I have spent hours of my life now scouting the internet for publishing opportunities, only to decide that I need professional help--representation by a literary agent. Early in this web log, I wondered if the digital age would threaten the library as we know it, and if all the self-publishing opportunities on the internet would render agents and publishing houses unnecessary to authors.
As a result of my studies thus far, I do believe that the future of the library as a physical place is threatened, and that every effort should be made to ensure its continued existance for all future generations. I believe librarians will be more necessary in the future, rather than less, and I think ideas could be implemented that would ensure that the library remains central to communities in the future.
Like librarians, I think literary agents are even more crucial in the digital age, rather than becoming obselete as I had wondered. I have come to this conclusion because of the abundance of information presented on the internet.
I feel like I'm dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean.
There are scams and shams, many opportunities, and many opportunities for fools to part with their money on the internet.
I have also realized that I do not have the skills, aptitude, patience or judgment to serve as my own literary agent. I need professional help.
Showing posts with label e-publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label e-publishing. Show all posts
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
"To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person."
The avenues for publishing on the internet are multitudinous.
An author can self publish e-books, or create print-on-demand books in a variety of ways, ranging from the bare bones do-it-yourself approach to paying exorbitant amounts for book design, formating, publishing, and marketing.
An author can self-publish or publish through traditional means, working with an agent and/or publishing house, who will most likely utilize both print and digital opportunities.
There is a dizzying number of internet sites offering advice to authors on how and where to get published. One such site, Marketlist.com, http://www.marketlist.com/ is an online resource for genre fiction writers, providing information on genre-specific electronic publishing opportunities.
I explore these sights and quickly remember my many former attempts to wade through print versions of the same information. I stalled then and I am stalled now.
There is too much information.
Given lists and lists of publishers with names, facts, and figures, I am quickly overwhelmed and resentful of the time it takes. I still can't decide who or where to send my work.
Even armed with facts and figures, I still don't know who these people are.
I don't know where I am sending my creations, my pets.
I don't want them to go just any place. I want them to go to the "right" place, and I've never been able to identify the place I feel is "right."
Now I am seeing the efficacy of the agent.
"To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person."
Hsin Hsin Ming
I have made a personal creed of working with what I have and going from there. This has led me to explore the world of do-it-yourself projects, but I can only get so far on my own. I do not have the interest, attention span or capacity for detail to wade through all the options and plan a course of action.
I had assumed that the digital age would negate the need for agents, but I don't think I will ever be a successful writer without the expertise and navigation skills of an agent.
Likewise, I believe that in the face of the explosion of digital information, the need for skilled librarians increases rather than decreases.
An author can self publish e-books, or create print-on-demand books in a variety of ways, ranging from the bare bones do-it-yourself approach to paying exorbitant amounts for book design, formating, publishing, and marketing.
An author can self-publish or publish through traditional means, working with an agent and/or publishing house, who will most likely utilize both print and digital opportunities.
There is a dizzying number of internet sites offering advice to authors on how and where to get published. One such site, Marketlist.com, http://www.marketlist.com/ is an online resource for genre fiction writers, providing information on genre-specific electronic publishing opportunities.
I explore these sights and quickly remember my many former attempts to wade through print versions of the same information. I stalled then and I am stalled now.
There is too much information.
Given lists and lists of publishers with names, facts, and figures, I am quickly overwhelmed and resentful of the time it takes. I still can't decide who or where to send my work.
Even armed with facts and figures, I still don't know who these people are.
I don't know where I am sending my creations, my pets.
I don't want them to go just any place. I want them to go to the "right" place, and I've never been able to identify the place I feel is "right."
Now I am seeing the efficacy of the agent.
"To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person."
Hsin Hsin Ming
I have made a personal creed of working with what I have and going from there. This has led me to explore the world of do-it-yourself projects, but I can only get so far on my own. I do not have the interest, attention span or capacity for detail to wade through all the options and plan a course of action.
I had assumed that the digital age would negate the need for agents, but I don't think I will ever be a successful writer without the expertise and navigation skills of an agent.
Likewise, I believe that in the face of the explosion of digital information, the need for skilled librarians increases rather than decreases.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Tout & Shout: The Importance of Marketing (To me & the Library)
I have self-published two books. Luckily all I had in mind was to hold them in my hands and read them like I was a stranger, because I only sold any to myself. This proves that you can accept a free ISBN# and even have a bar code, like I did for "Hip & Broke", but if you don't introduce yourself, if you don't tout yourself and your book to the world, you will never have readers.
