The Cartel Collaborative – Update space

UPDATE NO 1.
** PROJECT UPDATE No.1 ****

My fellow Cartelistas and Collaborators. As I sit here composing this update I have just noticed that one of my dogs (who is laying on the floor about 10ft from me) appears to have trapped a small snake and is playing with it in my office. I only relay this fact because I wish to forewarn you that this update may devolve into chaos shortly. (Snakes – not my favorite)

1.) It appears that we will have either 11 or 12 people involved. I would think this is an ideal number of people to work with. That allows everyone to have a say and interact freely.

2.) I went and registered the domain http://www.thecartelcollaborative.com . Unfortunately the way I did it caused problems for Joe and Stephanie in particular (Again I am sorry about that). But I think we are getting those issues resolved and, along with guidance from Angie, we should have a space very shortly. I did put up a sample page with a logo that is merely for discussion purposes. I just kind of modified the diagram from Joe’s earlier lesson where he showed a diagram of what you want intersecting with what others are looking for. Take a look in when you have a moment and see if the logo works for you. I would love to get opinions.

3.) Stephanie Gonzaga (with guidance from Angie Mroczka) has been working diligently to design a space. Angie had brought up some good points about having an area for private discussion about the project, but to also create a public area outside that would allow other people to follow along as we go. Comments welcome.

4.) Next it is very important to start to define the parameters of this project. I felt like if each of us could write a story, poem, etc. whatever people wish to showcase, and be no longer than say 15 pages. I know that many of you are very busy at the moment – so I would like to hear what type of time frame would be comfortable for everyone to make. I was thinking final versions by the end of Labor Day weekend with perhaps a launch date of somewhere around the first part of October. Too Fast? Too Slow? Would that give everyone enough time?

5.) Finally – I would appreciate ideas on what might be an appropriate title for this anthology/story selection. Joe has done a similar book of stories that I got on Amazon called Showoff – isn’t that a great title. Just feel free to throw out some suggestions and let’s get a title for this puppy. Just let the names fly.

We are spread out over many time zones and have very different schedules, but I would also love to hear suggestions on a way that we could communicate together and yet allow people the freedom to interact as their time allows. Blog posts work great, but I do not want to abuse my welcome here at the Story Cartel – which is meant to be used for other purposes.

Again – Thanks for your participation and give a shout out for ideas. I have to get the trashcan now and attempt to rescue this poor snake before Freya does it any harm or worse lets it loose in my office.

Thanks

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

MARGIE POSTED:
Hi James,

Thank you for all you have and are and will be putting into this project! Wow!

In response to the issues you raise on PROJECT UPDATE #1:

2 – I looked at the logo: Do you want it to look like Joe’s? If you ant something diff I can work one up for us (after I stop the majority of traveling I’m doing at the moment.) Or it can remain as is.

3 – I’m all for a private place we can chat, or a private forum with organized topics and threads, as well as a public one.

4 – Time frame: Launch date of 1st of October seems a bit fast.

When we factor in editing and the time it’ll take me to pull create the book (at least 2 full weeks – but would prefer 3), and many other things, including full time jobs. I don’t want this to be rushed.
I’d like to see us give it our all and give it our best, not rush it. I’d prefer January of 2015 as a launch date, and work backwards from there. I am flexible. Let’s definitely create a firm timeline.

You suggested 15 pages. For stories, let’s consider a word count, as pages will vary in an eBook.

5 – I’ll be thinking about titles.

Some thoughts I have:

EDITING and PROOFING of individual pieces
I want our level of excellence nose-bleed high.
I was think that it would be preferable if all took it upon ourselves to get our pieces proofed and read by a minimum of xx people (not sure of a number, Joe suggests 30 people). Or maybe we should all agree to read, feedback, and proof ALL the stories/pieces. I love how Joe said with 30 people giving you feedback you see the patterns, not just a few opinions. I think this is very important.

Then, I’d like to see us have TWO or maybe THREE final editors who focus on the flow of the book. We need strong pieces at the beginning and end, and we need to consider the sequence of pieces in between.

Then… Someone (or several) need to write a brief intro to the entire book.

And do we want an intro to each story/poem in the book?
If we want an intro to each piece, do we write it ourselves? Or should we use a bio as an intro?

Maybe we could each do research and weigh in about what we like. I’ve seen anthologies done in all kinds of ways. Our Editor(s) could make the final decision after hearing everyone’s opinions.

BLOGGING on the existing FORUM
I agree we need to get away from this. I can’t follow along – the thread is one huge long disorganized thread. We need something new soon! I’m going crazy trying to locate individual responses and reply properly. In fact, I am failing.

I’m fine with communicating through a forum protocol. Trying to get us to online chat will be very difficult. Though we should probably just go for it.

Thank you James! I’m headed out camping on Thursday and won’t be around until next week.

Sincerely,

Margie

EBONY POSTED :

Sounds great! I’m on board with the editing process. Thirty people plus a few final editors sounds like a good plan. Also, I agree that word count is more accurate than page numbers.

As far as communication, I’ve meaning to look more into Google groups. That maybe an easy platform for communicating via forums and video chat. Does anyone have any experience with it? I’ll look into this week.

Thanks so much, James!

