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What the Reading Room Project is

Reading Room Publishing is the publishing and fundraising offshoot of the Reading Room Project.  We aim to offer affordable publishing to talented writers.  Using competitions we intend to find the best writers we can and offer them hard copies of their books.

Image used with kind permission if Andrew Dyer

"Publication is to thinking as childbirth is to the first kiss."

 

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

 

 

"I remember going down on Saturday afternoons to the second-hand bookshop secreted away in an old mill near my house. The books stood in piles on the floor, almost reaching to the ceiling. The air was full of the musty smell of old yellowing hardbacks and dusty paperbacks. The shopkeeper could always be found sitting by the door 365 days of the year, quietly batting away the fluttering words that circled his head. I'd say a quick hello as I passed before diving in, the little shop opening up to reveal its forgotten depths."

Rachel

​What is Reading Room Publishing and the Reading Room Project?

 

We, (Rachel and Emma) have had an idea about a bookshop in our minds since we met in a high school ICT class and became firm friends.  Reading Room Publishing is an attempt to get creative people involved in the project and be able to offer them something in return. 

 

By entering our competitions, not only will you be in with a chance of winning a tangible copy of your own work, but you'll also be helping us to take steps towards our dream of opening up a creative arts space to serve the community. We aim to create a place for books to be sold and swapped, a home for knitting and book circles, a platform for writers, musicians, actors and artists to showcase their work, and a sanctuary for a nice piece of cake and a cuppa.

Until then, we want to give writers an opportunity to hold their books in their hands.

 

In addition to raising money for our long term project, the aim of the competitions is to build our publication list so that we will have a body of good quality writing published and available.  Eventually there will be more competitions and more publications (we're currently looking at 9 categories for the winter round of contests which will be opening in December 2015).

 

The books and anthologies published will be given a registered IBSN and a copy will be sent to the British Library.  We work with an excellent and experienced designer for cover work and any illustrations we may need.

 

By entering our competitions you will be helping to realise the dreams of two ordinary northern lasses as well as giving yourself an opportunity to win a tangible copy of your own work.

 

Writers, it's time to get scribbling!

 

For more information, check out Emma's wordpress blog https://readingroomcafeproject.com/

 

 

 

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