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Fairy Talesof the World

PROJECT PRESENTATION

2Fairy Tales of the World - A Picture Books Series • Project Presentation© Meridian 2012. All rights reserved.

ContentsIn a few words… 3

Project Requirements 5

Project Work Flow 9

Why Participate? 11

About the Organizing Team 13


In a few words…Fairy Tales of the World is a long-term project organized by Meridian. Its purpose is to create a picture book series, focusing on fairy tales, bedtime stories and other folklore.

Each book of this series is to gather beautiful stories, full of magic and wonder, from countries and cultures all around the world. All stories are to be selected and authored by local writers, and illustrated by local artists.

Meridian is a cross-cultural, not-for-profit and non-governmental organi-zation, aiming at promoting the works of young authors worldwide, and encouraging intellectual and cultural exchanges between people globally. For the purpose of this project, a partnership has been established be-tween Meridian and New Star Press publishers (based in Beijing, China).

(Read more about us around the end of this document!)

Book Format and AuthorshipEach book of this series is designed to be 32 pages long, and contain one story representing the local folklore of a specific country or nation. Each story will be accompanied by 16 to 32 illustrations.

Each book is the work of a contributor originating from the country or na-tion represented by the story, or with a strong and intimate knowledge of its culture.

Both the writing and illustrating tasks can be entrusted to a single person, or be the fruit of a collaboration between several people. However, for all practical purposes, Meridian will only communicate with, and sign a Pub-lication Agreement with one single person, the Contributor.

Format of the printed edition:

G 265 x 255 mm G 32 pages G Hardcover printing


DistributionThese books are to be published in China at first, their first audience will therefore be Chinese. However, in case of success, it is planned to pro-duce other editions to be published in other countries and languages. In particular, an English-language publisher will be sought immediately after publication of the Chinese edition.

The books of this series are to be published at first under “traditional” printed shape, in high-quality format of paper and binding. However, other modes of publication will be used simultaneously, including (but not lim-ited to) online e-books, smartphone format, etc.

First Chinese edition will be printed at 15,000 copies, and distributed within China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). Market response will determine how many future printings will be necessary, and how many books will be published within this series.

Target Audience (Age Group)These picture books are designed to be read mainly by children (from age 3 to 8 approx.), together with their parents. Audience could also include adults, for instance those eager to learn more about foreign cultures, or interested in illustration.

How Do We Go About This?Are you interested in participating? Excellent!

Just to give you a quick idea of how things would happen, the three main stages of this project are:

1. You send us a few story outlines, with some of your illustration samples;

2. We choose a story. You then send us a developed version of it, together with a tentative storyboard;

3. When we agree on all that, you can start drawing the final illustrations!

(For more detailed info on this process, see “Detailed Work Flow” section below)


Requirements for Participation

We are looking for contributors interested in collecting and editing tales and folklore from a country or region with which they are familiar, be it the place where they grew up or that in which they currently live, and pro-ducing illustrations for these stories.

Texts requirements:

G All stories should be fairy tales or folklore. Impor-tantly, the text version of the stories provided should not be copied directly from an existing source: the authors should hold copyright ownership of all texts they provide. If the text was ever covered by any copyright, it is necessary for that copyright to have lapsed.

G Stories should be familiar to most of the locals of their place of origin, without having been introduced abroad widely (and preferably never in China).

G Length of the final chosen one should be of approxi-mately 3000 words.

G Content inappropriate for children should be avoided.

Illustrations requirements:

G The classic elements, background and general outline of the story selected for publication should be preserved; however, under certain conditions, modern interpretations could also be accepted.

G Contributor can decide the arrangement of the pic-tures in the 32-page book, for instance regarding cross-page pictures. Therefore, the total number of the pictures ranges from 16 to 32.


G Graphic content inappropriate for children should be avoided.

G Images Print Size: 265mm wide x 255mm high.

Main tasks awaited from the Contributor:

4. Provide samples of previous illustrating to Me-ridian, to show ability to participate in the project, or an illustration sample prepared specially for Me-ridian to suggest an illustration style.

5. Submit the outlines of various possible stories to work on.

6. Proceed to write the complete version of one story selected by Meridian amongst those previously suggested.

7. Submit a list of possible illustrations for the story selected, and a storyboard of preliminary sketches for these illustrations.

8. Produce a complete set of illustrations, in publish-able format, for all 32 pages of the book.

9. In the eventuality of future follow-ups to the first book of the series, the Contributor could be asked to write full stories from the other submitted story outlines (financial aspects of the project to be ad-justed accordingly).

(refer to “Detailed Project Work Flow” section below for more detailed information on each of these tasks)

Fairy Tales of the WorldProject Work Flow

Contributor Meridian TeamAcknowledges Project

RequirementsSubmits Illustration

Samples

Approvalto continue

Edits & Submits Potential Stories Outlines - English version - about 15 lines each - at least 3 to 6 different stories

Selection of1 story outline

Edits Full Versionof Selected Story

- approx. 3000 words- in publishable format

- in author’smother tongue

(and/or in English)

Provides TentativeLIST

of Illustrations(NOT the final

illustrations yet!)- 32 pages

- single or doublepages

Approvalto continue

SIGNATURE OF PUBLICATION AGREEMENT

Submits Complete Text + Story-Board- for each of the 32 pages: illustration + text proposals- max. (50) English words per page- NO final illustrations (only outlines, sketches)

Payment of 20% RemunerationWithin 30 Days

Approvalto continue

Agreement on Final Book Design with Book Designer

Payment of 80% RemunerationWithin 90 Days

PUBLICATION,following terms of the Publication Agreement

2012.07.12

Works on Final Illustrations,following the Publication Agreement Terms,

then submit to Meridian Team

PH

AS

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PH

AS

E 1

PH

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Project Work FlowPhase 0

• Contributor acknowledges the requirements announced in this Project Presentation file.

