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Project Story
📚 Lantern Leaf Library
A community-backed ebook anthology platform for new literary voices.
Great writing exists everywhere — but much of it never reaches readers because traditional publishing pipelines are narrow, slow, and risk-averse. Many talented writers produce remarkable short fiction, essays, and poetry — yet struggle to find a first platform.
Lantern Leaf Library is a crowdfunded ebook anthology series designed to publish curated, themed collections of emerging writers — delivered as beautifully formatted ebooks and supported by reader communities.
Each volume is built around a theme — such as:
- Quiet Futures (hopeful speculative fiction)
- Cities & Solitude (urban essays and memoir)
- Small Wonders (short literary fiction)
- Voices After Dark (poetry & reflective prose)
✍️ What Makes This Different
This is not a content mill or open dump. Each anthology is:
- Carefully curated by editors
- Professionally copy-edited
- Illustrated with original artwork
- Designed for premium ebook reading
- Released in EPUB + PDF formats
- Community-funded instead of publisher-gated
Writers are paid honorariums from the crowdfund pool — not just “exposure.”
🌍 Global & Inclusive
We actively seek:
- First-time authors
- Writers from underrepresented regions
- Translators adapting regional stories
- Experimental and cross-genre work
Selected pieces may also include bilingual editions where possible.
🪶 First Volume Plan — “Small Wonders”
Our launch anthology focuses on short literary works under 4,000 words exploring quiet, meaningful moments — human, natural, and philosophical.
Planned structure:
- 18–22 selected works
- 6 original illustrations
- Editorial foreword + author notes
- Reader discussion guide
- Digital marginalia edition (with notes & commentary)
💰 What We’re Funding
Support will enable us to:
- Pay writers and artists fairly
- Fund professional editing & proofreading
- Commission original illustrations
- Format and design ebook editions
- Produce audiobook-style author readings (pilot)
- Build a reader community portal
If stretch goals are reached, we will also produce a narrated audio edition.
📖 Why It Matters
Literature shouldn’t be gatekept by geography, connections, or trends. Crowdfunded publishing lets readers directly bring books into existence — and lets writers build an audience from day one.
Instead of chasing algorithms, we build a circle of readers who care.
Risks & Challenges
Submission volume may exceed editorial capacity. We mitigate this with a review panel and clear selection timelines. Illustration and editing schedules may shift slightly based on contributor availability.
elliemorgan
ellie@lanternleafpress.org
Ellie Morgan is an independent editor and literary curator focused on discovering new voices in fiction and creative nonfiction. She runs Lantern Leaf Press, a small digital-first publishing initiative supporting emerging writers through themed ebook anthologies and community-backed storytelling projects. Based in Edinburgh, she works with writers, illustrators, and translators to bring thoughtful, diverse stories to global readers.