Future Librarians abhor touting (although this is a weakness that is being examined by both me and the Library, and needs a full post in the future.)
I need to tout & shout because I want the luxury of time to write. I have two screenplays, one utopian novel, and a few other must-writes in my head, just waiting to spill out.
The Library, too, recognises its need for some fuss and fanfare. Librarians are typically not look-at-me people, look what we do, look what we've done.
I didn't realize until I started Library School, for example, the huge void the library fills in its service to the have-nots, and I've been a patron/fan of the library for almost 50 years. I don't think the public knows it, but unfortunately, it is not a look-at-me opportunity by its very nature.
The library is an equalizer, providing tools and resources to all, allowing access and experiences to its patrons. Another institution might be able to point this out, as it would surely be a blow, especially to the least of us, if the library were to cease to exist.
The Library is color-blind, however, and all men are equal. Librarians can't, don't, won't invade a patron's privacy. Any appraisal a librarian does is only for the purpose of serving patrons' needs. Promoting the library's service to the have-nots is not something a librarian does.
Future Librarians abhor touting (although this is a weakness that is being examined by both me and the Library, and needs a full post in the future.)
I need to tout & shout because I want the luxury of time to write. I have two screenplays, one utopian novel, and a few other must-writes in my head, just waiting to spill out.
The Library, too, recognises its need for some fuss and fanfare. Librarians are typically not look-at-me people, look what we do, look what we've done.
I didn't realize until I started Library School, for example, the huge void the library fills in its service to the have-nots, and I've been a patron/fan of the library for almost 50 years. I don't think the public knows it, but unfortunately, it is not a look-at-me opportunity by its very nature.
The library is an equalizer, providing tools and resources to all, allowing access and experiences to its patrons. Another institution might be able to point this out, as it would surely be a blow, especially to the least of us, if the library were to cease to exist.
The Library is color-blind, however, and all men are equal. Librarians can't, don't, won't invade a patron's privacy. Any appraisal a librarian does is only for the purpose of serving patrons' needs. Promoting the library's service to the have-nots is not something a librarian does.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
KD Rouse: My Angle(s) & Approach to Internet Publishing
I am approaching my study of internet from three major points of interest:
1) I am a Library School student, very interested in the impact digital publishing has on the library, the publishing industry, the librarian and the book.
I am curious about the future.
Is the future library going to be a museum like some predict? (1)
What is the library facing with the onslaught of digitized information?
What are library leaders doing to ensure the library remains vibrant in the future?
Do we need to make ourselves technological leaders in order to maintain a central part of society or do we keep a place "right behind the curve?"
I am concerned about the future of the library.
We are fine now but we are on shaky ground with the current teens and subsequent generations.
Interest in the library is consistency ranked the lowest among today's teens as compared to other age groups. (2)
For the library of the future to maintain its value to the tech-savvy, multi-media generations of the future, it
will need to speed up the tempo, add more noise, food and drink except in the archives( a branch that is a museum) and provide experiences in information that can't be had as effectively as at home.
Our current teens were born to technology and have accepted rapid changes of format. They don't miss vinyl records, Beta tapes, or black and white TV, and I don't think they will miss the traditional bound book.
I think they will accept the latest, greatest, and think the bound book cumbersome and antiquated.
What is the library of the future?
2) I am an author of stories and songs, wondering where and how to publish. What are the options? Is it better to try to get an agent? Should I bypass trying to get published traditionally? Are there free options on the web that I can use to achieve the same results promised by expensive publishing packages?
3) I am a future promoter wanting my author to achieve her goals. What are effective methods of promotion on the web? Is it possible to bring an unknown author to the attention of the reading public without support from paid alliances with internet giants? My author has had a hap-hazard history with spotty promotion attempts before losing interest. To be an effective marketer, I need a systematic, well planned approach, taking stock of what works and what doesn't.
For a more complete listing, see Bibliography page in sidebar
1) Weiss, Laura. "Buildings, books, and bytes: Libraries and communities in the digital age." APLIS 10, no. 3: 163, 1997. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
2) Borawski, C. "Beyond the Book: Literacy in the Digital Age." Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 7, no. 3: 53-54, 2009. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
1) I am a Library School student, very interested in the impact digital publishing has on the library, the publishing industry, the librarian and the book.
I am curious about the future.
Is the future library going to be a museum like some predict? (1)
What is the library facing with the onslaught of digitized information?
What are library leaders doing to ensure the library remains vibrant in the future?
