Creative Forms of Publishing
Until recently, I didn't think much about publishing. I've been interested in writing fiction most of my life but it's always been an activity that had intrinsic value for me, and I wasn't seeking to share any of it with a broader public. The fact that I didn't know anything about publishing probably had something to do with it as well. I read a couple of books with titles such as, "Get your book in print" or "So you want to get published," and it seemed so complicated and time consuming that I essentially gave up before even trying. I didn't see it as worth the time and effort... and I certainly didn't think I had anything worth publishing under these conditions. I was much more interested in the writing than in the publishing.
Then, I was given the opportunity to co-author a non-fiction book, Making the Connection: Scaling Telecenters for Development. It was published by the organization I worked for at the time, and didn't require going through any kind of submission process, approval, etc... At the same time, there is something really tangible about holding your book in your hands. Even though it wasn't fiction, it gave me an additional ounce of confidence. At that point I knew I could do it.
It is now apparently quite easy to publish something without having to go through the process of finding an agent, finding a publisher, etc... etc... Vanity presses have probably existed as long as books have been printed but there's a revolution afoot. It used to be that if you didn't publish your book through a serious publishing house, your book wasn't going to be taken seriously. Nowadays, if you want your book to be "in the market" quickly and you're sufficiently networked to your target audience, you can publish and sell your book almost on you own. This seems to be especially true if your books isn't meant for a large audience and you're likely to know your audience better than any publisher. Here comes LuLu and probably a few other online publishing companies I haven't discovered yet.
See "What would Andrew do?" by Jay Cross, in the LuLu marketplace for an example.
The novel I am currently working on would NOT work as a traditional book (even if it ever becomes good enough to be published). I wrote it in a wiki format and if it is used as I am envisioning it, it would not only need to be a digital document (an ebook), it would need to be published in a collaborative environment. Places such as LuLu would allow me to publish the book in an electronic format, bypassing the need for a physical book but I don't think it would provide the collaborative environment I'm thinking of.
Perhaps what I am trying to write is a hypertext didactic novel. It's not an interactive novel in the traditional sense. I'm not asking the readers to pick a point of view or help create their own version of the novel. There is only one path through the novel. The interaction with the novel isn't in the form of manipulating the text itself or making decisions about characters and plot, it's in the form of discussing and learning from the specific issues discussed in the novel. In that sense, it's more aligned with a book club discussion.
I promised myself that I would try to tie my posts back to the "knowledge for development" theme (or change the website name if I have completely changed track). It may seem that I've gone seriously afield with my "explorations" and "experimentations" with fiction but I'm confident that I'll eventually come full circle to write something for and about development. I have lots of ideas, just not enough time to work on everything at once.
Ten years from now I might be teaching international development using a collection of completely fictional short stories. Who know?
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Then, I was given the opportunity to co-author a non-fiction book, Making the Connection: Scaling Telecenters for Development. It was published by the organization I worked for at the time, and didn't require going through any kind of submission process, approval, etc... At the same time, there is something really tangible about holding your book in your hands. Even though it wasn't fiction, it gave me an additional ounce of confidence. At that point I knew I could do it.
It is now apparently quite easy to publish something without having to go through the process of finding an agent, finding a publisher, etc... etc... Vanity presses have probably existed as long as books have been printed but there's a revolution afoot. It used to be that if you didn't publish your book through a serious publishing house, your book wasn't going to be taken seriously. Nowadays, if you want your book to be "in the market" quickly and you're sufficiently networked to your target audience, you can publish and sell your book almost on you own. This seems to be especially true if your books isn't meant for a large audience and you're likely to know your audience better than any publisher. Here comes LuLu and probably a few other online publishing companies I haven't discovered yet.
See "What would Andrew do?" by Jay Cross, in the LuLu marketplace for an example.
The novel I am currently working on would NOT work as a traditional book (even if it ever becomes good enough to be published). I wrote it in a wiki format and if it is used as I am envisioning it, it would not only need to be a digital document (an ebook), it would need to be published in a collaborative environment. Places such as LuLu would allow me to publish the book in an electronic format, bypassing the need for a physical book but I don't think it would provide the collaborative environment I'm thinking of.
Perhaps what I am trying to write is a hypertext didactic novel. It's not an interactive novel in the traditional sense. I'm not asking the readers to pick a point of view or help create their own version of the novel. There is only one path through the novel. The interaction with the novel isn't in the form of manipulating the text itself or making decisions about characters and plot, it's in the form of discussing and learning from the specific issues discussed in the novel. In that sense, it's more aligned with a book club discussion.
I promised myself that I would try to tie my posts back to the "knowledge for development" theme (or change the website name if I have completely changed track). It may seem that I've gone seriously afield with my "explorations" and "experimentations" with fiction but I'm confident that I'll eventually come full circle to write something for and about development. I have lots of ideas, just not enough time to work on everything at once.
Ten years from now I might be teaching international development using a collection of completely fictional short stories. Who know?
Labels: Fiction, Non-fiction, publishing, Vanity press
posted by Barbara Fillip at
4:22 AM
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