply want to give to a good cause if we decide to donate to charity, and we have one account established.

 

There is the option of giving the eBooks away. By publishing on Smashwords for free, and then eventually getting Amazon to make it free. An eBook will be snapped up—many times by those who may only take one because they’re free.

If there is support for the idea, I thought we could act like a sponsor and channel all our royalties toward the same charity – Macmillan Cancer Support.

The mention of this on the update is not a poll, but a heads-up for you guys because the admin tries to avoid making decisions without consultation. If there is a unanimous voice for sending all our royalties to one place it will then be time enough to investigate any issues.

Watch out for a poll regarding our intentions for the royalties from eBooks.

As always, thank you for reading and for your ongoing support of our wonderful group.

Tom