MAKE YOUR BLOG INTO A PUBLISHED BOOK COMPLETELY FREE TO THE AUTHOR! (and only $15 for each book sold)

I guess if this post is good enough for Facebook, it’s good enough for Tumblr… right?!

So in case you were wondering, I’m starting a non-profit anarchist publishing company now. The business model will be that ***books cost the author absolutely nothing***, because my fee is included in the $15 (£9.31) book price. The books cost about $11 to produce, so I get what is left. If the client would like a cut of sales, they will have to increase the price (and I doubt anyone would pay over $15 for a book).

This is all negotiable, but I’m unemployed and with no work experience, so I need to make a living wage somehow.

If in a year it doesn’t work out, I’ll call it a fair try and continue doing this in my spare time regardless.

So what I’m basically asking is for business clients. You must all know writers who want to be published, but don’t know how to get it done. Again, I would make a book of any length, as long as it proved worth my while. This means you have to promote the book, and ensure we sell some copies. This way I didn’t waste my time working on a whole book for a few quid return. 

Note how I said it will be non-profit. 

I will earn a living wage (£10k the current goal) and give all other profits to charity or back to the company.

Get back to me in a reblog or inbox message with contact details of anyone you think might be interested in being published for free, with no hidden catches and a transparent price plan.
Legal Disclaimer: Copyright law states that your content must abide by the content submission rules of the self-publishing website I choose. This means ALL CONTENT MUST BE YOUR OWN WORK, or the work of someone who explicitly consents for it to be published by you. This includes the cover image and spine. I am only providing the service of formatting the book, so I will not be liable if other parties take legal action against any book I work on. That responsibility is entirely yours.

Your name WILL be stated in the book’s copyright information.
Other services I offer free of charge for books:
  • Transcription (English audio only) for any audio/video file or link (within reason)
  • Web interviews (I can conduct an interview with you using an online chatroom, and will then quote you on your story in an article. You will be able to say if something is off the record, but otherwise I will assume it can be included. Obviously this does not include confidential/sensitive information. You will be able to give the article your approval before publishing).

Submission guidelines for Tumblr's first autistic self-advocacy book

THIS POST IS CONSTANTLY UPDATED. REBLOGS MAY NOT BE ENTIRELY ACCURATE.

