Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Hi all. We talked in another thread about putting together a book after I discovered that Cafe Press will take my .pdf file and charges no set up fee. (That's 'cause I'd be doing the set up).

I love this idea because I do this for a living... typeset and layout documents... and I'd much rather do it myself than have some other print-on-demand service do it.

The price per page is reasonable over there so we'd be able to set a reasonable cost to sell the book. They offer several binding methods. Plus, we can design our own full-cover front cover.

So, there work would come to select the material and set it up. Plus we'd need an ISBN # (not sure how to go about doing that... maybe somebody can help?) and a bar code (probably Cafe Press does that).

OK so here's what I envision. Please let me know what you all think.

• A 150 page (approx) book, perfect bound, which features poetry and black & white artwork by Studio Eight members.

• Layout and typesetting done by me.

• Front cover using a full-color art piece or photo by one of our members.

Who wants to be part of this project?

If you want to be part of the project, let's figure out how to handle the submission process.

Should we have a committee working on selecting the materials or do you want me to do it?

I would like to ask members to submit a certain number of poems (8?)and/or a certain number of pieces of artwork (8?), specifying an acceptable length for a poem (we don't want 3 page poems, for instance). All artwork should be line drawings probably. I'm not sure what method they use for reproduction but I need to check and see if b&w photography would look OK and if so, then we can expand the artwork submissions to be anything black & white.

I was thinking of breaking up the book into 8 sections.

Hmm... what could those sections be?

We could do several issues of books, each featuring 8 different artists/writers.

Or, we could think of something else. Anybody have any ideas for what the 8 sections could be?

This is just the beginning of the process. Let's talk about the project here. I'll start another thread regarding submissions once we've talked about it and have decided how we're going to do it.

All ideas welcome. Thanks!

hi doreen
i want in.
not sure how the sections will evolve, but the concept is lovely. Nice, symmetrical with scope for integrity (like sections of a pomegranate)

How to select? hmmm. That will depend on the focus of the book. If it's a yearly tradition, we might go with the best of 2006. And then do an annual.

Or we could do a Best of... and include everything from the start of the Studio.

if, in fact, people have up to 8 favourites to offer for consideration, that will be a heapload of work to consider. For a 150 page book, we do probably need at least 3 times that much.

Perhaps you could have a small committee to select and then you have the last word to make for a unified feeling.

Maybe I'm thinking too far in advance, judih. Maybe it won't be a 150 page book. Maybe it will end up being a smaller book.

The key word in your post is "evolve" ... it hit me to help this make much more sense. The project needs to evolve. Yes! It is art and it is alive so we have to let it live and breathe.

I definitely think people should select their own material to submit.

LR has offered to be on a committee to review the material. Firsty was here visiting recently and I'm pretty sure he wants to help (you out there, firsty? wanna help review material? If I'm volunteering you out of turn and you're busy, sorry.. lol.. you can say no, it's ok!)

Do you want to be on a committee to review the submissions, judih?

Anybody else?

I think 5 people would be good. That way we'd have 5 sets of eyes and tastes looking at what's been submitted. Why 5? I donno. ha! Two isn't enough. 3 or 4 or 5 would work because we need differing opinions. Any more than 5, it would be too complicated, in my opinion.

Maybe I'll set up a special email address for the submissions and announce submissions and just have people start submitting and start from there. Once we have enough material to choose from, then the project will evolve so that the 8 sections to the book might become clear, the length of the manuscript will develop, etc.

I was thinking along similar lines.. not just making this one book but creating a series of books... Books we create on a regular basis. Let's start with one, though, and see how it goes.

How about ... we open an email address for submissions for a certain period of time. Once that time frame is over and all submissions are in, I'll compile the submissions into a manuscript (not yet typeset or laid out like a book) and I share the document with those on the committee and get their input as to what they think should be included. Once the manuscript is whittled down to the finest material submitted, we go to the next step where we decide what the 8 sections will be and I set it up as a pdf file for Cafe Press.

I'm thinking aloud on this thread. What do you think?

sounds good. maybe make a 'gmail' for lots of space.
i'd be happy to be on a committee.

the process sounds good. You're going for stuff written whenever and wherever? Or only studio 8 published material?

i'm in, yeah. gmail accounts are free and you can sign up by going to gmail.com. you either give them a mobile phone to text the signup info to or i can send you an invite. it's a great system to use because of the free space, and because you can use the account as a storage drive as well - if you have firefox, you can install an extension that turns gmail into a file browser and storage drive. so you could not only use it to receive submissions, but also to store stuff.

i'd also, actually, recommend sharing the documents using writely.com, which is a shared online word processor. doing that will enable editors to finalize content prior to page layout.

i like the idea of members submitting a few works of their choice, and also the idea of a selection committee of a few members of doreen's choice.

what i also like is the vision of playing around with the number eight. eight sections -- or eight pieces of work in each section -- or eight artists -- or works that revolve around the number eight, or around the idea of what the number eight symbolizes, or around the metaphor of the eight-fold vision of the symbol of what the concept of eight is about.....

ahem.
anyway, i like the whole idea. i'm in!

I just want to jump in real quick and say that I think that this is a great idea.

as a part of the path
it encourages practice
and i agree
so selection committee
verboten
free flow
makes the show
i'd like to combine drawing and poetry together
if you please

panta - glad you like the 8 concept... not sure what it will become yet but any ideas are welcome!.. And looking forward to your selections!

bohonato - i'm so glad you like the idea! hope you join in!

firsty - put ya on the review squad (or whatever.. donno what to call it)... more info in other threads on this board... started an email for it. I haven't checked into http://writely.com yet... i'll do that soon!... interesting. Have you ever used it?

jimbo - yes please combine drawing and poetry together! That would be wonderful! ... thank you!

thank you all!

This will be a powerful project... I can feel it.

Art and writing, intermingled. A book to pick up and look at. No screen attached.