Hullo all you lovely blog readers! I am delighted to tell you that the best, the brightest, the cream of the cream of the first seven years of this blog will shortly be available to you in convenient ebook form!
And by shortly, I mean the end of October, though if you are a patron of Kobo, Barnes & Noble, or Apple’s iBooks (no link due to maximum security walled garden keeping me out), you can preorder now.
In the meantime, feast (your eyes) on this potato in its jacket!
Not exactly a jacket, I must admit, as due to the nature of blog posts (images, hyperlinks and the like) this book will only be available as an ebook and therefore have a front cover only. More of an apron than a jacket, perhaps?
I’ve been sitting on an idea for some time, like a hen on an egg, and I’d like to hear your views on it. (Addled, or ready to hatch?)
I’ve trawled through the first seven years of the archives of this blog, cherry-picking all the really good bits. The idea is to compile them into an ebook – with some extra material – and make it available to the public at a minimal price.
The questions are as follows:
One: do you think this is a good idea (i.e. do you think there’s a market for it)?
Two: do you have any suggestions as to the title? I’ve had ideas including:
Eccentric Ethic & Aesthetic (a former tag-line for the blog)
Unconventional and Slightly Strange (the definition of eccentric)
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake (the present tag-line of the blog)
Sinistra Inksteyne: The First Seven Years (fairly self-explanatory, though Sinistra Inksteyne isn’t the site name any more and there’s always a problem with misdirecting people to the old site which still has that in the url)
Some of these might need a subtitle explaining what the book is (truth in advertising!). The possible BISAC codes include Humor/Form/Essays, and Literary Collections/Essays – or possibly even Literary Collections/Women Authors (though I don’t know if I qualify for the latter, being woman singular).
The overall feeling is one of light-hearted amusingness and oddity with the occasional more serious post for a bit of chiaroscuro. Rather like the blog as a whole, but more so – the cream of the jest scooped off the top, as it were.
Funny and cute? Or creepy?
Three: do you have any suggestions for the cover? The above looks fun (or is it creepy?), but a lot also depends on the title.
So there are my three questions, and I’d love to hear what you think about any or all of them – or anything else that strikes you as relevant.