STEPHANIE POSTED:

I’ve used Google Groups for one of my undergrad classes. It’s okay. Not as robust as, say, the Story Cartel forums, but it does the job and it may have new features.

We can also try Google+ Communities. It combines the private and public nature of forums and collaboration, since we can set it as closed and yet accept interested people outside of our cartel to be members.

I can set one up for all of us if you’re interested. Or if everyone prefers Google Groups, we can go with that too.

JAMES POSTED:

Ebony brings up something that I wanted to but I didn’t know how people might feel. Both my Maker’s Group and my Homebrewers Group use Google Groups. I have not used Google+ Communities that Stephanie brought up. That might be something that would work for us and I am hoping that this would be something that would grow beyond the seed group that we have created.

Will everyone use it. The groups are easy to use and I don’t think it would hurt to set one up – might broaden our reach. I am almost tempted to just try it. However, after my screw up with the domain name, I will wait a few days and get with Stephanie ( If that’s OK) before we commit to early.

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

LORI POSTED:

The logo is great, appealing, clean. I’m also excited to see what Stephanie and Angie have designed. The timeline works for me. Are we thinking of editing each-others work? If so we should prob allow a week or two for that to take place. Title ideas: Story Parade, The Writer’s Carnival.

Freya was one of my fave goddesses

ANN POSTED:

Hi James, I just skimmed this and it looks good to me.

As for communication, could we set up a private chat room? WordPress, if that’s what you’re using, has a plugin for that, although I don’t know how it works, or if it works well or not. – Actually, I just looked at wordpress.com and it doesn’t have chatroom capability. Perhaps we could set up something like this forum, which is open only to members

I added this to the other post, but I wanted to post it again here.

Hey Cartel – We are still working on the site, but I wanted to start discussing things and get the ball moving a bit so I set up a Google+ Community called The Cartel Collaborative – Google Community. Many of you may have already received an invite, but there are some of you that do not have Google accounts or I just couldn’t find you. It is to you specifically that I am trying to address. LoriMarie and Christy, anyone else you did not receive an invite, please send me your email (jamesschmidt@bsrconsulting.net) so I can add you to the group if you are interested.

This is a private community. I hope to keep building on the Cartel Collaborative, but really only those who wish to submit work to the 2015 anthology need to get their information to me.

Again – I will continue to try to keep you all informed, but discussions can start to move from here to the Google community until the Website is ready.

Thanks again

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Quick Update on Cartel Collaborative Project

First – I wanted to let everyone interested know that there is now a Google+ Community for the project called The Cartel Collaborative – Google Community which was established as a discussion and work area to be used until there is a site ready for us. I tried to invite everyone involved in the course to participate if you wish. If I could find your names on Google – I sent out an invitation to you. Some of you I could not find and so if anyone did not get an invitation and wishes to participate – please send me an email ( jamesschmidt@bsrconsulting.net ) and I will find a way to get you signed up.

Brian Rella was good enough to point out some apps that will allow you to access the Google+ Community if (Like many of us) need to keep your access to this project separate from your work life. I often need to remind myself to be careful and not mix business with pleasure. I downloaded the app Brian suggested to my iPad and it works great. Many thanks to Brian for his insights and suggestions – He and I are similar in that we are in the beginning stages of our writing careers, but Brian is jumping in with both feet and I for one am glad to have someone in the novice boat along with me.

Already there are a few of you that have joined the community and I thank you. I wanted to let everyone know that I received an email from Joe this morning – and he is behind this project 100 %. He is helping mentor me through this process so feel confident that it will succeed. He is going offered to take care of some of the setup issues we are facing and he is allowing us to use a theme that he has. Stephanie has done some great research and she and Joe seem to be pulling together a great space. The ideas that Stef has come up with for the space should perfectly allow each person the freedom to be who they are. This space will have a common group area – but also will allow for individual writer’s space that can be personalized to the style of each writer. We will be together and yet we can be our unique selves. Details are still pending but if you like The Story Cartel or Tribewriters sites, then you will probably enjoy this one. I’m so pumped.

Joe has no issues with the logo and was actually volunteering to clean it up and sharpen it out. I hope the design is satisfactory with everyone.

Margie, Ann, and Lee have been hard at work in defining the look and feel of the book design and the aspects of assembly. I had NOOOOO idea how much has to be thought out that has nothing to do with the actual writing part. Let me say that these women have brought things to the table that I had never even considered. All three have contributed in ways that is much appreciated and I can tell you that I am learning about the “Proper” way to approach constructing a book. It has been eye opening to say the least.

The structure they have come up with is exciting. The book will have poems spaced in between the stories and in each writer’s section there will be bios, dedications, and hopefully and illustration or picture (We are still looking into some legal aspects of including illustrations). There will also be links that will allow readers to go to individual writers website/blog, so that if they are interested in reading more from a particular writer – it’s just a mouse click away. I am just very excited about this beginning. If it turns out half as good as it’s shaping up – this will be a wonderful book.

I want to again take this opportunity to that everyone for their support and enthusiasm. Everyone has contributed and continues to add their uniqueness to this project and I am amazed by the effort that people are willing to extend to its success even when I know they are busy with the requirements of their own lives.

Again – I thank you.

Sincerely,

James Lee Schmidt.