The tadpole has turned into a frog!!!

 

La Gr@not@  (The Frog in Catalan) has just been registered as a company in Germany and has been assigned its first batch of 100 ISBNs!

 

Given that 2015 sees the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (perhaps the most famous children’s book of all time and certainly in a 3-way tie for 1st place as OUR favourite book of any genre[1]) AND the birth of La Gr@not@ as a “publishing hut” [“We’re too small to be a publishing house.”], we’d like to hold a launching party coupled with a competition. We want to bring out a book entitled Alice And I. People of ALL AGES will be asked to submit either drawings, graphic art of other kinds, written work (poems, essays, short stories...), or any combination of those 3 on the subject: “What Alice has meant to me”. (Entrants who are legal minors will – if selected for publication – be asked to provide proof of parental permission.)

 

Those entrants chosen [by our panel of rank amateurs on a strictly “Well, we like it!” basis] will be assigned 2 [European standard size A5] pages (facing each other) to fill. You may fill both pages with writing (one longer or 2 or more shorter pieces, e.g. short poems), both with illustrations, illustrations on one page and writing on the other, or illustrations and writing all over the place. It's entirely up to you. This is Wonderland. Your several pieces could relate to each other (for example a drawing that illustrates a short story) or be entirely independent of each other... as long as they all relate to Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. There will be NO other editing, so you [and your friends] should proofread your submission yourselves: we will consider that all typos are intentional. And if you choose to write a 200,000 word treatise on the subject – and we deem it worthy – it will be PhotoShopped® to fit the space assigned (so that nobody will be able to read a single word of it... but YOU and WE will know that it’s the real goods).

If you ask us (nicely) to do so, we could ALSO place your entries on either side of the same sheet of paper, so that you could introduce something or other, then SURPRISE the readers when they turn the page.

 

Entries will be accepted in the following languages (arranged alphabetically): German, French, English, Catalan, and Castellano. (Well, if you don’t know what these languages are, you won’t be submitting in them, will you? So it doesn’t matter that you don’t know.) Those submitting in a language other than English should specify whether they wish their contribution to appear in

a) the original language,

b) an English translation by our staff of polyglots, or

c) both, side by side.

 

All entries must be submitted in digital form, as attachment to e-mails sent to aliceANDI@la-granota.com (Make sure that you remove all CAPITAL LETTERS from that address before sending [remove: do not convert into lower-case]: this is our tactic to avoid Internet-crawling computer-generated spam filling up our inbox. And DON’T forget the hyphen!!!) Please state your age (not just "over 21": we'd like to give readers an accurate idea of the range of ages of the contributors) in the main body of the e-mail.

 

Written contributions can be in any form readable by OLD versions of Word® (i.e. NOT .docx) or by Word Perfect® (or – in the case of children – they COULD be scanned images of handwriting in JPG format). All graphics should be in JPG format. If you’re computer-imaging literate, please make sure that they’re 300pixels per inch and height 21cm (8.268in) x width 14.8cm (5.827in) [i.e. A5] or less. (If you aren't computer-imaging literate, don't worry: we are.) No PDFs at this time.

 

“OK, OK,” we can HEAR you muttering, “but what are the prizes?”

There will be one main cash prize of 90€ + an additional 60€ IF you show up at the launching party (please warn us before you show up so that we can visit the cashpoint machine);

a 9€ cash prize (we TOLD you that we were small) for any other entries chosen for publication IF they show up at the party in order to help defray travelling costs [this is not only cheapskate but also crass bribery to swell party attendance];

a free copy of the book + unlimited copies @ 60% of sale price for every entry chosen for publication and for as long as the book remains in print (if you plan to pick copies up at the party, please warn us of numbers desired well in advance);

an invitation to our launch party + a 10% discount on all La Gr@not@ publications ordered this year for ALL who enter, regardless of whether their submission is chosen for publication.

