The PopJunkie Kindle/iPad book project -
If you are seeing this via Facebook chances are that at some point you and I have talked about, or more likely had a huge row about, music.
So I wonder then if you fancy being involved in a little project that will be fun, won’t take much of your time and will hopefully make some dosh for children’s charity (Great Ormond Street Hopsital).
Along with Sean Hannam I ran a blog a while ago called PopJunkie - which was basically our lop sided, some might jaded, but hopefully quite amusing reviews of the most under-rated albums of all time. We argued why Nancy was the real talent in the Sinatra household, why Gene made better albums than The Smiths, why Genevieve Waite should have been bigger than Madonna and who lot more.
The other day I thought it would be good to put those 30 or so reviews into a digital book using Kindle/Lulu/iBooks/ because it is a process that seems to be becoming easier
Then I had a better idea. So it wasn’t dominated by endless 60s psych bands and BritPop also-rans I thought about opening it out to a select few people and trying to make a bit of money for GOSH.
The idea is that we compile a book of the 50 most under-rated albums of all time. Each review is a passionate defence of an album that has been ignored, misunderstood or basically just demands a much wider audience.
It can be from a major act - so for example you could put the case that one of Prince’s recent albums are more fun than his 80s peak or that Led Zeppelin never improved on their debut.
Or it can be something that is by a lesser known artists that deserves a much wider audience.
The plan is to get 50 reviews, maybe more if this goes viral.
So here’s what I need.
1 You to get back to me saying you are up for it and nominating the album(s) you are going to do.
2 I’ll then reply and you have 3 weeks to write. After that I will endlessly chase you for it.
3 You write at least 400 words on a passionate defence/reappraisal of whatever is your chosen album. You can write as much as you want - but I think anything less than 400 words is a bit short. Feel free to make it as controversial as you like/slag off as many other artists as you want.
4 You add a mini bio of yourself - who you are, anything you want to plug, etc.
The idea is that the book will be in Amazon store by the end of November.
I am going to charge around £3 for the digital version of the book - more for the paperback version (via Lulu) - and the money we raise (bar a few quid for a designer to knock it into shape) will go to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. As some of you know that place has become my 2nd home this year and I wanted to do something to say thank you and this seems a lot more fun than a sponsored walk.
When the book is done we will Facebook/tweet the hell out of it and hopefully watch those sales rack up.
I am happy for you to do more than one review if you are so inclined. Also feel free to ask anyone else who you think might enjoy/want to be involved in this little exercise.
Thanking you in advance for your help. Now what’s it to be. Gorky’s debut or Madonna’s Erotica? Over to you...
Contact me via Facebook or email shinyashley@gmail.com
