only the faq's and nothing but the faq's

I agree, that would be really cool. But in this book, would it include everyone's poems on this site? Or just a poem from each that was rated high?

good idea..Mods could choose whose poems to include in the book..

Great idea Bob..

I have two books of poems published... one you can get for $12.99 and the other is $9.99...but isn't my telling you that advertising?? If so delete this Bob :)

If you want to know how to get them, email me! :)

Don't forget, you own part of it too now Bob, so burning down our factory isn't the best investment plan :-P

As for the publishing idea, i think it sounds great $_$.

Aken Sol

The publishing idea is great, but I think P&Q would have to work out a royalty shares scheme with the published authors and deal with copyright registration also.

Regards,

Steve

It would be awesome for P&Q to publish a book.

aw come on Plain, you'd buy like 50 copies cause you know you'd be in there somewhere..most likely at the back under the ? section.....and then you'd leave the copies lying around open at your page when the postman came round so you could impress him enough that maybe he'd touch your old boy.

I know thats my plan.

If we are gonna do this thing, then it will require funds, which we most likely would have to donate, unless it was all online which i think is the best option...make it downloadable with maybe a small fee which would go into future publications.

And as for the choosing of said poems, i don't think the mods should do it alone...cause lets face it, some of the best and most interesting commentors are just regular posters like FT Miles, justplainme, Kaitlin etc....there should be a fairly large group who volunteer...or are selected...and they pick the entries...it's the only fair way....cause lets face it...the mods are elitist, arrogant non humans.

Ha, I wonder how many active members this site has. If everyone pitched in a dollor....

On the bake sale idea Bob, i'm in. I make a mean batch of double whipped chocolate chip cookies :-P

Aken Sol

In my opinion, there are many poems that are quality enough for the random person at a library to want to read them as a collection.

We wouldnt just have to market to P&Q and expect them to buy it, a lot of this work is quality.

Of course, the standards for the work would have to be really high.

When it comes to raising money for the publishing fees, I highly doubt many people would want to contribute unless they were gauranteed their work would be IN the book, but it couldnt hurt to ask people for donations.

It would be cool to get comment from Dainz or Janis on this one and see what they think.

Obviously Janis has thought of this, because he put the option for publication in the rules that we all agreed to when we joined the site.

And, Kevin made a good point, that would be an incredably big job for Janis, Dainz, and the elves to accomplish alone. The regulars on the site would be a good helping hand.

A good place to start though would be looking through the top rated sections and previous contest winners, of course.

It's a cool idea, and it would be a great project that would bring P&Q together as well. It would also be great marketing, as people who saw the book would come to the site and probably start accounts in hopes that they could get their work in a future book.

Just rambling...

I don't know yet what Janis think, but I support this idea.

p.s. Imagine how many poems will be plagiarized after book will be printed :) It would be like "chicken soup, bla bla ".

I like the idea and I would love to help in any way. Even donating a small bit would be worth while in my opinion.

---Sher

The only reason P&Q would sell a book of poems is to make money... and who would make the money off of the poet's effort? The people who run the site, not the people who make the poetry.

Therefore, with logical reasoning, what would make it any different to the poetry scam emails myself and others frequently get?

If I ran this site I'd publish a whole series of books, ones for cutters, one for intelectuals, one for loved up teens, one for everyone and so on ad nauseum as it would be easy cash.

So, my only question is this, how do I get shares in P&Q?

The only stocks are turnips. The most important thing is size not quantity, so if you want to be biggest shareholder you have to raise biggest turnip. And if you are biggest shareholder you get the statuss of Baldrick.

I see my concerns have been addressed properly by someone in the know, thank you.

I fully realise that websites are not free and take more than money to run. The effort put into maintaing this site must be more than a few hours a week and the limited advertising on the site must only bring in a few pounds a month. The initial work to make the site must have been considerable to say the least.

So your efforts are highly appreciated but there is a fine line between a donation and extortion and I wouldn't like to see this site take a step that would, in my eyes, potentially degrade the site's worth and cloud the image of the good folk who run this site.

The majority of users on this site are under 18 and to sell them books of their own work would be like taking candy from them in my eyes. I'd label it "Poetry Pimping". Hmm I feel a poem coming on!

*Slinks off mumbling about poetry pimps.*

Just to follow on from Bert's comments, thanks are due and in order to the website developers and all the moderators for making this site happen. I for one appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this site work.

One can only imagine the countless and thankless hours that they have to put in on their own free time. Kudos!

Steve

A suggestion to help with funds could be a sort of subscription to the website, for example, a months subscription for $3, Six month $10, A year $18, and have extra things that make it a lot better, maybe the posting of artwork, or journals or personal things...

A magazine would be nice but how would you publish it worldwide?

Also who would fund it and what rates would be offered for publication of poetry. Then there is the issue of publishing rights and possibly royalties. Year long USA first publishing rights, worldwide annual rights, copyrights and so so on, it's a quagmire that should only be approached by a full time company with proper publishing history with connections.

So, if Janis (East Europe) wants to get together with Bob Shank (USA) and myself (UK) for example then immediately we're dealing with three sets of national copyright issues and a worldwide one too.

Basically it would be a mess.

The only feasible option is to have it set up solely in the USA, as that is where the majority of registered users are from, and go from there.

As a note I'm a writer who works in collaboration with another writer in Atlanta, Georgia. We cannot get published in the USA and the UK under the same laws under one company unless we sacrifice a lot of issues and consequently, money. So we're starting exclusively in the US as it has the biggest potential fanbase.

not sure about the compatability of American/Canadian rights, but they won't be compatible with European ones. A mail order system would negate that however, but cost the recipient more in postage.

How to pick poems?

When selecting a larger number of poetry it would probably be best to stay with genre.

Love, horror, poems about life etc. and also choose free verse and poems with structure (haikus, sonnets and so on).

As to who chooses these poems? Well what is a senior member and what gives them rights on poem selection over anyone else who has contributed poems to the site?

You could go by experience, but then would Bob, Kevin, Sunny, Michael Nalley etc. be more liable to choose poems that follow a convention that pleases them or would they follow the convention of the mainstream?

What constitutes a good poem? Nothing but the meaning of it to the reader.

Therefore the only way to get a truly unbiased and level result would be to have every person who has at least one poem on this site vote for their top five poems (none of which can be their own) and go from there.

But will that show the best poems or just the most popular? you could have a board to select poems from each genre. Each member an 'expert' in that field who can suggest the top three, five, ten and up poems which would then be evaluated by everyone on th said as a comittee, majoriy vote acceptance.

I could go on but the permutations really are limitless ranging from the totally autocratic to totally democratic.

The problem with ebooks is that they can be swapped illegally without payment...