Call For Papers: Collaborative Book Project

Here is an opportunity to develop a residual income and to make a contribution to the creation of a series of books: The Natural Growing and Small Farm Reader.

The fundraising plan for the Farmwhisperer Farmland Fund (Details) includes a collaborative book project. The book is intended as a reader-a collection of articles, essays, stories and papers dealing with a particular subject matter. The first book of the series will be focused on projects suitable for a Natural Growing Farm and Homestead. This covers permaculture, certified organic, all natural, and wild harvested foods, be they plant, animal, fungi, livestock or fish, from growing, to harvest, to processing, to marketing. The scope of the first edition includes renewable energy, structures, habitats and shelters. There is a great deal of lattitude for the writers.

You are invited to write an article or paper, 1000-2000 words, pertaining to a specific area in which your have competent knowledge and experience. If, in your opinion, your paper falls within the scope of the subject, feel free to submit it. The best 100 papers will be selected. The paper will be non-fiction, with a length of 1000-2000 words. Photos may be included. For the sake of keeping publishing costs down, they will be printed in greyscale. This will be original work. If it has been previously published, in print or electronically, it will not be accepted without written permission of the copyright holder.

The finished book will be offered on Kickstarter in order to raise the estimated $15000 required to produce the first printing.

The collaborative effort extends past content to include promotion. As an incentive to promote the book, after the first 500 copies are sold, $5 from the sale of each copy will be paid to the writers. For 100 writers, this works out to $.05US/writer/copy sold, starting with the 501st copy. This compensation will be paid in $50 increments or annually.

If your paper is not selected, do not despair. There will be other editions with other topics.

Complete details are available at The Farm Whisperer.

Ken - I like this idea a lot! Thanks for posting this.

If the kickstarter for the physical book doesn't work out I encourage you to e-publish it.

I considered Scubblyas a distribution method for E-books, but the nature of the books demands print. The series is akin to the style of the Foxfire books. People hold on to them like family heirlooms. With quality content, people will hold on to these with equal tenacity. Because of the need for quality, The project must not be rushed. It will take time to put together.

Ken, have you set a deadline for the submission of papers?

I have not set a deadline. The project will proceed when it is ready.

Willie Wonka wrote:So little to do and so much time to do it in.

I've been able to get caught up on a few things and the job is coming into a slow period (maybe?) for the next couple of months.
It's a good time to bring this project back into focus.

Maybe some of the PEP conversion could lead to content generation. PEP 0.3 textbook articles for people interested in learning more on various topics.

Perhaps a suggested format for authors would be helpful too. Why this topic (100 words), what you need (xx words), what to do first, how to make it better...where to learn more? Not everything will fit in that structure, but a lot will, 2,000 words isn't a lot. That will make layout easier too.

I tried to submit our story of homesteading under a baobab in Kenya but it said you mailbox was full. You can find the story on our blog at Year of the Baobab

The ken at farmwhisperer.com email address has been mighty active these last few days!
You are not alone in being shut out due to a full mailbox.

Submissions can be sent to kpeavey@live.com
There is no limit to size of email messages and the mailbox will never fill up.

This sounds like a good idea.

I sent in this bit..

Received, Thank You.

I've had several more articles come in. The project is started to gain a little momentum.

Timothy Hewitt-Coleman wrote:Ken, have you set a deadline for the submission of papers?

Still no deadline, but the way this project is progressing, it should be ready to go to print by Summer '15.