MS TALENT - Volumes 1 and 2

Buying your copy of MS TALENT Volume 1

You can buy online by debit or credit card through the security of PayPal - simply click the button below and follow the instructions.

Please remember to tell us where to send your book(s)

The MS TALENT fundraising project
All printing, publishing, marketing, postage and packing costs of MS Talent are being met by private individuals. These costs add up to about £6.50 per copy.

When you buy your copy through the PayPal link above, the Publishers pay a matching amount (plus Gift Aid) to UK MS charities. In other words, you pay £16.50 and the Publishers pay £16.50 to UK MS charities.

Please note that about 40% of proceeds go to UK MS charities if you buy through bookshops or online retailers. (Currently, Amazon impose a handling charge for each copy of Volume 1 and only £13.20 per copy goes to the charities.)

Why not order your copy of Volume 1 now and settle down for a good read - and help UK MS charities at the same time.

UK MS charities
All the proceeds for MS Talent go to charities. The UK MS charities benefiting from proceeds and donations made in response to MS Talent Volume 1 include:

MS Society
MS Trust
MS Resource Centre
Kent MS Therapy Centre (Canterbury)

For a therapy centre near you, please see www.ms-selfhelp.org

Awards
We are delighted to have been awarded the coveted David St John Thomas Charitable Trust Community Cup 2007-8. This is a prestigious national award recognising fund raising through self-publishing for charitable causes.

With so many of the contributors to Volume 1 being previously unpublished authors, this is a particularly fine achievement.

Thanks go to all our contributors and everyone who has bought the book and made it such a fundraising success.

Rave reviews
Prior to publication, Volume 1 was reviewed by local press and featured on Radio Kent.

Here's what journalists had to say about the book:

'An inspirational read'
Amanda Willis, Canterbury Messenger

'So good you'll forget to Marmite your toast'
Sean O'Hare, Buckinghamshire Advertiser

'For me perhaps the finest book written in the English language since The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'
Reg, East London Oracle

Book signings

There are no further signings planned at the present time.

The concept behind MS TALENT
Donating to one of the UK MS charities is donating to a good cause.

With MS Talent, you give a generous amount of money to go to UK MS charities, and you receive a worthwhile book as well. Everybody wins!

The printed Volume 1 (ISBN 978-0-9557393-0-9 RRP £16.50) can be ordered online. (The option to pay by cheque will be restored when we're a little less busy - preparations for Volume 2 are taking up our time just now!)

Do please encourage your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances to get a copy - or buy copies as gifts.

The contributors
We are delighted that so many talented writers of all ages and from all backgrounds generously sent us their short stories, poetry and personal accounts to publish in Volume 1.

Volume 2 will comprise short stories only and will be available for purchase in November 2008 (ISBN 978-0-9557393-1-6 expected RRP £8.99).

VOLUME 2

Short stories
We are now looking for original, previously unpublished short stories of up to 2,000 words (preferably 1,600 - 1,800 words) suitable for a general readership for inclusion in Volume 2. Material that is simply "too difficult" for younger readers is perfectable acceptable - but no adult material please.

Authors (or their legal guardians in the case of child authors) must be able to give us the following permissions:

* exclusive rights to the material that they give us at least until after Volume 2 is published
* permission to allow online book sellers to reproduce the material in its entirety on their websites (e.g. Amazon's "read inside" feature)
* permission to produce an audio version of their material (intended only for readers with visual impairments)

We shall be delighted if authors wish to provide us with a sound recording of their material for the audio version. Easy to follow information about electronic format and tagging will be available on request from April onwards.

Cover design
We are running a competition for the design of the cover. Suitable designs will be showcased online over the summer, with the winning design being selected early autumn 2008.

A detailed specification is available here.

If you would like to submit material for Volume 2, please send it to the address below. Short stories must be received by 31st May 2008. Cover designs by summer 2008, date tbc.

Further information
If you have any questions about the project that aren't answered here, please e-mail us at

m s t a l e n t @ b t c o n n e c t . c o m