Letters To Survivors
After two years of planning and development, Letters To Survivors is on its way to the printer/distributor! 136 pages of full color, edge-to-edge artwork, in what will become a gorgeous gift book...Months of painstaking graphic design, art production, and re-design...I'm proud to say this will be a spectacular work of art. There's not a single dark or triggering image to be found, and every letter is graceful and poignant. Any woman at any stage of recovery can read this book without being triggered (or hurling it across the room...like my other book!) It's a book that can be read without embarrassment of the topic, or given to a friend.
The printer's proof will arrive this week, and if I approve it, it will go into full production. The book will be professionally distributed, making it available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and can be ordered in any major book store. If sales warrant, book stores will also opt to carry it on their shelves.
I will be launching letterstosurvivors.com to offer extra content and direct sales of the book at below cover price. Plus, there will be a limited hardcover edition! It will be expanded in size, plus have additional letters, more art, glossy paper, group discussion questions, etc. And here's the cool part: it will NOT cost more than the standard paperback edition!
Of course, everyone who contributed to the book will get a free copy of the Deluxe edition! It will be released after the standard one, through because it is NOT being handled by a traditional publisher/distributor. I'm hiring a printer to personally produce the Deluxe (Hardcover) edition (henceforth LTS-HC), which means I have to raise funds personally to accomplish that. Give me time; these days are lean for our family.
For those who don't mind spoilers, I'm adding some sneak previews of the artwork. Please be kind; I worked agonizing hours until my eyes blurred to design each and every one of your letters personally.
The printer's proof will arrive this week, and if I approve it, it will go into full production. The book will be professionally distributed, making it available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and can be ordered in any major book store. If sales warrant, book stores will also opt to carry it on their shelves.
I will be launching letterstosurvivors.com to offer extra content and direct sales of the book at below cover price. Plus, there will be a limited hardcover edition! It will be expanded in size, plus have additional letters, more art, glossy paper, group discussion questions, etc. And here's the cool part: it will NOT cost more than the standard paperback edition!
Of course, everyone who contributed to the book will get a free copy of the Deluxe edition! It will be released after the standard one, through because it is NOT being handled by a traditional publisher/distributor. I'm hiring a printer to personally produce the Deluxe (Hardcover) edition (henceforth LTS-HC), which means I have to raise funds personally to accomplish that. Give me time; these days are lean for our family.
For those who don't mind spoilers, I'm adding some sneak previews of the artwork. Please be kind; I worked agonizing hours until my eyes blurred to design each and every one of your letters personally.
Replies
Matt, the book looks so beautiful! You have done an amazing job. Thank you so much for the time and thoughtfulness that went into the making of this book. I am so excited to hold it in my hands and look through it.
I am glad you asked this question, too. I am so glad that I decided to write this letter. The act of writing it and sending it made me feel empowered. It made me feel like I have control over what I do with what was done to me, if that makes sense. It made me feel connected, and understood, and a little bit more comfortable in my own skin. It made me feel validated and valuable at a time when those feelings were not very familiar to me. That being said, I must admit that I have had some mixed feelings about the whole thing. I have debated saying anything because I don\'t want to put a damper on such a wonderful thing, but since you asked, I figure it is safe to say this. All of my life I have wanted to be a writer and having something of mine published is sort of a bucket list thing for me. And now, something I have written is going to be published. Something that I wrote has been deemed worthy of this beautiful work you (we) have created. It means more to me than I can say. I cannot deny that it feels a little bittersweet, though. Personally, I know that I will feel so excited to have my letter included in this amazing project, and I also know that I will feel strange about showing to anyone. I know that my issues with sharing this are my own. My family and friends are so supportive and kind, but somehow I always feel bad even mentioning the subject at all. I am sad about what happened to me. I don\'t want it to have happened at all. But because it happened, and I have found this group and have received such amazing support, I have now been able to contribute to something that will help others. I am glad for that. I am thankful for it because doing something for others has helped me, too. I am sorry to sound like such a downer. I don\'t mean to sound ungrateful, I really hope I don\'t sound ungrateful because I\'m not at all. I am having trouble saying what I feel. Probably because I have trouble deciding how I feel. Does this make sense?
