200

Welcome to the 200th post! Unbelievable - and as we are also coming up to WKDN's blogoversary at the beginning of June, I've decided to have a little fun. We've talked about how easy it is to self publish via sites like Lulu, Xlibris and Blurb. I've decided to publish a selection of the first 200 posts and prompts as a workbook. As tempting as it was to go for the full colour 440 page coffee table version I thought £87 (cost) might not be the best price point for a little book on writing :) So, I'm formatting a regular black and white book with space after each prompt for you to scribble down your ideas - it's really good fun getting it together and I hope some of you will find it useful. It will be small enough to stick in briefcase/pocket/nappy bag, you'll be able to order online from Blurb, and I've decided any profits will go to one of my favourite charities, War Child:

'War Child works with children affected by war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. We work with children who have been hit hardest by the joint forces of poverty, conflict and social exclusion. Our groundbreaking work with former child soldiers, street children and children in prison has supported and helped thousands who would otherwise not have been able to reintegrate with their community, gain access to education or enjoy sustainable livelihood support'.

The charity does amazing work - I'm hoping after costs there will be around £4 - 5 profit from each book. That way for each book sold one orphaned child could be put through school for a whole year. What would you be happy to pay for a writing book - £7.99, £9.99? It's going to cost £3 - 3.50 to print each book (plus taxes, shipping). If any of you have any experience with selling books I'd love to have your advice, or perhaps some of you have already published your blogs?

So - that's the grand plan. Now I just have to figure out how to format, edit, price, design the cover and publish the thing ... watch this space.

TODAY'S PROMPT: It has never been easier to print your own books - if you haven't had a look at Blurb's BookSmart editing programme I'd recommend it. As long as you go for one of the colour options you can just 'slurp' your whole blog in seconds (sadly for recession busting B/W I'm having to cut and paste the whole thing into Word then load it back up again). I'm thinking particularly of some of you artist bloggers - even if you print one copy for yourself imagine seeing your words and images in print!

200 posts have seen us all come a long way. WKDN is being read around the globe (and thanks to intrepid Misssy has even featured in The Pakistani Spectator this week!). There's something really satisfying thinking about seeing some of these posts in book form. This year may not have seen the novel published yet, but there will be one book to show for all these months waiting and writing. Thanks to you all for hanging around - as I just wrote in the Introduction to the book, you all have made WKDN what it is. x