You're not the only one

One of the reasons I am so open on my blog is that I feel like I can admit anything and have someone else chime in "Me too!" Admitting my sexy plan didn't go so sexily and Vi announces that hey, that's happened to her as well. The general consensus agreed that that's a part of Real Life. The fact is bloggers help me the most with my Real Life. We may not meet or even see our fellow bloggers, but we feel we know them. For many of us it's an important part of feeling connected, almost like having another support system.

Peach has taken this thought a step further. She's recruited me, Ariel from From Fuck Up To Fab, Ms R from Woman of Experience and Vi from Village Secrets to put together a book for charity, written by bloggers. Here's where you come in: we would like you to submit (to bloggersforcharity@yahoo.co.uk) a written piece about something you've been through from any aspect of your life that you want to share. It can literally be about anything: your relationships, your past, a road not taken, being a parent, an illness, or your regrets, etc. We've called it You're Not The Only One to reflect the camaraderie of blogging.

Proceeds will go to War Child, and blatantly following in the same fashion as Shaggy Blog Stories, we will be publishing it through lulu.com. This is a no upfront fee Internet publishing site that will take $9.15 per book sold if we make it no longer than 200 pages. We're pricing the book at $17.50 so $8.37 will go to straight to the charity. Because the cost lulu.com takes increases according to how many pages we want published, we do have to stick to the 200 page limit so we can't guarantee you'll get your submission in for sure. The absolute maximum length for submission is 1500 words (but we’d rather not have too many at that length. In fact you may stand more chance if your piece is on the less wordy side).

We’re really excited about this and think, if we get the quality we know is out there, we stand a good chance of getting some great PR.

A small note, we'd prefer it if you submit stories you've not published outside the blogworld. A piece from your own site is great, but not from a previously published hard copy book—lulu or otherwise. That makes this exclusive.

To summarize:

• You must be a blogger with a live blog
• It must be about something you've been through, amusing or serious or any style you like.
  
• You can submit in your blogname and remain anonymous, or not, up to you.
• It can't be something previously published outside the blogworld, but anything from your blog, or something entirely new, is fine.
  
• Try to keep below 1500 words.
• You must pimp the book on your site and buy it if you make a submission to be in it!
  
• Please LINK BACK TO THIS POST to spread the word!
• DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 29th, 2008 for submissions.
• Send your submissions to me at bloggersforcharity@yahoo.co.uk

If it's hugely submitted to, we'll do another one later in the year... so get writing!

P.S. Does anyone fancy designing the cover for us? Get in touch (bloggersforcharity@yahoo.co.uk)!

In support of War Child, registered with the Charity Commission no. 1071659