Novelgolf – aiming to raise £25k for charity

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The publishing world can be a challenging place for any budding novelist, particularly if the word ‘golf’ appears somewhere in the manuscript.

“Golf is not on our wish list,” is the usual response from literary agents. And you know full well they haven’t even read your submission (please do bear this in mind). There is always an alternative. Self publishing has many successful platforms these days, so don’t be discouraged if Random House initially don’t take you on.

Stephen Mitchell invested many years in his quest to find a literary agent who wasn’t risk averse, dabbled for a short while with Kindle, and then realised that despite these efforts only a handful of people would ever get to read and enjoy his novels. Yet despite this, he still had a tangible product he had confidence in. So, what to do? The answer was a no-brainer – a golfing community publishing project to raise money for charity, sharing the publishing experience and encouraging others.

Here’s how.

Firstly, volunteers from the golfing community are sought. Stephen is donating the manuscripts, but other contributions are vital. An editor is needed to save the blushes, a graphic designer to jazz up the cover, pledges and donations to cover the printing costs via crowdfunding, and an army of club members willing to sell their quota of the 5000 intended paperbacks. 100% of the sale proceeds will go directly to their chosen charity via JustGiving. Do this, and they will convert £7500 of crowdfunded seed money into a £25,000 JustGiving donation to charity. And there’s no reason why they can’t keep on repeating.

Everything you need to know can be found at novelgolf.com including how you can help. But that all-important seed fund is key to setting the ball in motion towards the hole.

There is a link via the website, but you can also find it at JustGiving.com/crowdfunding/novelgolf.

However, should the project fall short of its crowdfunding target, all monies are secure and will be donated to the Golf Foundation. Photo-op!

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