New Fundraising Idea - Calling all Budding Poets .......

[loosebones]

that's fantastic, really good - says a lot and is really emotive. Good choice.

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

Glad you like the photo. Parc Cruz, the person who took it is an amazing photographer and I just love his work. The girl in the photo is actually his daughter. Here is a link to his flickr photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parc/

Hannah - it would be great if you can sort out a photo . For your infor, at the moment, 9 people have submitted photos and 5 have decided to say "Behind the Mask".

I managed (at last) to get hold of the printer today so I have asked him for a quote of the 56 page booklet - I can't believe how much the book has grown since I first started looking into the project - there are 35 poems now . I have asked for 2 quotes, the first to see how much it would cost to get 175 copies so we can each have 5 copies per poem submitted, and the second to see how many copies he would be willing to print for £175.00 (i.e if we all paid £5.00 per poem). I have a feeling he won't be able to do 175 copies for £175.00 as each booklet will use a lot of paper and ink - but you never know.....

I alos have asked the highstreet printers that did my last booklet to provide me with the same 2 quotes so I can get a comparsion.

They have both told me they will get back to me either later today or tomorrow, so hopefully I will have an answer for you all soon

Oh by the way, if anyone would like me to do a dedication at the end of a particular poem, please let me know. this could be someone that inpsired you to write the poem for instance... I have dedicated one of my poems to the lovely Shadowgirl

Once I get back of my hols in Devon, I am planning to PM each person who has submitted poems, a copy of how their intro and poems read in the booklet so that each person can do a final proof read and make any last minute alterations. Please can I ask you all to look at the text very carefully, particularly checking you are happy with the punctuation and grammar and line endings.

I am so excited about this project guys (even more so than I was when I did my first booklet I think) as I really do hope it will be able to help a lot of other people out there to either understand what it is like to live with HMS/EDS or to make other people with the condition realise that they are not alone

I hope it will be able to raise a fair bit in proceeds for the HMSA too

Bye for now folks,

Sue.

[Sez]

Sue, I forgot to ask: would it be possible for you to credit D. Allen for my photograph, please?
Did I send you my third poem? I can't remember!

[Sue New]

Hi Sez,

At the moment I have put:

(The above photograph was taken by D. Allen)

At the bottom of your intro page - do you want me to add the copyright sign or put "All rights reserved"?

Yes, I have got all 3 of your poems in the booklet at the moment

Cheers,

Sue.

[Sez]

Could you pop a copyright on it? Thanks!

[Sue New]

No worries - it's done

[Princess_Sarah]

I love the picture too (sorry for the late reply) its really gorgeous

Oh I'd like a dedication at the end of one of my poems Sue, I'll PM you about it, really great idea.

I cant wait to see the final production!

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

Hoorah - I have finally got a quote from the printers - our friends company turmned out to be too expensive - I guess because they are only a small business they could only do it for over £400.00 . I was really desponant at first and worrying over how I would break the news to you all

In the end I chased up the high street printers again (as I am going on my hols tomorrow and wanted to be able to confirm the price before I went). The have just got back to me and they can do 175 copies of the book for £180.25 - that's only just over £1.00 per booklet which is amazing considering how big the booklet is going to be - I think they have given me a good quote because I did my last booklet through them.

There are 33 poems in the booklet, so if we each pay £5.00 per poem that raises £165.00. That leaves the additional £15.25, but I am happy to pay the additional cost and keep the leftover 10 copies to distribute to some of the key medical advisors for the HMSA - Prof G, Prof B, Prof P, Dr H etc...

Here is a breakdown of our individual costs (to print the booklet):

Karen 73 - 1 poem - £5.00 - 5 copies
Elliewelly - 2 poems - £10.00 - 10 copies
MKing30 - 2 poems - £10.00 - 10 copies
Sue New - 6 poems - £45.25 - 40 copies (paid extra £15.25)
Jakerleen's Son Dom - 1 poem - £5.00 - 5 copies
Kit & Katie - 5 poems altogether - £25.00 - 25 copies
Loosebones - 4 poems - £20.00 - 20 copies
Sez - 3 poems - £15.00 - 15 copies
Hannah - 3 poems - £15.00 - 15 copies
Rosie - 1 poem - £5.00 - 5 copies
Jenny Whitmarsh - 1 poem - £5.00 - 5 copies
Princess Sarah - 3 poems - £15.00 - 15 copies
Aquamarine Water Nymph - 1 poem - £5.00 - 5 copies

I would be grateful if people would be able to send me the cheques for your submission payment as soon as possible. The sooner I collect up all the money, the sooner I can get the booklets printed and sent out to you.

It is going to cost me a bit in postage and packing to send the booklets to you. I think in most cases I will be able to keep the costs down to around £2.70. To keep my personal costs down, if people could either add an extra £2.50 onto their cheque total or send me £2.70 worth of loose stamps (that way if the actual postage is any less I can post back the unused stamps ). I think that would be the best way to do it. Well that be ok with everyone?

