ePublish or Bust

We've had a little delay in posting here at ePublish or Bust due to some major changes over the past month or so.  Since our last update I have taken on a new position as the Director of the Daviess County Public Library in Kentucky, and it's been a true whirlwind of a summer :  )  Needless to say this has a dramatic impact on the plans Phyllis and I have made for the program.  Fear not however, we are both committed to keeping this project going, and it was always the intention that it would spread to other libraries and communities . . . it's just happening far more quickly than expected!

We will still be chronicling our writing experiences here on the blog, and posting on our other outlets, but the primary library activities will be moving to the Daviess County Public Library.  It will take some time to get up and running, as I'll be settling into the new role and responsibilities, but rest assured the program will continue onward.

In the meantime we'll keep you posted on all things ePublish or Bust right here.  Next week I'll be posting some video clips of author interviews we conducted with Tony Ruggiero and Austin S. Camacho.  They have some interesting comments on libraries and independent authors which really speak to why we're so committed to transforming the way libraries assist community authors, and independent authors in general.  Stay tuned!

Today represents the first of many posts I will be putting up about our experiences and adventures in writing "the greatest vampire novel in the history of ever."  When I first approached Phyllis about the project early last summer, at the heart of everything was the proposal that we would write a book and chronicle the experience.  I told her I wanted a partner in the endeavor because I suspected it would entail far more work than one might imagine, and with the two of us motivating each other we'd stand a better chance of reaching the finish line.  Phyllis is also an avid reader of fiction, and I assured her that her participation would be invaluable given that I tend to lean toward non-fiction.  Now Phyllis has known me a fairly long time at this stage of the game, and is used to me coming up with unconventional ideas for programs.  Even so she was a little nervous at first.  Neither of us had written fiction before, and we'd really be putting ourselves out there with this project.  She's a good soul though, and humored me long enough that I was able to convince her it would be more fun than any program we'd ever worked on together.

So after getting her on board we commenced to planning out our writing strategy.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we decided it would be a good idea to read some how-to books in getting started, along the lines of the Dummies books.  That was pretty short-lived.  What we discovered in the books we were looking at was a lot of common sense types of advice, by folks spending far too many pages delivering the message.  We wanted simple and to the point, and found it in Stephen King's On Writing.  After checking out his relatively brief how-to, we distilled the points we felt most relevant to us, and developed our own set of rules.  I'm not going to list them all here today (everyone breathe a sigh of relief), but rather focus on the one that has been the most difficult - write 5 pages per day. 

Now 10 pages per day is not King's rule, he does at least double that if I recall correctly.  Phyllis and I, in an attempt to be realistic with our goals, figured 5 would be doable.  In a later post I'll explain how we break that down as a team, but suffice it to say 5 has been a bear when managing the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.  We didn't get started until well after the first of this year, and at this point are just into chapter 3 . . . and getting there has been a herculean effort!  It is incredibly difficult to sit down in front of a blank screen and write fiction.  I've done plenty of blog articles and papers, but wow(!) is it a different ballgame.  Some days it goes great and you get on a roll, and others it's a hard slog.  But it has also been immensely satisfying when you can see some work behind you, and the pages starting to increase.

What isn't so great is knowing that we'll have to revise our draft at least once or twice.  We're resisting the temptation to fix it as we go, because if we did the book would never be finished.  In an interview we conducted with author Tony Ruggiero (which we'll feature parts of on the blog in the coming months), he said something which made me feel a whole lot better regarding drafts.  He looks at  his first draft as a bare skeleton with the organs, the second as the skin, and the third as the clothing.  Tony put it much more eloquently than that, but you get the picture.  Thinking of our first draft as the skeleton makes me feel better, realizing we'll be fleshing out the details properly in subsequent rounds.

Getting back to the 5 pages per day however, what we've come to realize is that it if you aren't writing as a full-time career, adhering to a formula is extremely challenging.  In the beginning we were viewing this as partly a mathematical exercise, but the creative impulse doesn't appear to fit neatly into numerical terms.  As such we've revised our expectations, and are working our way through as best we can.  We have given ourselves deadlines, but they are a bit more generous and reflective of reality.  So what I would say in terms of advice with regard to our limited experience, is to go into your first writing project knowing 3 things:

1 - It will be tough at first.

