Book Project Fundraising
We opened a bank account with Lloyds in August 2023, and launched our fundraising shortly after. To date, we have raised a total of £2,063.18. This is enough to cover our publication costs, so our aim now is to raise as much money as we can for the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project.
Activities included:
- Pens Friends Sponsored Litter Pick (https://pensoftheearth.co.uk/litter-picking/) launched in September. So far over 4,000 pieces of litter have been collected.
- Book Project Launch (https://pensoftheearth.co.uk/book-project-launch/) on 9th October. As well as introducing our crowdfunder and competition, this event included a talk on Seagrass Restoration, a creative writing exercise, and a second hand book stall.
- Crowdfunder 9th October to 4th December: raised £1,609 with 48 supporters in 56 days.
- ‘Community’ themed writing competition judged by Toby Litt (fiction) and Richard Williams (poetry). We enjoyed reading the interesting and varied approaches to our theme of ‘community’. Thanks to everyone who entered – you gave our judges a difficult job! Results are here.
- Sale of Rupert Bear collectable books donated by Irene Strange, via Ebay, ongoing.
Thank you to everyone who helped to raise funds to cover our publication costs. To Andrew Larder, our Crowdfunder administrator and competition secretary. To Anne-Marie Norman, Rio Bivens, Tina MacNaughton, John Callaway and Soumya Jasthi who helped in a variety of ways. To Richard Williams for suggesting a second-hand book stall and to everyone who brought books. To Irene Strange for donating collectable Rupert Bear books, and to Richard Salsbury for selling them. To Christina Moran for running a ‘Pens Friends’ sponsored litter pick, not just raising money but also clearing a staggering amount of plastic and other rubbish over the course of a year. To everyone who donated their books and/or skills to our list of Crowdfunder rewards. And to everyone who supported and donated.
Fulfilment of Crowdfunder rewards is going well. Expect to receive your launch tickets over the next month, and to collect (at our book launch or via other arrangement) or receive (if you selected ‘posted’) your published book in October.
Financial Records
The first year’s financial records have been independently verified by Denise Baugh.
Book Launch in October
To assist us in our fundraising, Portsmouth’s famous Guildhall have very graciously allowed us free use of their Lens studio for our book launch.
Our launch takes place on Monday 21st October 2024 from 6:30 to 8:30.
If you haven’t already got tickets you can get them from the Guildhall Box office.
The event will include:
- Environmental talks.
- Prize-giving for our ‘Community’ competition.
- Performance art.
- Spoken word performances from our writers.
- A display of ‘litter art’.
- The opportunity to collect your printed books, or to buy more copies.
There’s also a free bar. The tables will be set out cafe style. It’s going to be a celebration of five years of Pens of the Earth. We’d love to see you there!
Litter Art
Inspired by the Pens Friend’s Sponsored Litter pick, local textile artist Jane Andreoli is producing a variety of ‘Litter Art’ pieces which will be on sale and display at the launch. All proceeds from these sales will also go towards Solent Seagrass Restoration.
Jane’s textile art is unique and has sold widely in this country and in America. Her style involves using scraps of fabric, paper, and thin plastic: “anything that my sewing machine needle can perforate”. These scraps are used like brushstrokes to create patterns and images.
The result is intensely colourful and quirky.
‘I’m aiming at a dozen each of messenger bags, pencil cases, shell purses and artists or writers’ A4 portfolios. I’ve also created a quartet of tree pictures and a couple of small landscapes using plastic carrier bags and bubble-wrap. There will probably be more pictures – I’m enjoying myself!’ Jane Andreoli
Our Book – Wild Seas, Wilder Cities
Thank you to everyone who suggested titles for our book, and to our book design team – Vin Adams, Rachel Birchley, Maggie Sawkins, Sue Shipp and Richard Williams – for helping to select our title, our book content, and to kick around ideas on how to organise it all.
Our manuscript is now complete and has been handed in to our book designer, Chris Hammacott (The Art of Communication) for typesetting.