I will send this message to all the contributors as a PM too to make sure you all get to read it.

Bye for now,

Sue.

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

Me again.

I hope that members of the site who are not contributing to the poetry booklet are not too confused by my above message. the message really only applies to those who have submitted poems.

One member has approached me and asked how those who have not contributed can get hold of a copy of the booklet. Well, I will have 40 copies to sell, and some of the others will also have a fair few to flog as well. I am happy for people to start giving me their advanced orders now if you like. I have certain friends and family earmarked for copies but I am sure I will have a number of copies left other.

If, all of those that contribute manage to sell all their copies and their are still members of the HMSA who want a copy, I could then look at seeing about getting a re-run ordered.

In the meantime, I think that the way I am organising it now is the safest way so that no one person is too much out of pocket.

I hope that makes sense. I am not a professional publisher or anything like that - I am doing all this off my own back as it were, and learning as I go along.

I hope I havn't confused anyone too much

Sue.

P.S - please remember that the costs I have listed above are the costs to physically print the booklets, NOT the costs that each individual booklet will be sold for. I am proposing to sell my copies for the same amount I sold my previous booklet for (£5.00 each), which considering it is going to have 56 pages with 33 poems, I think is a pretty good deal myself

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

I am back from my hols now and raring to go to complete the booklet project .

I have received a few cheques from those of you who have contributed poems but if those that have not already done so could get them to me as soon as they can, that would be great. Nick B has sent me her bit for the booklet (thanks Nick ) so all I am waiting on now in the way of submissions is Dr H's Foreword. I will wait until I have received in all the submission cheques and then send him a gentle reminder.

I have e-mailed all the poets with the pages of the booklet with their intros and poems on asking for them to proof read them for me. If people could get back to me even if it is to confirm that you are happy with the text as it is, that would be great.

For your info, in the end, 10 people chose to have a photo of themselves included and 4 of you have decided to stay "Behind The Mask".

The booklet is virtually completed now, and I think it is going to be a great anthology. I just can't want to get the copies printed now so I can send them out to you all and we can start raising some funds for the HMSA

Bye for now,

Sue.

[Sue New]

Good news folks

I now have Dr H's Foreword for the Poetry booklet

I am still waiting on 2 people to send me their cheques, and one person to revise their photo for me, but other than that the booklet is finished

I know the 2 people who have yet to send the money will be doing so shortly, so I am going to try to get the booklets submitted to the printers some time this week, as I am going away for the long weekend on August 24th and then will be off work for 2 weeks after my next operation, and I don't want to hold up getting the booklets distributed to you all.

I am going to take an electronic copy of the finished manuscript into work with me tomorrow to see if the printers will do me a proof copy to make sure all looks ok from a formatting point of view, and then hopefully things will be all systems go after that

The next thing I am going to need is the addresses of all the people who submitted poems (I know some of you gave your addresses to me when you sent the cheques, but if those that have'nt can PM them to me that would be great).

I will give you another update as soon as I know more

Sue.

[hannah]

Wow, publication date looms I can't wait to get my copies Sue, you really have done a great job on this.

Hannah

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

Woo Hoo

I now have everything in for the booklet and plan to put the final manuscript into the printers tomorrow!!

I got the printers to make me up a proof copy so I can check all looks ok, and it looked pretty good.

I have done some final "tweeks", but now I am going to resist keep looking at it and making any more amendments (I think I have become a little Obsessive Compulsive over this project to be honest- but I have really enjoyed doing it - I am already thinking of "Volume Two" ).

It will take a while for the printers to complete the order, so I will not expect them to be ready to pick up until some time next week. There was one final "blip" in that the proof copy only had a paper front and back cover and I had asked for the qoute to include a card cover to give the booklet some substance. I queried this with the printers and they said they can do the card cover and not charge any more (phew - I definately asked for a card cover, but I guess they had not factored that into the price).

I will be recovering from my hand op next week so will have to get hubby to go in and collect the booklets.

I will then devide the copies out into who is getting what and post them to all the contributors as soon as I can. Please can those who have not given me their addresses let me know as soon as possible.

Gosh, I am all excited now. I really do hope we can all raise a lot of money and awareness through this compilation of poems

Bye for now,

Sue.

[Sue New]

Hi Guys,

Time for an update regarding the poetry booklets. I called the printers again just now to see when they are likely to be ready for collection, and the man I spoke to said that although they have not all been printed yet, they have done a dummy run, and they came out really nice

Hopefully, they are goimng to call me tomorrow with an idea of when they will be ready to collect. I can't wait, I am really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

Everyone who has contributed has now sent in their cheques, so as soon as I get the booklets, I will be able to start posting them out to eveyone (once I have all your addresses of course ).

Bye for now,

Sue.

[elliewelly]

Very exciting - can't wait!