Do we need to make ourselves technological leaders in order to maintain a central part of society or do we keep a place "right behind the curve?"
I am concerned about the future of the library.
We are fine now but we are on shaky ground with the current teens and subsequent generations.
Interest in the library is consistency ranked the lowest among today's teens as compared to other age groups. (2)
For the library of the future to maintain its value to the tech-savvy, multi-media generations of the future, it
will need to speed up the tempo, add more noise, food and drink except in the archives( a branch that is a museum) and provide experiences in information that can't be had as effectively as at home.
Our current teens were born to technology and have accepted rapid changes of format. They don't miss vinyl records, Beta tapes, or black and white TV, and I don't think they will miss the traditional bound book.
I think they will accept the latest, greatest, and think the bound book cumbersome and antiquated.
What is the library of the future?
2) I am an author of stories and songs, wondering where and how to publish. What are the options? Is it better to try to get an agent? Should I bypass trying to get published traditionally? Are there free options on the web that I can use to achieve the same results promised by expensive publishing packages?
3) I am a future promoter wanting my author to achieve her goals. What are effective methods of promotion on the web? Is it possible to bring an unknown author to the attention of the reading public without support from paid alliances with internet giants? My author has had a hap-hazard history with spotty promotion attempts before losing interest. To be an effective marketer, I need a systematic, well planned approach, taking stock of what works and what doesn't.
For a more complete listing, see Bibliography page in sidebar
1) Weiss, Laura. "Buildings, books, and bytes: Libraries and communities in the digital age." APLIS 10, no. 3: 163, 1997. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
2) Borawski, C. "Beyond the Book: Literacy in the Digital Age." Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 7, no. 3: 53-54, 2009. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
Friday, July 1, 2011
Tips for Marketing and Promotion on the Net
To promote your book on-line, you need to present yourself to potential readers. If you want potential readers to visit you, you must have a "place" for them to come. This is done by establishing a web presence by keeping an active blog or website. Search engines, like Google, are attracted to activity, trolling sites for keywords. The keywords used to describe your blog must match the content of your blog, which the search engine determines by scanning the pages for keywords and related terms.
The more links you have to other sites, the more you will be detected by the search engines. Reciprocal links are the best. Try to get other sites to link with you. Some publishing sites suggest joining discussion or special interest groups on-line, or twitter and tweet, to be able to link with other sites.
There are free sites where you can "feed" the search engines, and there are free sitemeters that track your site's activity. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the goal, and there are many articles on how to achieve this, as well as people you can pay to optimize your site for you. Search engine optimization relies on keywords which should appear in your page titles, your URL, headings and alt tags.
This site feeds your URL into a multitude of search engines for free:
http://www.addme.com/
This site offers a free appraisal of the speed of your website, simply by providing your URL:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
Blogger.com offers a way to monetize a blog site with ads related to the keywords which could potentially drive traffic to a site. A custom search engine is also available. If a custom search is included, a successful blog or website can lead to a liason with an advertizing sponsor who is looking for places to advertise. I have been debating whether to add Google Adsense and the custom search engine to my site. Other than cluttering up my site, it could mean more traffic, and more potential to sell books later. The ads might prove interesting to my study of internet publishing as Google promises the ads will relate to the subject matter of the blog.
This is information about Adsense provided by Google:
https://www.google.com/adsense/www/en_US/afs/
The more links you have to other sites, the more you will be detected by the search engines. Reciprocal links are the best. Try to get other sites to link with you. Some publishing sites suggest joining discussion or special interest groups on-line, or twitter and tweet, to be able to link with other sites.
There are free sites where you can "feed" the search engines, and there are free sitemeters that track your site's activity. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the goal, and there are many articles on how to achieve this, as well as people you can pay to optimize your site for you. Search engine optimization relies on keywords which should appear in your page titles, your URL, headings and alt tags.
This site feeds your URL into a multitude of search engines for free:
http://www.addme.com/
This site offers a free appraisal of the speed of your website, simply by providing your URL:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
Blogger.com offers a way to monetize a blog site with ads related to the keywords which could potentially drive traffic to a site. A custom search engine is also available. If a custom search is included, a successful blog or website can lead to a liason with an advertizing sponsor who is looking for places to advertise. I have been debating whether to add Google Adsense and the custom search engine to my site. Other than cluttering up my site, it could mean more traffic, and more potential to sell books later. The ads might prove interesting to my study of internet publishing as Google promises the ads will relate to the subject matter of the blog.
