Let Our Voices Be Heard!

Christian Lesbians in Europe telling their Stories.

Dear European Forum friends!

Finally: Our book is now finished!!  Yes, yes, yes!!! J

We are thrilled to hold the first books in our hands! And we can all look proudly upon the result:

A collection of 542 pages with articles, biographical stories, poems, prayers, paintings, illustrations and photos involving 95 Christian lesbians from 26 European countries! Ca. 70 photos, most in colours and some in black & white.

Contributions from Austria, Belarus, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The contributions represent experiences from different Christian settings: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, Lutheran, Reformed, Free Churches (Baptist, Pentecostal), Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon. Some have left their churches and some are in the very centre of theirs, sitting in the church pews, taking part in Holy Communion. Some even stand in the pulpit and give the bread and wine. Each one has chosen her own way of living with faith and sexuality. One decided that she felt closer to Buddhism, while another chose a "different" and - to many Christian socialised lesbians - unexpected road: conversion to Islam.

Title:  "Let Our Voices Be Heard! Christian Lesbians in Europe telling their Stories."
ISBN nr.: 3-86516-077-8

Editor: Randi O. Solberg
Publisher: "Mein Buch" in Hamburg, Germany.

 

Have you been waiting for it? :-)

As many of you know, all the work with the content of the book was finished a long time ago, but unfortunately the publisher got delayed with their pre-print work. But, even if the book unfortunately was not physically there for our European Forum conference in Stockholm/Sweden in May, it was presented through flyers, and we celebrated the finished content with a “reading” where the book-women who were present, read small parts of their own stories. It was very well received, and even the bishop of Stockholm was present. We have heard that she afterwards has expressed the wish to receive the book. We choose to see that as a good sign. :-)

How to get hold of the book

 The book can be ordered on the “Mein Buch” webpage (www.MeinBu.ch) and via bookstores for 39,80 Euro (plus postage/porto). It is quite some more expensive than we had hoped originally, but after the calculations and signals we for a while had from the publisher, we had honestly thought and feared that it would cost quite some Euro more than that. As the publisher also says, it is a very special book, -an anthology (which is normally more expensive) and it has a lot of colour photos, - and compared to the value of the book, the price should be ok. I have calculated to see if the book would have been much cheaper if it had been thinner and without photos, but that is interestingly not the case.

It is the calculation of the bookstore discount (30-50%, which they have to spread on all books, - also those sold via internet) which makes the price high. But, if we want the bookstores to be interested in selling our book, we have to accept this.

But, special offer for you!

All European Forum groups and their members /very close friends are welcome to buy the book at the reduced price of 30 Euro (plus postage /porto).

This special price offer you can only get if you order the book(s) through me (when I as editor place the order, we can buy them cheaper from the publisher).

Please remember, this is only an internal arrangement, since the Forum can be seen as the "maker" of the book. When sold outside of the Forum groups and/or close “book friends”, the book price is 39,80. This also has to do with formal regulations in the book market.

The books you order have to be paid up front, because of the present financial status of the project (see point below). Also, since Kerstin and I (the coordination group) have had to pay quite a lot of the expenses privately with one hand, while doing parts of the fundraising (and making the book) with the other, we can’t afford to first pay for the books and then wait for the money to come afterwards. I think you all will understand that. Please, see separate document(s) about how to order the book. It would be good if you coordinate larger orders. That will keep your postage costs lower per book.

The women who have written in the book, plus translators, proofreaders and photographers on our lists have been offered to buy one copy each for 25 Euro (as a special thanks), and they are in addition welcome to use this general Forum offer of buying further books for 30 Euro per copy. Please, if you have the chance, coordinate with the special contributors from your group when ordering books.

Information / marketing

I will soon send you a text for a press release that you can translate and use in your country. If some of you write something on your own or have good ideas, please send it/them to me, so that others can get help and inspiration from it. If any of you have contacts who could help us with physically making more professional sales material (given that we don’t have to pay too much for it :-), we are happy for all help.

Future finances

We are still in lack of ca. 10.000 Euro to cover the expenses of making the book. We have till now fundraised more than 20.000 Euro of the total budget of ca. 30.000 Euro. A special thank you to Ineke Lautenbach, who fundraised 10.000 Euro from the Dutch church organisation Kerkinactie! And to Kerstin Söderblom, who has also done a big part of the fundraising! We will keep on doing fundraising, and you are of course more than welcome to help!!

For each book which is sold, the project gets a provision. The provision will be used as following:
1) paying for an amount of books which we want to be able to give for free to groups/people which/who might have a special need for the book but would otherwise not have the financial possibility to buy the book.

2) covering up the deficit in the project budget

3) spread the book

4) specific Forum women projects.

If you have any questions, you are of course welcome to ask!

Thanks again to all those who have helped along the way, - with the content, administration and fundraising of the book!

