Hullo all you lovely people!
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:
A Retentive Memory for Trifles (from this post)
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)
Just My Cup of Tea (related to my mission statement)
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.
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.
1) yes, I think this would be a great way to introduce lots of people to the breadth of yoru writing, not just those who like fantasy.
2) I think the current tag-line is good, may attract unexpected people, and has the advantage of being linked to your website, so people know it’s you who wrote it.
3) I think it would be good to have some other picture – that one is creepy and looks doctored. Maybe the woman wielding the carpet sweeper? Or some other amusing one that you’ve used in the past.
4) Please include the post on the NZ flag debate, the one about Chronic Fatigue, and many, many others that have made me laugh. I would love to read them again, and not have to mount an exhaustive search a) through my memory to think of a key-word, and b) to then search for it.
Thanks for your suggestions!
I’m still debating whether to include pictures or not, but on the whole I think not (so much formatting!) But I dare say the NZ flag debate post (it’s one of my favourites too!) could be furnished with links to the relevant entrants. Annoying for anyone who’s reading the book on a device without an internet connection, perhaps, but much less annoying to a) people who don’t want a bunch of images and b) me.
Of course, no images more or less excludes the post on how to make a severed Jabberwocky head – but I must leave something behind to entice readers from book to site. 🙂
No pictures :O. That would be a shame! Perhaps just a few of the best ones?? They really do enhance the humour of your writing. But then I’m not the one putting in the work…
I think I’ll have a look at the exact complexity involved in inserting images. Of course, I’ll have to check that the licenses allow for ebooking, but if they’re ok for blog they should be ok for ebook. With captions showing license details, perhaps, if I can’t master the technicality of inserting an image-which-is-also-a-link into text…
For anyone reading this in the far-off future, allow me to assure you that such a book does now in fact exist! It is entitled The Ambition of a Potato and you can find more about it in the drop-down menu under works. Bon appetit!