The Metachat Children's Book of Fairy Tales. Or -- Let's self-publish a book. →[More:]

Many places like Blurb print books on demand from uploaded pdf files. Blurb offers a 7" x 7" book with up to 40 4-color pages for $12.95 in softcover.

I would like to collect some illustrated fairy tales rewritten by Mecha peeps and compile them into a program like Blurb and make the book generally available. Original stories may be considered, but I think space constraints should limit us to familiar material.

I have not yet worked out the details of how many stories and at what length would fill 40 7" x 7" pages, but I figured that would be a part of the community process. As of now, I am picturing each story as 1 picture on the left page followed by 3 pages of text. Figure 600 to 700 words per story. Since each page can be 4-color, we may decide to do something more graphic and that could affect word counts.

We will need more than writers. We will need artists, photographers, font-designers, a story editor, an art editor, and anything else anyone wants to contribute. Blurb may not be our best option, so someone to do such research is also needed.

Today, I would like to gauge interest in such a project and offer early adopters the opportunity to choose which story they would like to write and/or illustrate. So, first come, first served. I ask that any professional writers give others the opportunity to choose first. Also, ideas for proceeding beyond this point are also welcome.

I would like to make this as open and community-oriented as possible, so stories and pictures will be available for others to critique and offer suggestions. Don't bring a hard nose to this, as when we get to the final layout, we may not be able to use everyone's contribution. The goal is to produce the best community book we can.