 

We’re holding the launching party on Sunday, the 16th of August, 2015, in the grounds of Schloss Freudenberg[2] – one of our personal Wonderlands – and in our opinion it beats EuroDisney® into a cocked hat as far as attractions and activities goes, and it’s MUCH cheaper (including a “no questions asked, admission money back if not completely satisfied” guarantee, of which we’re sure that only jokers or the VERY hard-up have ever taken advantage). Entry to the grounds [where our founder’s favourite 2 of all the attractions are to be found] is, in any case, always free; and we’ll be asking for a group rate + guide(s) for entry into the castle. Even if you can’t make it to the party, we’d like to point out that this is one place that you should plan to visit at SOME point in your life... so why not now?

 

Attendance at the launch party implies your agreement to permit photographic and video images of yourselves to be published on Internet and elsewhere, so make sure that you behave yourselves!


We will pay 50% of the entry price to the castle for the first 40 people who write to us to confirm that they will be attending. (Please tell us how many are in your group, with ages.) We will pay for the guided tour (very interesting!) for the next 20.


 

La Gr@not@ has a policy by which 25% of all profits are destined to good causes (not necessarily registered charities), and 50% are for the creators of the book (writer+illustrator+translator). In the case of Alice and I, this (or these?) 75% will be destined as follows:

25% to Schloss Freudenberg - http://www.schlossfreudenberg.de/marginal-navigation/bilder-videos/freudenberger-filme.html (if you check out these videos, leave the top one’til last [it’s in German, but will give you the most complete idea of the place], for the bottom 4 there’s no commentary not to understand),

25% to Daytrippers - http://www.daytrippers.org.uk/ ,

25% to Pallassos Sense Fronteres http://www.clowns.org/

 

(This means accepted entries will not bring you any royalties, aside from the 40% discount mentioned above. La Gr@not@ itself only retains 25% of the profits in order to finance future projects... and reprints of this book if it proves popular. And our whole staff is working on this project without pay.)

 

Taking part in this competition implies acceptance of this decision.

(On the other hand, all entries remain the property of the artists/writers, who are free to publish them in whatever form elsewhere – with the proviso that La Gr@not@ has the right to publish them in Alice And I, and to use them in any medium for publicity purposes.)

 

In order to give you time to put on your creative caps, we are announcing this competition NOW, before all the details [possible entertainment at the party, publication date] have been worked out. Deadline for entries (straight out of the White Rabbit’s watch pocket) is the... hmmm... 20th of July, 2015. But – as you SHOULD know – the White Rabbit tends to arrive late to important events. Entries sent earlier will be looked at earlier. After that deadline, there’ll be a mad rush to make final decisions and set it all up for the printers in time for the party.

 

At the party, first-edition [limited to 25 copies (most of which have already gone their own way), pre-ISBN, hand-sewn and signed by the author] copies of Not Now, Daddy! by Jimmy Hollis i Dickson will be auctioned in order to help cover expenses. Any amount left over – if any – will be going to good causes. A newer edition of this book – and our others – will be on sale at a slight discount.

 

We here at La Gr@not@ are all as mad as hatters, because BEFORE that deadline, we’ve got to edit and print another 3 or 4 books. We’ll probably all end up in a residence for the feeble-minded. (Are there still such things? If not, they’ll maybe re-open a small unit just for us.) We really shouldn’t be taking on this challenge just now. But – as the Cheshire Cat was saying to me just the other day –

“We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.”
“How do you know I'm mad?” said I.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn't have started this publishing lark in the first place.” 

 

p.s. Entries produced under the influence of mind-altering drugs – while certainly not encouraged – will be considered. After all, Lewis Carroll himself was a consumer of opium. However, you should keep in mind that your entry must

1) impress us,

2) be suitable for a book to be read/seen by – among others – children.


[1] Another in the 3-way tie is – "Curiouser and curiouser!” – Through The Looking Glass (And What Alice Found There).