As well as including a selection of stories, memoir and poetry (taken from our website, the ‘Community’ competition and two from performance events) we have sourced the following entirely new material to complement our creative pieces:
- Five local artists have volunteered their time to produce black and white illustrations to accompany the body of the text.
- We have eleven new environmental articles from a variety of contributors, some of the authors are already known to us, some are brand new. We’re thrilled with the end results.
Here’s a brief snippet from the introduction to the book:
‘This anthology is a ‘wild-seeded’ mixture of positive environmental poems, stories, illustrations and articles created by 54 different contributors, each with a unique voice or style. Taking its ethos as ‘local action wherever you are’, this book brings together writers and artists, along with dedicated and passionate environmentalists, to contemplate what’s possible for each and every one of us.
The order of the stories, poems and articles has been created using three randomised lists (like seed-bombing a wildflower garden!). The only exception is the article about the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project, which we are supporting with the proceeds of this book sale. You can read about that right after this introduction. Here’s a taster:
‘Seagrasses are marine flowering plants which provide food and shelter for an array of wonderful marine life, protect our shores from coastal erosion and help to reduce the effects of climate change.’ Ellie Parker, Marine Officer – Solent Seagrass Restoration Project
Your purchase of this book supports the restoration and protection of these vitally important habitats.’
The book cover has been designed. There will be a chance to see it during the AGM and we will be going live with it online shortly.
Promotional Activities for Our Book
- Pigeon Books have agreed to take pre-orders for printed copies of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities for collection or delivery, over the coming months.
- We will be selling our printed book via local bookshops (we’ve already been in touch with several) and are also looking to find other outlets (with help and advice from the Portsmouth Authors Collective). We have taken the decision (for a number of reasons) not to make the paperback available via Amazon, a decision which appears to be popular with small independent book shops.
- The e-book will be available through all the usual channels.
- We are currently approaching a number of authors, environmental figures and independent bookshop owners to offer them a review PDF proof copy in a quest for advance reviews. Our aim is to include quotes from these reviews on the cover and inside cover of our published book. The turnaround for this is fairly tight.
- Our book and book launch have already been promoted at a number of events, such as the Solent Seagrass Celebration day in March, and a number of conferences around storytelling and the environment.
We need your help!
We need you to help spread the word. If you have a blog or podcast and would like to write an article – or host an interview – please get in touch. If you have contacts who might be interested in interviewing us, writing about us, having us on their radio or TV shows, please let us know. The more confidence we have in our reach for Wild Seas, Wilder Cities the more copies we will commit to printing.
We will be holding a promotional meeting on Tuesday 9th July (10am to 11:30am, online via Zoom) to plan our activities for the coming months. If anyone wants to be involved and would like to join us at this meeting, please email me.
We also have small business cards, two varieties, which can be handed out to promote our book and the book launch and also a flyer. If you’re at events where you are likely be able to personally hand these out please either print yourself a few (using the attached templates) or ask us for a handful of cards. We don’t want to print more than we can use, but feel that a few cards, given to people who are genuinely interested is a reasonable use of resources.
Writing for Health and Wellbeing Conference
Vin Adams gave a fifteen minute presentation on Pens of the Earth at the ‘Storytelling for Health and Wellbeing’ conference in Cardiff, on the 10th of June. It was well received and there was some interest shown in the book. Thanks Vin!
Plans for the Coming Year
After five years of running submission windows and competitions, we’ve decided not to run a submission window next year.
This will:
- Allow us to concentrate on promoting Wild Seas, Wilder Cities.
- Give us time to consider the future direction of Pens. Publishing a book is a huge milestone, and it’s a perfect moment to pause and consider our direction.
- Allow us to respond to opportunities as they arise.
- Give Richard and me, and other volunteers, some down time. It’s been pretty full on, we need a break.
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey. It’s been thrilling to share this with you all.
Helen, Richard and Vin