2 - You need to set realistic goals and expectations if you have a busy life.

3 -  Never give up - keep creating that skeleton :  )

I'll keep posting more thoughts on writing as our adventure continues, but before signing off wanted to mention a couple of cool items of interest.  First up we'll be on NCompass Live, a tech talk show produced by the Nebraska Library Commission talking about the project on May 30th at 10:00 a.m. (Central Time).  We'll do a brief presentation on the program and then take part in a Q&A session.  Should be a lot of fun!  Second, in case you didn't catch Phyllis's tweet from yesterday, be sure to check out this post by indie author D.D. Scott at the Writer's Guide to E-Publishing.  Revolutionary stuff!

This past weekend Phyllis and I traveled up to the annual RavenCon literary festival in Richmond, Virginia to participate on a panel discussion about ePublishing and to give a presentation on our project.  RavenCon was our first foray of this kind, and we weren't quite sure what to expect.  I'm happy to say we had a blast interacting with the authors, publishers, and attendees!  We received some terrific feedback from folks working in the field, and made some wonderful connections with pros we will feature here on the blog and hope to have at our big publishing event at the Library.  In the course of our conversations, we also gained a few insights that are absolutely worth sharing.

The first revelation that kept recurring in our presentations and discussions, was that there are a large number of readers that have no idea that libraries are in the business of loaning out eBooks.  Granted the service is fairly new in the scheme of things, but the folks attending this particular convention are to a large extent focused on reading and literature (sci-fi and fantasy in particular).  When I spoke about how our library/libraries in general are providing this service, and related the difficulties we've experienced in doing so, folks were fascinated.  We received a large number of questions on this front, and it made me aware that libraries have to do a much better job of getting the word out about the service.

A second theme that came across was that authors would really like to work with libraries, and have a high regard for the institution.  Unfortunately what also came through, which is one of the operating premises of our project, is that libraries have been lukewarm in receiving budding or even established authors.  When I explained the purpose and scope of our project to the authors at the event, we received a universally enthusiastic response.  It's one thing for Phyllis and I to cook up our project on a theory about how we need to foster better relationships with independent authors, it's another thing to hear about it repeatedly in a face-to-face forum such as RavenCon.

One lady I spoke with from Germany said she was quite surprised by the attitude of public libraries when she moved here several years ago.  She let us know that in her former neck of the woods authors were routinely welcomed to donate their works, come in and do regular readings, etc.  When she moved to the States the vibe was totally different.  I told her that in some ways libraries here fell into the role of being gatekeepers, dedicated to some higher ideal of what constituted quality literature, instead of focusing on making connections between authors and readers to form communities.  I also let her know that I felt the role of making such connections was where libraries should be headed, and that I was optimistic about that future given the changes taking place in the library world.  Viva la revolution!

A third piece that bears mentioning is that I do not believe you will find a more passionate, generous group of folks than these independent authors.  I've experienced this in the programs I've coordinated at my library, and it was certainly reinforced at RavenCon.  Budding authors, authors working under the radar, authors who are known quantities at some level, it matters not.  They are full of ideas and want to share their creations with the world.  Yeah there's a commerce piece, as well there should be, but it is easy to tell in speaking with them that what matters most is connecting with readers.  At ePublish or Bust we believe it's the role of libraries to help these folks make those connections, and they are absolutely willing to work with us library scientists in making libraries that place.

Honestly, RavenCon was a great experience and I think librarians should be heading out to these types of venues to talk about what we're doing and what we can offer.  If we don't place ourselves in these types of environments we're missing out on some wonderful opportunities.  During our visit we, and our dedicated crew members, also conducted video interviews with mystery author Austin S. Camacho and fantasy author JM Lee.  They generously donated their time to discuss their thoughts on authorship, ePublishing, and a variety of related issues.  Mr. Camacho had some terrific advice to share on self-publishing, and Ms. Lee had a great experience working with a public library to promote her first novel (yes!).  We'll be featuring highlights from those interviews here on the blog shortly, and are planning to compile these and future interviews as part of a larger documentary project (stay tuned).

