Background
LYS förlag is a small publishing house, specialising in course literature for international professionals in Sweden. We think that a lot of course material too generic, not applicable enough, and sometimes a little patronising, and therefore we are working on creating more relevant literature for this target group. Another very important part of our mission is to create a platform for internationals residing in Sweden, to tell about their experiences of relocating here. After all, you know much more than us Swedes!
One of our projects is an anthology, a collection of chapters relating to the theme of working in Sweden, each of them written by an international professional who has some sort of experience of Swedish work culture. Our deadline was earlier this week, and we received some very good contributions, from which we have selected 13 chapters to be published. However, for the book to be complete, we need some shorter pieces, in other media than text. We are already in touch with a handful of artists/photographers who will submit a visual contribution, but we also believe it would be really thought-provoking to include music.
Hence the call for help.
What we are looking for
- A public playlist on Spotify relating to the theme of working in Sweden (more specifically about this more artistic dimension below).
- One chapter (in our anthology) in the form of this playlist. How this would work in practice: In the book itself (standard, book made with paper), the list would be presented in a written format: song + artist + ?? (year, album, cover, etc..)
- On our website (lysforlag.com) this spotify playlist would be featured, also serving as a piece of marketing for the book. Our website is built with WP (Divi), and we believe we will be able to use a plugin to integrate the playlist here.
- As any chapter of the book, you will be introduced with a short biography and a photograph. Should you wish to remain fully or partially anonymous, this is fine.
- You can read more about the anthology here: https://www.lysforlag.com/en/call-for-submissions-my-swedish-career/
What we have in mind
- A playlist that somehow relates to some aspect of working in Sweden. This could could be as specific as you wish (the narrower in scope, the better, in our experience). For example:
- The fear I experienced the first day at work.
- Commuting to my workplace.
- Trying to connect to my Swedish colleagues.
- Learning Swedish.
- How much I love the concept of lagom at work.
- How your Swedish manager gives you feedback.
- Understanding the Swedish tax system.
- Swedish lunch habits.
- …
- …
- …
- Unfortunately, and this is unfortunate in more than one sense, we cannot accept any more pieces relating to the trouble-some journey of trying to get a job in this new country, despite excellent qualifications. We have received a very high number of text submissions related to this topic, and in order to make the full anthology diverse enough, we are now considering only pieces addressing other issues.
- The playlist should be contemporary or atemporal, but not trendy. The book will be published in October 2018, and our marketing campaign will start in August 2018, lasting for 18 months and it is important that the playlist doesn’t feel dated at any moment during this time..
- Any genre or type of music is interesting.
- A good playlist should be strategically composed (meaning its chances to be played a lot on Spotify), where the 3-4 first songs are the most important.
- If there are lyrics, any language is interesting. The book will be published first in English, and then in Swedish translation, but our readers will come from all over the globe. It may be worth considering that language learning (or not learning) is an important topic to many of our readers.
- Duration: No limit in terms of minutes, but it should not cover more than one A5 page when printed, considering margins. In practice, this would mean something between 10 – 15 tracks.
- Your playlist will be accompanied with a very short text where you introduce (not explain) your selection of music for your topic. If you are not a big fan of writing, your editor will write this text after a brief interview with you.
- You will need to name your playlist with an appropriate title, in English, that refers to your topic/angle, should be searchable on Spotify. It should also be translatable to Swedish.
Money & formalities
- Please submit your proposal for a playlist no later than the 31:st of March, together with a short motivational letter.
- You will be contacted no later than the 16:th of April, confirming whether your piece has been selected for publication, to sign your contract. We might ask to make a few minor adjustments.
- In case you submit a piece that we would like to publish, you will sign a contract with our CEO, Emil Molander, specifying all terms and conditions related to the above. From the moment you sign the contract up until the book is published, the playlist cannot be made public or referred to anyone without our permission.
- Published contributors will be compensated in the form of royalty. As for each co-author, you will receive 1 % of the net price, in arrear, on an annual basis. Please note that, as this will probably not turn into an international bestseller, we are not talking huge number, and we cannot guarantee a minimum sum.
I really hope that answers all your questions, and that this sounds like an interesting project to you. If so, please email Sofi at sofi.deveaux@klarapys.com to discuss your ideas.
