Welcome to I want a word

Hi,

I'm Chris and I'm the founder of a new writing project called "I want a word", which has the aim of producing the biggest multi-author book in history.

Basically, I'm looking for 10,000 people to each contribute a single word via my website www.iwantaword.com. You can choose any word that you like and when all 10,000 words have been submitted, I'll add a few more of my own to create a single, coherent story. One book, ten thousand authors - that's the aim.

So, I thought I'd start this blog to keep a record, of the project and how it progresses. It's been going for almost two weeks now, and to be honest it's got off to quite a slow start - so far I've sold 9 words. I say sold as I'm charging people £1 for the right to choose a word for the book. The purpose of this fee is, firstly, to support myself during the project, and secondly, to really encourage people to think about the words that they submit. What I've learnt from the nine words that I've sold so far is that writing the book is going to be pretty tough. Don't get me wrong, I never thought it would be easy, but some of the words that have been contributed I've never even heard of. Still, as a famous man once said "nothing great is easy" (that famous man died whilst trying to swim across the rapids at Niagara Falls...).

Although I haven't sold many words so far, I am still quietly optimistic. I think that if the project is to suceed, publicity will be key. And yesterday "I want a word" received its first press coverage, in my local paper: the Edinburgh Evening News. Since the Evening News is part of the Scotsman group, the story also appeared on the scotsman.com website, and you can read it here:

http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=746622007

It's only a small story, but hopefully it will generate a bit more interest and things will build from there. Keep reading this blog to find out!

It was pretty exciting to see I want a word in the paper, but what was even more exciting was that, when the story was first posted, I was up there alongside a couple of other Edinburgh authors - J. K. Rowling and Ian Ranking! I'm not sure if it's a bit lame, but that was really exciting for me. So exciting, in fact, that I even captured a screen shot! If you want to check it out, it's at:

http://www.iwantaword.com/scotsman_screenshot.jpg

Well, I think that's all my news for the moment, but keep an eye on this site and in turn I'll keep you up to date with all the developments at I want a word. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the site at www.iwantaword.com, and get thinking of your words!

Chris