This is information about Adsense provided by Google:
https://www.google.com/adsense/www/en_US/afs/
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Pros and Cons of Electronic Publishing
Pros for Electronic Publishing
E-books save paper and ink.
E-books save space. Thousands of E-books can be stored in the space of one bound book.
E-books never go out-of-print.
E-book websites can include the ability to translate a work into many languages.
E-books can be instantly accessed from home without travel or delays.
E-readers can have features that allow reading in the dark, changing text fonts, or may have text-to-speech software for the elderly or blind.
Once the E-reader is obtained, the cost of individual E-books is less than printed books.
E-publishing makes it easier for authors to self-publish.
There are many free E-books. Anything written before 1900 is in the public domain, and current authors often offer selections for free in order to promote themselves. (1)
Cons for Electronic Publishing
Ebook formats and file types continue to develop and change through time through advances and developments in technology or the introduction of new proprietary formats. While printed books remain readable for many years, e-books may need to be copied or converted to a new carrier or file type over time. PDF and epub are growing standards, but are not universal.
Authors may not receive royalties equivalent to the use of their work.
Not all books are available as e-books. (2)
E-books do not provide the tactile sensations of a physical book, and cannot be wrapped as a present.
E-books provide samples to readers, introducing a possibility of readers grazing through many samples of work rather than ever actually reading a book from start to finish. Just as the spelling shortcuts used in texting have made it unclear whether our future generations will be able to spell correctly, the electronic book could change future generations to speedy grazers instead of readers. (3)
A book doesn't run out of power.
Documents in electronic form may degrade over time or become obsolete.
E-readers can't be dropped and must be protected from extreme temperatures and electromagnetic pulses and surges that do not effect books.
E-readers can malfunction and lose data.
E-readers are not biodegradable like the paper in books, and will hold toxic waste issues in the future.
E-books and software track data such as times, usage, pages, and details about what one is reading and how often. (Big Brother is watching.) (4)
Bibliography (For a description of each reference, please see Bibliography page in sidebar)
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book
(2) Weiss, Laura. "Buildings, books, and bytes: Libraries and communities in the digital age."
APLIS 10, no. 3: 163, 1997. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
(3) Borawski, C. "Beyond the Book: Literacy in the Digital Age." Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 7, no. 3: 53-54, 2009. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
(4) Herther, Nancy K. "The Ebook Reader Is Not the Future of Ebooks." Searcher 16, no. 8: 26-40, 2008. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
E-books save paper and ink.
E-books save space. Thousands of E-books can be stored in the space of one bound book.
E-books never go out-of-print.
E-book websites can include the ability to translate a work into many languages.
E-books can be instantly accessed from home without travel or delays.
E-readers can have features that allow reading in the dark, changing text fonts, or may have text-to-speech software for the elderly or blind.
Once the E-reader is obtained, the cost of individual E-books is less than printed books.
E-publishing makes it easier for authors to self-publish.
There are many free E-books. Anything written before 1900 is in the public domain, and current authors often offer selections for free in order to promote themselves. (1)
Cons for Electronic Publishing
Ebook formats and file types continue to develop and change through time through advances and developments in technology or the introduction of new proprietary formats. While printed books remain readable for many years, e-books may need to be copied or converted to a new carrier or file type over time. PDF and epub are growing standards, but are not universal.
Authors may not receive royalties equivalent to the use of their work.
Not all books are available as e-books. (2)
E-books do not provide the tactile sensations of a physical book, and cannot be wrapped as a present.
E-books provide samples to readers, introducing a possibility of readers grazing through many samples of work rather than ever actually reading a book from start to finish. Just as the spelling shortcuts used in texting have made it unclear whether our future generations will be able to spell correctly, the electronic book could change future generations to speedy grazers instead of readers. (3)
A book doesn't run out of power.
Documents in electronic form may degrade over time or become obsolete.
E-readers can't be dropped and must be protected from extreme temperatures and electromagnetic pulses and surges that do not effect books.
E-readers can malfunction and lose data.
E-readers are not biodegradable like the paper in books, and will hold toxic waste issues in the future.
E-books and software track data such as times, usage, pages, and details about what one is reading and how often. (Big Brother is watching.) (4)
Bibliography (For a description of each reference, please see Bibliography page in sidebar)
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book
(2) Weiss, Laura. "Buildings, books, and bytes: Libraries and communities in the digital age."
APLIS 10, no. 3: 163, 1997. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
(4) Herther, Nancy K. "The Ebook Reader Is Not the Future of Ebooks." Searcher 16, no. 8: 26-40, 2008. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed July 1, 2011).
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