• Contributor provides Meridian with a few samples of previous works showing their ability to participate in this project.

• Approval from Meridian needed before going any further.

Phase 1• Contributor provides Meridian with a list of stories outlines, cor-responding to these requirements:

G No more than 6 stories, no fewer than 3; G Text provided in English; G Approximately 15 lines of text for each story.

• Meridian chooses 1 of these stories to work on for the first book of the series.1

Phase 2• Contributor proceeds to write a complete, publishable version of the story selected in the previous phase. Requirements:

G Text provided in Writer’s mother tongue, AND in English if possible.

G English version should be approx. 3000 words long.

• Contributor provides Meridian with a tentative storyboard for the book — ie, a complete breakdown of the story page by page. Re-quirements, for each page:

1 As mentioned previously, depending on the commercial success of the books, among other factors, there is a possibility for Meridian to work with the Writer and the Illustrator over more books in the future. However, this cannot be garanteed beforehand.


G A rough sketch of the illustration suggested; G A proposition of the text to include.

• Approval from Meridian is necessary before going any further.

Phase 3• Once the Contributor and the Meridian Team agree on the list of illustrations and story breakdown, both parties proceed to sign a Publication Agreement.

• Meridian commits to paying the Contributor 20% of the financial remuneration agreed upon in the Agreement, within 30 days of the signature.

• Contributor commits to providing the final versions of all illustra-tions agreed upon in the previous phase.

• Approval from Meridian is necessary before going any further.

Phase 4• With the help of a professional designer, Meridian proceeds to the final design of the book, including final text (translated into Chinese)and illustrations.

• Upon 90 days after design completion, Meridian pays the Con-tributor the remaining 80% of due financial remuneration.

• Meridian manages the publication of the book together with its publishing partner.

• Royalties are granted to the Contributor on the basis of the volume of book sales, as agreed in the Publication Agreement.


Why Participate?Our Project’s Unique Selling PointsThis project of Meridian’s offers a set of amazing opportunities for young and upcoming artists, be they illustrators or writers, looking for new chan-nels to reveal their talent:

G Publication in China, and potentially in many other countries2;

G Support of a leading publishing house in China for book marketing and promotion in the direction of Chinese readers (media campaign, etc.);

G Production of electronic versions of the books, to be made available on e-book-selling platforms (Kindle, iPad, smartphones, etc.);

G Artwork exhibitions in Beijing art galleries, fo-cusing on the stories and illustrations published, upon publication of the first Chinese editions;

G ... And much more!

What We Can Promise You1. The Contributor receives 1,500 euros for their con-

tribution, upon provision to Meridian of the content agreed upon (stories and illustrations).

2. As soon as total book sales (of editions in both traditional and simplified Chinese) exceed 15,000 copies, the Contributor starts receiving royalties, in proportion to the number of extra printed copies.

3. Any party, be it the Contributor or Meridian, in-tending to undertake any other publication of the texts and/or illustrations, be it in Chinese or in any other language, will be required to obtain authori-zation from the other party and share any income

2 As specified in the Publication Agreement, Meridian can at first only promise book publication in mainland China. However, in case of success, it is our intention to promote our books through our international partners, in as many languages as possible. Naturally, the conditions of any new publication opportunity will be discussed beforehand with the authors (Writer and Illustrator) of each book concerned.


generated.4. All electronic sales revenue will be shared among

the Contributor and Meridian.5. The division of all income mentioned above should

be settled among themselves.

(Please note that this document has no contractual value. Although the figures above are those we deem the most reasonable at the time of writing, definitive terms on the topic of remuneration are to be confirmed in the Publication Agreement to be signed between the Contributor and Meridian.)

Market Analysis of Sales PotentialThe size of China’s middle class, eager to learn more about the rest of the world and to provide an excellent education to their children, ensures a large potential for the sales of books such as those — especially con-sidering a long-lasting tradition of foreign picture books publication locally.

A best-selling picture book can reach a sales number of more than 100,000 copies. A few successful examples:

• “La petite poule qui voulait voir la mer” 《我想去看海》

G Authors: C. Jolibois & C. Heinrich (France) G Publishers: 21 Century Press G Publication date: September 2006 G Sales in China: 278,567 copies

• “The Laughing Cat Diaries” 《笑猫日记》

G Author: Yang Hongyin (China) G Publishers: Tomorrow Publishing House G Publication Date: January, 2010 G Sales in China: 116,877 copies


MeridianMeridian is an international, non-governmental and non-commercial organization, based in Beijing, China.

Meridian initiates and develops various cultural projects and activities, which all share the common objective of stimulating, channel-ling and promoting the creativity of people from all over the world.

Through the use of modern media, such as online social networks, we communicate with creative, talented people in different parts of the planet, and present them with platforms helping them disclose their works to a worldwide audience.

Please visit www.meridian-online.org to know more about us.

New Star PressNew Star Press is a comprehensive publishing house based in Beijing, and approved by the China Publication Bureau. Open to both the

domestic and international markets, it aims to promote Chinese culture across the world and introduce foreign cultures to China.

Among its publications open to the international market are the white pa-pers of the Chinese Government in many languages, including (but not limited to) English, French, Russian, Esperanto and Tibetan. In mainland China, New Star Press focuses on books social sciences and the humani-ties, as well as on the belles-lettres and modern lifestyles.

Website: www.newstarpress.com

About the Organizing Team

www.meridian-online.org

http://www.newstarpress.com


Want to give it a try?Get in touch!

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A few examples of the books we are about to publish…

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