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When the Westlake Academy student newspaper lost 95 percent of its ad support this school year, the publication’s writers devised a unique fundraising idea to cover costs.

The staff of The Black Cow created a compilation of its 60 best stories over the last three years into paperback book form, and sold copies of the book on Dec. 10 at Westlake Academy in a book reading and autograph signing.

"The idea came about when we realized we had lost so many of our advertisers," Black Cow staff writer Margaret Ledak said. "We know that we have an award-winning paper, and many of those articles are really good ... I think the thought process was that that would be one of the easiest ways to make money."

The Black Cow won 47 journalism awards in a state competition in April, more than any other student newspaper in Texas.

Ledak said the paper had a good turnout for the event last Wednesday night.

"There were many people from the town and surrounding areas," Ledak said. "We had people from school and our families and people that weren’t even connected to The Black Cow directly, so it did show that there was a lot of interest in the book."

Josh Frey, a columnist with The Black Cow, said the newspaper had already sold between 300 and 400 copies of the book as of last Friday.

"We’re actually still in the process of selling," Frey said. "We are going to continue selling throughout January. We have 1,000 copies, and whenever we run out, we run out."

Frey said the stories selected to run in the book were chosen by a committee of students.

"Our senior management team kind of had a hand in that," Frey said. "A lot of the award-winning pieces were in there."

Humor Columnist James Grover said selecting the stories to run in the book was a little harder than it may seem.

"In certain cases, it was difficult, because there was such a wide variety of stories to choose from," Grover said. "For me, the only humor columnist on the paper, there were just a couple of stories to choose from."

Frey said, while it is a possibility the paper could do this again next year, it would be harder to accomplish, as it took three years worth of stories to compile the first book.

"It’s possible," Frey said. "Right now, we’re just kind of waiting to see how much we sell. I think, based on the success of this one, we can turn it into an annual fundraiser, but it would be difficult. We would have to generate a lot of writing."

Frey said the paper is working on discount packages for corporations that have advertised with The Black Cow in the past to try to pick up ad sales as well.

Books are still on sale for $10 each and can be purchased at Westlake Academy.

Call the school at 817-490-5757 for more information on how to purchase The Best of the Black Cow Great Writing by Great Kids.