Jezzia, it makes perfect sense. It\'s the paradox of being proud of something you produced in response to something you also hate and wish had never happened. The paradox is that you feel grateful for the positive work that\'s come out of this, but you don\'t want to bestow any gratitude on something that begins with ugliness. So yeah, I do get that. If I may offer a reply...I think it\'s fair to feel that way, and it\'s good to separate your feelings of pride and gratitude for your own accomplishment in this issue, from your repulsion and rejection of rape itself. It\'s not that something beautiful came out of rape, it\'s that something beautiful came out of YOU, and it means you had that beauty in you all along, totally independent of rape. What you\'re doing with this letter is combating an act of hate with an expression of love and character, which is the RIGHT way to meet any challenge. Writing this letter isn\'t a revelation of a rape, but rather a revelation of your higher worth and superior personhood. It doesn\'t show that a certain trauma has afflicted you, it shows that no matter WHAT afflicts you, you have something of worth and honor that persists.
That was really nice...
Your status at the moment is: \"How do you know when you have become a Survivor? When you are not the least bit ashamed to be a Survivor.\"
In short (because i\'m never any good at emotive words) that is what this book and contributing to it has given me :) What I really want to do is show and tell everyone I know - look what I did, look what I am a part of. But I shared secrets in my letter I\'m not ready to expose to my world just yet :)
Heptet, that had occurred to me. I knew that if I did a hokey, cheap-looking book that looked like self-published Microsoft Word crap from a copy machine, nobody would feel particularly proud to share it with others and say \"That\'s my part, right there!\" So I bought professional software (Indesign CS5), training videos to learn it from scratch, purchased printing rights for hundreds of pieces of artwork, contracted with a professional publisher/printer/distributor, and registered it all with Bowker\'s Index of Books in Print, so this would be done right.
Sadly, I just discovered that I neglected to add a 3mm. blank gutter along the binding edge of each page. So I have to redo the layout this weekend and reload my files. That\'s right, three millimeters.
OH MATT! I would have TOTALLY done the same exact thing, I\'m sure. Besides the fact that I would have missed it, I can\'t do math ;-) What a bummer... I am still so so proud of you and all that you did to make this work so beautiful.
Omg, I would cry. Three millimetres! I hope it isn\'t going to be too much work putting them in.
Even with the missing millimetres ;) it definitely does not look hokey or cheap-looking.
And what was that about not awarding your tools credit someone tall once said???
Even with all that stuff you worked hard to get I would still not be able to create anything as beautiful or as luxurious looking as you have managed.
Matt, how frustrating!!
I have the same software, but could never produce anything so beautiful. Plus I\'m impressed you learned all that for this project. I\'ve barely scratched the surface of what Indesign can do; it\'s way too much software for what I use it for. When I saw the pages you did, I just assumed you had a background in graphic design and had been doing this sort of thing forever.
Fortunately, the 3mm thing isn\'t tricky, just time consuming. I have to add new guides along the binding edge, then select the background and drag the edge in to match the new guide. But I have to do that one page at a time. Yawn.
I had also figured you just already knew how to do all that design stuff. Talk about impressive.
I recommend plugging in to some favourite music and using the inanity of it to relax for however long it takes.
Words cannot express how proud of myself I am. And how thankful I am for you doing all of the work to make this a reality.
By the way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHMpE6fVW_Q -
Tell me what you think.
I wrote a reply on fb to your link...such was my excitement I kind of forgot that I was practically saying ..me too. So in case I chicken out and delete that comment, this is what I thought:
I watched the whole thing through once and let the music wash over me as I caught random sentences like..you\'re not alone and I love you. It is sooo powerful that I teared up. BTW - what is that music? I want to download it :)
I then went through and focussed more on the letters. I was getting a real urge to read them..my eyes do not focus -that- well unfortunately. Everything looks so beautiful. I loved what you picked for me :)
I literally cannot wait for the book. Don\'t make me wait long please ;)
The music is Adam Hurst. His stuff\'s on itunes and emusic.
The proof arrived five minutes ago. It is BETTER than I expected. Simply gorgeous. I\'ll approve it and activate the account, and within days it\'ll be in print!