Covid 19: An extraordinary time

How we came to publish this one

We are most certainly living through an extraordinary time. It’s important that we writers document this some way or other. So, we invited writers we knew and their trusted friends to contribute writing to this volume. Any type of script was welcome; articles, essays, musings, poems scripts, short stories or flash fiction. There was no limit except of time. Texts could be as long or as short as they needed to be. People  could submit as many pieces as they liked. Everything had to be submitted by a certain date and everything would be accepted. We would make more than one volume if need be. It just all happened to fit into one reasonably sized volume.     

The title

We asked contributors to suggest titles and then all the suggested titles were presented to all of the contributors in a survey that also asked about whether we should produce a hardback or paperback, what the cover should be like and whether we should donate revenue to a charity and if so which one? “You’re always saying that this is an extraordinary time,” suggested one contributor “so one title might be Covid 19: an extraordinary time’.” That was the one that stuck.     

Some notes about the process

All of the contributions were gathered in and ordered chronologically into the book. It was then given the lightest of copy-edits by one of our experienced editors. It is supposed to be snapshot in time.         

The cover

Both yellow and red were suggested for the cover. Red for danger, yellow for poison. There was a lot of call for the popular image of the virus to be on there. So that is what we did. We have a red cover with a yellow image of the virus on it. We reversed this for sister publication Aftermath.  

Some notes about style

We have a mixture of short poems, short stories, glimpses of life, diary entries, swatches of script. All represent a response to the virus.   

Who we think the reader is

Maybe the readers are the children and grandchildren of the writer and indeed anyone else who has lived through this strange time. That was partly the rationale in going for a hardback. We wanted something that would endure. Hopefully it will be of interest for future generations.     

What else

Contributes can opt to have their profit share of net sales revenue donated to Médecins sans Frontières. We will organise that, otherwise they can take the normal profit share and either keep it for themselves or donate to another charity of their  choice.  

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book, or download it if you have a plan, and give us a review. Just click here to be taken to our online bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free review copy.