Well, it’s been quite a week, and here I am once more on a Wednesday morning with a blog entry to write.
FundedByMe
At the end of last week I started to prepare my campaign on FundedByMe and to learn how to use their website software. It’s not quite as intuitive and user-friendly as it ought to be, but I’m getting the hang of it now. (I’m wondering if perhaps I should not make a video guide for other would-be crowd fund seekers. But that will be a later project.)
I also set up a dedicated Facebook page as a place to post information about the campaign and perhaps gather a circle of interested supporters in advance of the launch. At the time of writing it has collected about 25 “likes” and with this blog entry I’ll be spreading news about it also to the #Blogg52 crowd and to my fellow members of Egenutgivarna. I think it will be nice to have reached 100 likes by the time the campaign launches.
Book-jacket
I’ve been revisiting the book-jacket also, as you’ll see from the illustrations here this week. The previous effort (see here) seemed too abstract, although it was a wall in the centre of town. The picture illustrating this page is one that I took out on Hönö in July. It was the most popular photo in July, being recommended on the GBG365 website by six different people. I like it because it implies a story, it includes figures and it also has two very distinct fields of colour which I can easily wrap around onto the back cover.
On the other hand someone is sure to point out that Hönö isn’t in Gothenburg. Still, it’s a popular place for Gothenburgers to visit in the summer and it’s only just outside the city limits.
Printers
I’d previously written to a few printers and got some vague replies. On Friday I sat down and wrote a better description of the book as I see it, and the campaign, and formulated a request for an offer. I sent that off at the weekend to nine different printers – four in Sweden, two in the Baltic states, and one each in England, Germany, and Slovenia. A couple boast on their websites that they will get back to with an offer within two hours.
That didn’t happen.
Swedes sometimes run their own country down by making fun of the way “Sweden closes in the summer”. Well it looks to me like Sweden isn’t the only country that closes down in the summer. So far the only printer who has come back with a clear offer is the Slovenian company. A couple of the others have written to say they’ll get back to me soon, and three more have asked me to clarify things which were already clear in my enquiry (my contact details for instance). These are obvious delaying tactics. Three of the printers – including the one in England – have yet to reply.
Videos
The crowd funding campaign calls for a promotional video. It makes sense to me – looking at the other people seeking funding on FundedByMe and Unbound I watched several promotional videos, and hopped over a couple that had none. I was also definitely more inclined to support a campaign if the video caught my attention.
Clearly the video needs to be in Swedish as well as English – but how long should it be?
I wrote myself a script in English – 780 words – which takes me just under five minutes to read aloud. Then with much effort and a great deal of help from my wife, I put the script into Swedish. The Swedish script is only about 760 words long, but it takes me about six minutes to read. Is a six minute video too long?
I fear it may be, but perhaps not if I make it visually interesting. My wife kids me that most of my photographs have a reflection in them – I think she’s kidding anyway – but I’ve been thinking that perhaps I could make the video partly by talking face to camera into a mirror while I film. That would also get past the problem that the camera has a built-in microphone and the further away I am from it the more difficult it has picking up my voice. I think Friday might be the day I film, so if you see a big, bearded guy walking around Gothenburg with a mirror and a camera – that’s me.
Say hello!
(Though I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do so while I’m actually filming 🙂 )
Alongside these things I’ve also been trying to catch up with the planning and preparations for the September Book Fair that Egenutgivarna have in hand. I’m now booked to present My Gothenburg Days/Dagar I mitt Göteborg on the Friday morning of the Book Fair at Litteraturens hus. And a little more immediately Planket is just around the corner – on Saturday, 17th August – and I still haven’t prepared the photographs I’ll be showing.
It’s all very exciting!
This article was written for the #Blogg52 challenge.
Wonderful picture!
Thanks Eva!