I – and we – hope that you will all enjoy the book, and that it can be of use in our common work to try to make this world a better place!

As somebody has put it:

“Never stop believing that a small group of conscious and acting people can change the world.

In fact, it is the only thing that ever has!”

Looking forward to hearing from you! :-)

With all best wishes,

Randi  (Kerstin also sends her greetings to all of you!)

Bestellung via Editor

How to order the book via the editor

(Only for European Forum groups/group members and people linked to our book project)

Book title: 

"Let Our Voices Be Heard!

Christian Lesbians in Europe telling their Stories."

We will do it as follows:

1. You send me an email telling me how many books you want to buy and to what address(es) the books should be sent.

2. I send you an email with account information for you to transfer the money for your order.

3. You transfer the price for buying the books (30 Euro per book) to my account

4. You send me a new email, confirming that you have transferred the money

5. I send a collective order to the publisher.

6. The publisher prints the books (if they don’t have that many in storage. That is the “book on demand principle”)

7. The publisher sends the book(s) to the given address(es).

8. Together with the book(s) the publisher sends you the invoice for the actual postage costs.

9. You transfer the postage costs to the publisher.

If you find this too complicated, it is of course possible to order the book(s) directly via internet, but then you have to pay the full price plus postage. You can also order it via your local bookstore to the full price. (Please, check separate document “How to order via book store or internet”.)

About the postage costs

The books are printed in Germany (in English language, though..:-). One book weighs a few gram more than 1 Kilo (heavy stuff.. ;-). The postage rises at 1 Kilo. But, when the publisher sent us one of the books, it had the postage price of “up to 1 Kilo”.  So, if we are lucky, this will also be the case later.

Postage within Germany: 1,28 Euro (up to 1 Kilo) – 4,10 Euro (more than 1 Kilo).

Outside of Germany, inside of Europe:  4,10 Euro(up to 1 Kilo) – 6,10 Euro (more than 1 Kilo).

The postage costs you would also have to pay extra if you buy the book via internet.

The postage costs will be lower per book if several books are ordered at the same time to the same address. So, if you have the possibility, coordinate with your groups etc and place your orders together!

 

How to order the book via book store or internet

Book title: 

"Let Our Voices Be Heard!

Christian Lesbians in Europe telling their Stories."

Informations to the book

ISBN nr.: 3-86516-077-8

Editor: Randi O. Solberg
Publisher: "Mein Buch" in Hamburg, Germany

Aternative 1: Book store

You can go to your local book store and ask them to order the book from the publisher “Mein Buch” in Germany. In this way you will also spread the word about the book to the book store, and they might order a couple extra to put into their book shelves. See title and ISBN nr. at the beginning of this email. Editor: Randi O. Solberg

Alternative 2: Internet

You can order the book on  www.MeinBuch.ch

Here is a short navigation help, since the website is in German:

Once on the website, do the following:

- Choose  “Mein Buch – Laden”

- Choose “Sachbücher” (or “Neuerscheinungen” as long as the book is new)

- Books are listed alphabetically according to authors’/editors’ last name. Scroll to letter S (Solberg) and find the book.

- Choose “In den Warenkorb” for putting the book into your “shopping basket”

- A few useful translations:

“Menge” = Number of copies wanted (if you press “Aktualisieren”, the total price for the selected copies is calculated under “Gesamt”)

“Versandkosten” = postal/postage costs (might get higher for abroad postal)

- Choose “Bestellen” to order the book

- You will now be asked to fill in the necessary information:

“Frau” = Mrs/Ms or “Herr” = Mr. (Standard question in Germany)

“Vorname, Name”= name (upper box), last name (lower box)

“Straße” = street address

“Plz u Ort” = zip code and city

“Land” = country

“Ergänzungen” = a space to use if you want to add information etc.

- Choose “Bestellen” once more for the final ordering of the book

You will receive an order confirmation via email, and the book and a bill to pay via post. The publisher claims that the book is sent away within 24 hours (unless they have just emptied their storage, but they try to keep it at a size to be able to immediately deliver small orders.

About the postage costs

The books are printed in Germany (in English language, though..:-). One book weighs a few gram more than 1 Kilo (heavy stuff.. ;-). The postage rises at 1 Kilo. But, when the publisher sent us one of the books, it had the postage price of “up to 1 Kilo”.  So, if we are lucky, this will also be the case later.

Postage within Germany: 1,28 Euro (up to 1 Kilo) – 4,10 Euro (more than 1 Kilo).

Outside of Germany, inside of Europe:  4,10 Euro(up to 1 Kilo) – 6,10 Euro (more than 1 Kilo).

The postage costs will be lower per book if several books are ordered at the same time to the same address. So, if you have the possibility, coordinate with your group(s) etc and place your orders together!