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Need our help?

Contact Jasmine at :

cedenoj@southington.org

Contact Nicole at:

nicole@hchlibrary.org

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This is the loose timeline I think we should follow. Ideally we would have everything ready for Halloween but because everyone needs time to learn about the contest, write, revise, and submit, it always ends up published in November. We have never heard any negativity about that so hopefully you won't either!

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General Guidelines for Spooky CT 2025 Vol. 1

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General Guidelines for Spooky CT 2025 Vol. 1

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We are so excited to invite other libraries to collaborate with us for our first volume of Spooky CT. That said, we understand that all libraries have different staffing capabilities. We want this process to be fun and to foster unity and creativity in your communities. All we ask is for you to: stay within the parameters we've detailed above and to send us your top pick for your child, teen and adult submissions.

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Here is how I will be advertising the 3rd Annual Spooky Southington at the library.

I have included the template in Canva (please make a copy!) so that you can customize your own. Just make sure to mention that your winners will be included in a "Best Of" volume! Patrons will get a kick out of it for sure.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGwFwvcli8/HugSHaHyz3geDXfeUl2VvA/edit?utm_content=DAGwFwvcli8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

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We know that when a big project is floated, not every staff member wants to be involved or take on extra work. Totally understandable! A nice compromise is to set these bookmarks at all the service desks so that patrons are constantly being reminded of contest details.

Use the link below to customize your own! Please make a copy so we aren't writing over each other's work :)

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFvRWCv2Z4/0SWbQU-zIR4dvbkL2rUCIg/edit?utm_content=DAFvRWCv2Z4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

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Unsure of what your finished product will look like? Take a peek at the PDF copies of Spooky Southington that have been made available to the public through our website.

The physical copies were printed and bound in-house using a comb binding machine.

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This was the Google Form that we used for submissions.

We absolutely recommend that you break down each of your categories by age group with the appropriate ages. It's also fun to use these stats to egg on certain populations: "Oooo looks like the kids are trying to show up the adults this year for our Spooky Writing Contest!"

One thing I will add this year is contact phone number because it is the easiest and fastest ways to get a hold of winners.

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Editor's Note and Table of Contents (Word)

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Editor's Note and Table of Contents (Word)

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In each volume of Spooky Southington, we like to write an editor's note. It's a nice way to thank the community for the submissions, but also a great way to help them navigate the book.

This can be used as inspiration for your own editor's note (if you choose to include one) and gives a preview of our table of contents.

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Spooky CT Editor's Note_Table of Contents

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This is the cover we were thinking of using for the Spooky CT cover. We love that it looks like some of the cover art you might see with modern and classic horror novels.

Let us know what you think!

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Hopefully you can find it in your budget to get some prizes for your writing contest! Here are some ideas. And remember: being part of the exclusive "Best of" Spooky CT is a prize for your winners as well that will cost you nothing!

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I'm going to try to publish Spooky East Hampton using a site called Lulu. I haven't used it before, but so far it is easy to use (just upload a PDF of the cover and the stories) and you can choose from paperback, hardcover, what type of paper, etc. Seems to be of real publisher quality, which I thought our participants would think was really cool, and for less than $20! You get a preview on the website of what it should look like printed and it looks great- we'll see when it actually arrives!

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Online Self-Publishing Book & eBook Company | Lulu

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Create & self publish your book for free! Quality and affordable custom book printing at your fingertips with our international Print-On-Demand network.

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This is the cover and publicity I will be using for Spooky Clinton to give everyone an idea of how I will be customizing the event for my library. I chose to open it only to Clinton residents as I will be the one editing all the submissions and don't need to make more work for myself than necessary (for once in my life :D)

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Here are some templates you can use to create your own press. Please make a copy and customize to your heart's content!

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Hi everyone!

Here is a list of the folks who have expressed their interest in participating in Spooky CT. Please note that the contact person is the person who emailed me initially, and may not be the person who will be in charge of organizing their writing contest.