Now in neat (sort of) alphabetical order!
General ideas
  • Will go here

Categories:
  • Capitalism
  • How does the profit motive shape our world? How does the internet work as a method of gaining money, and how does it circumvent such methods?
  • Diet (do you eat less due to anxiety? Do you stick rigidly to mealtimes or eat when you want? Do people (e.g. parents) tell you off for not coming to dinner, even though you have no appetite? Do you eat food in a certain order, or perfer certain colours? We want to hear from you!)
  • Echolalia (I’m starting to realise so many things about scripting, and how little has been written about it. There has to be a stop to this. Everyone engages in scripting behaviours, in terms of cultural references and in-jokes. But autistic people take it to another level and, though traditionally thought of as struggling with irony, we frequently obsess over references and their role in our lives. Make it meta by exploring Richard Dawkin’s concept of memes to explain references as linguistic devices)
  • The internet
  • How it has shaped our collective and individual psychology
  • Growing up with the internet, how you remember computers and the internet coming into your life
  • Internet language
  • Internet memes (it’s time we started really unpacking how internet memes work as echolalic devices and have significance to the autistic community)
  • Fandoms (I know you guys have thousands of theories about your fandoms and what they mean to you. Make it meta by thinking about how art is really a psychological tool which can prevent suicide and other despair)
  • Headcanons (especially, but not necessarily, those that identify autism in fictional characters. Make it meta with the concept of headcanons, and how it has helped you explain important areas of your life)
  • Usernames (How does your current username help you describe your autism? Is it a reference to your favourite TV show? Gush about the reference and how important echolalia and usernames/aliases are to you!)
  • How we use acronyms and other internet terminology to communicate and make language more effective (if you are a programmer or just use HTML, how do different codes feel to you as an autistic person? How do you feel technological language helps you to explain your autism?)
  • Internet metaphors (how do you conceptualise and perhaps personify browsers and other programs, as well as technology generally and how it relates to autism? Examples include the internet as a living organism and it’s relevance to the theory of evolution (efficiency), its relation to multiple systems if you’re plural, Orwell’s Newspeak and how efficient language is effective language)
  • The internet hivemind (today I accidentally said ‘when we introduced myself’ in reference to an autistic Tumblr friend I had only known for a couple of days but had been sharing every thought, how dissociation perhaps leads to this tendency for shared identity, shared thoughts and interests)
  • How computer language grammar and punctuation can be used as a metaphor for autism and life in general (People quote each other in embedded speech in an internet way.When people quote (echolalic or otherwise) someone, there are implied quotation marks making it ”they say the same thing”)
  • Hugs if wanted (how this phrase is used, and the significance of offering physical contact that can be accepted or rejected, sympathy that can be expressed in three words)
  • Internet websites and programs
  • Chatrooms (How the internet has allowed you to meet people, chat logs with consent from the people who helped you through, how chatrooms allow you to form a meaningful connection with a person based on significant areas of interest)
  • Tumblr (how does the dashboard relate to your life, how has Tumblr been useful in bolstering your mental health, what inspiring words have you been told by strangers in your time of need?)
  • Browsers (metaphors for Internet Explorer like this)
  • Memory loss and technology (whether it’s dissociative or a medication side effect, most of us are familiar with a little ‘brain lag’. How do we think of this using the brain-as-computer model and how do we compare aspects of it to other technology? What programs help us remember? For me it’s Evernote, clearly)
  • Movies and music (rank your favourite films and explain why, what films/music are good for autism or anxiety, remember how many people you can reach with your opinions, which are all inherently valid!)
  • PTSD (see also: trigger warnings)
  • Transcripts (It is important that any transcripts of TV shows and movies are quoted briefly and, where possible, transcribed by the submitter. This is because copying and pasting vast swaithes of text from other websites would leave us in a legally questionable position)
  • Stimming
  • Lists (we could make a table of known stims, ordered by type or just alphabetically)
  • Experiences (but don’t step on the toes of The Loud Hands Project too much!)
  • Trigger warnings (how have they been helpful to you, why are they important, experiences with PTSD… nothing that even hints that trigger warnings are a bad idea will be published, because this is triggering and erasing the people that need them)
  • Writing
  • Since writing is the reason such a book is being made, writing is very relevant. How does your autism affect your writing process? How much do you stim when writing?
  • Poetry
  • Short stories
  • Experiences and personal posts
REMEMBER THE TWO GOLDEN RULES
  • The author MUST BE AUTISTIC 
  • ‘Accurately self-diagnosed’ or ‘official diagnosis’ are both acceptable. Asperger’s Syndrome, which is what I would have been diagnosed with before the latest DSM, will of course be included. Accurate self-diagnosis means your self-diagnosis must be logical based on the criteria for autismunder current, or previous, DSM criteria)
  • The author MUST USE TUMBLR
  • Since Tumblr is the reason we are all together sharing our words, it makes sense that all submissions should be from users. However, this rule could be revised if there was need to for some reason.
  • FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST TOPICS, AND I WILL INCLUDE ALL THAT ARE APPROPROPRIATE.

Click to submit to Tumblr's first autism self-advocacy book!

PLEASE PUT #ACTUALLYAUTISTIC ANYWHERE IN YOUR SUBMISSIONS (including but not necessarily the tags) SO I KNOW WHAT PROJECT YOU ARE SUBMITTING TO.

Fairly recently someone raised the idea of releasing a zine for Tumblr’s autistic community.

Although they were told that’s what The Loud Hands Project is for, it wasn’t specifically about Tumblr. There are no restrictions on what stories can be told by this community, nor is there a single group or organisation that is responsible for compiling and publishing them. I am here and eager to start work. I’ve realised that I have a talent for this, and it is also an autistic obsession of mine. The internet has made every element of this book possible, which is why my story would be a great submission.

This would be my third printed book project, and I don’t need much input besides the obvious aesthetics. IF YOU CAN GIVE ME THE POSTS, I CAN MAKE A PRETTY GOOD BOOK OUT OF IT. This made me realise that I could format a properly printed book to be ordered online for any Tumblr blog or community if they message me off anon/with contact details. I can format any blog or tag into a professional looking book, and you could edit it right until it’s online. Potentially I could make money out of formatting websites for self-publishing, since I imagine most ‘automated’ websites wouldn’t do it how a human would. Right now I’m so obsessed with the idea of printing books and all I want is meaningful stuff to print. That means I’ll do it at no cost to you other than a tiny profit margin per book that is sold. The price would be highly negotiable.

I could also transcribe English audio only (my visual processing sucks) from any audio or video file or link.

Any transcript would be included instead of the video or audio post.

I would only charge for this if it seriously impacted upon my time.

