2 December. Let’s open the second door of our Calvendo Advent calendar:
The UK is full of amazing landscapes and sights. One of the best, no doubt, is Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, beautifully captured by Andy Bitterer in his calendar.
Hooray, it’s that time of the year again: 1 December, start of the Advent season! Which also means that today is the kick-off for our very special Calvendo Advent calendar, full of surprises and, of course, great images.
The first one is from Silvio Schoisswohl‘s ‘Sweet Wildlife‘ calendar, showing us that first-class landscape photographers not only have to reserve their art to landscapes … (Look at its sweet little face!!)
… well, not personally but we’d like to give you an insight into how it works since the quality check performed by our expert panel is a vital element of the service Calvendo offers. In particular for all the newcomers using our platform (welcome!), here’s an overview of our criteria for publication and how the jury decides if a product will be released – or not:
After submitting your project, the Calvendo jury will contact you with one of the three following messages: Your project has been released for publication straight away (hooray!), you’re being asked to make certain corrections (all in your best interest!) or your project has been rejected (shame – but try again!). The jury bases these decisions on a set of criteria in order to establish the overall quality of a project:
• craftsmanship
• creative achievement and degree of originality
• technical quality
• completeness and relevancy of the information for imprint and product description
• legally admissible and ethically unobjectionable
• satisfaction of the needs of the respective target group
• potential demand in the market (i.e. will it sell)
• does it fit with the Calvendo publishing programme
Each of these elements is important. If, for example, your calendar is technically and visually absolutely brilliant, but missing a product description, it can’t be released because trade catalogues won’t list your calendar without one. As an innovative self-publishing platform, Calvendo needs to make sure to be taken seriously by all the partners we work with in the book retail sector. And this in turns also means that we can’t accept every product submitted to us. In the end, our jury’s decision is final and binding.
In order to make things easier, we’ve put together extensive guidelines in our FAQs covering everything from which fonts to use to how to design a cover. And: Take a look at our checklist before submitting your project. It’ll help! By the way, help – one thing our jury definitely does, is help you, by giving you advice and suggestions how to improve your project.