I’m about to be unemployed, probably for a long time. I have a lot of time until I specify otherwise, so there will be no limit on submissions. The only rule is that you must be an autistic Tumblr user. You can discuss, but aren’t required to discuss, how the website and technology relates to your autism. Depending on how many submissions I receive, I may have to ‘widen the net’ of potential topics. I know that many internet/autism zines have been made before, but let’s remember this could be a properly bound book of 250 pages or more. It all depends on how many submissions I get, and I know there are a lot of people that would be interested in such a project. The final product will almost definitely be $15 to buy from one of the self-publishing websites.

I will post a separate list of all the topics I’ve thought of.

If you want to keep up to date with this project, track this tag.

If you like/bookmark the list of suggested topics, you know you’ll always get the latest submission guidelines and information.

Google seems to show there’s never been a tumblr autism zine on the internet and its effect on our psychology. This could mean being part of something new and special. For the first time in history, self-publishing and the internet has allowed anyone to produce a book. I will compile the project using Evernote. If you send me the email address for your Evernote account, I can add you to the shared notebook. This would allow you to view all submissions that in Evernote so far, and would also allow you to edit your own submission up to the day I format the book for printing. Obviously I have to say at this point, don’t edit anyone else’s submissions. Don’t submit anyone else’s writing either, unless the author consents. I don’t care about copyright, but no one wants their work published without their explicit consent.

You can submit entries directly to me, hopefully mentioning it’s for the autism book at some point.

This book could instill the self-advocacy of Tumblr’s autistic community, and potentially bring it to a much wider audience.

When I started Fuck Yeah Stimming earlier this year, it was because there was virtually no information on it written by autistic people online.

I realised it was because not many people talk about it, so these stories aren’t heard or published.

All over Tumblr autistic people are gushing about how the internet has helped them to learn about their diagnosis and meet new people.

We are the first generation to grow up on the internet.

Let’s get some of it down on paper.

Legal Disclaimer: Copyright law states that your content must abide by the content submission rules of the self-publishing website I choose. This means ALL CONTENT MUST BE YOUR OWN WORK, or the work of someone who explicitly consents for it to be published by you. This includes the cover image and spine. I am only providing the service of formatting the book, so I will not be liable if other parties take legal action against any book I work on. That responsibility is entirely yours. Your name will be stated in the book’s copyright information.

Other services I offer free of charge for books:
  • Transcription (English audio only) for any audio/video file or link (within reason)
  • Web interviews (I can conduct an interview with you using an online chatroom, and will then quote you on your story in an article. You will be able to say if something is off the record, but otherwise I will assume it can be included. Obviously this does not include confidential/sensitive information. You will be able to give the article your approval before publishing).

Autism, Stimming and Music

flapjackstate:

There’s probably a whole host of existing literature on this subject, but I want to get my own thoughts on the subject down first. I could do a lot of research, but one thing I’m really an expert in is my own experiences.

I’m currently listening to George Harrison’s Pure Smokey, one of my all-time favourite songs. It currently has nearly 150 plays in my itunes, and I listened to it for over 2 hours on a coach journey to London in January. I’m listening to it alone in my room, and doing something I’ve been doing for years without having a name for it. Now that I know I stim frequently, I can finally explore the different aspects of it. This isn’t something new I’ve started doing.

This is something I’ve been doing for absolutely YEARS.

Read More

This is an example post of how I experience stimming and music. Anyone is free to say this isn’t stimming, because as I said I still need to learn more.

Are these errors an autism thing?

I seem to frequently make mistakes when trying to make food. Often I want to eat cereal, so I get down a glass or a plate and I’m like NO! This is not what I want at all! I also frequently forget what I’m doing, I put things in the microwave without starting it and leave the oven on.

This is one of those times when people are bound to say “that’s not autism! Everyone makes mistakes! Everyone forgets what they’re doing!” But it feels like my actions are often completely disconnected from my thoughts. I certainly don’t know anyone who gets the complete wrong cutlery and doesn’t realise until they come to use it. 

Energy-draining depression is usually the reason I don’t make complicated meals, but the complexity of timing and memory involved makes it difficult at the best of times.

I first started it when I would listen to my favourite song at the time frequently pretty much every day. When I had my full attention on the music, I would feel the music filling me up and I would go mad. Since I found my love for house music and found lots of songs I really like, I’m doing it all the time. One song in particular, if I’m listening to it properly, I’ll throw my head around and flap my hands like crazy and jump around.


The ONE time I went out “clubbing”, I did not mind being in a crowded place with such noise because I was away in myself with this crazy dancing. I thought this was just what you did but I realised everyone else was just mildly dancing compared to me going totally mental to everything. I just can’t control myself and I like fall over.

rmgh - Wrong Planet Forums

See also: my post on stimming and music.