To sum up, our first away team mission was very rewarding, and gave us the impression we're on the right track.  There's a whole world of authors out there we can connect with, and who are ready and willing to work with us.  It's high time we forge that bond and make it a part of who we are as library scientists, and help readers and authors connect in a way that maximizes the potential of all the cool new technologies that are now at our fingertips, while emphasizing the tremendous value of the personal interactions that can happen at the library.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur here at ePublish or Bust. I was on the road to Washington, DC for the annual Computers in Libraries conference to do a presentation on the $ave $teve program from the 21st-23rd. It was a good conference and I caught a few interesting presentations related in spirit to ePublish or Bust. I followed that up last week with our second annual Freeplay program here at the Library, in which I packed the Central Library with classic arcade and pinball machines, thanks to a wonderful partnership with the South Eastern Virginia Gaming Association. A great time was had by all, and yours truly spent a significant amount of time re-acquainting himself with the joys of the old TRON arcade game from the early 80’s (pure bliss : )

With those two adventures completed, Phyllis and I are finally back on the Good Ship ePublish or Bust full steam ahead! In addition to returning to our regular schedule with blogging, writing, etc., we’ll be attending a convention in Richmond, VA from April 13-14 called RavenCon. It’s essentially a celebration of sci-fi/fantasy literature and will host a number of authors and publishers. We’re presenting on ePublish or Bust on the 14th, and joining on some other related panels to get the word out about what the library world can do for the publishing realm and those who occupy it. Along the way we hope to interview some of the attending professionals to get their thoughts on the changing world of publishing and libraries, and we’ll share them here with you in the near future. I’ll post more info on the convention next week, but in the meantime I wanted to talk a little about Computers in Libraries.

This was the second year I’ve been to the conference, and the first year as a presenter. While I enjoy attending conventions for the opportunity to see and hear what others are up to, I often find that the most enlightening aspects are the unexpected connections and epiphanies I have in response to presentations. In some ways, ePublish or Bust is a direct result of last year’s conference. There was a heavy focus on ebooks last year, and I came away with the feeling that no one had a good handle on the situation. I guess I had expected, perhaps unreasonably, that I would see some exciting vision laid out among the various presentations. Instead everyone seemed riddled with anxiety, outrage, or some combination of the two. The one thing that folks seemed certain about was that the future was uncertain.

At one point, as I continued to sit through these presentations, my mind started to wander away from the cloud of angst being generated. I felt I was hearing the same thing repeatedly, and none of it was particularly enlightening. As a result I had one of those unexpected, illuminating moments where, although the content itself was not providing me with stirring insights, the pure frustration being communicated set my mind running with what could be done about the situation. The prevailing course of action at the time was to vent frustration toward Overdrive and publishers, who were perceived to be sticking it to libraries in one way or another. While that may be true from a certain point of view, raging against the machine didn’t (and doesn’t) seem to me a very productive activity. In my world, instead of trying to get the publishers and vendors to adjust their rules to my liking (where’s the fun it that), I’d rather be the author of my own set of rules.

As my bio spells out, I’m well known around our library for unconventional programming. Perhaps the most successful program I’ve ever initiated is Fantasmo Cult Cinema Explosion, which celebrates on a monthly basis the insane world of B-movie filmdom. I bring this up because one of my favorite activities is extracting profound B-movie wisdom and applying it to real world scenarios. I’m about to lay a bit of that on you now, and you can expect it to happen time and again here on the blog. Today’s lesson has to do with fear and hesitation. A common theme from last year’s Computers in Libraries, on which I’ve continued to see in articles and conversations, is that libraries are fearful of what the future may hold with regard to the disappearance of the physical book. I understand why some library scientists feel this way, but I learned in the long ago year of 1991 that unchecked fear can be a crippling thing. This revelation was imparted to me by none other than Patrick Swayze via the delivery mechanism of the epic Kathryn Bigelow surfboarding heist film Point Break. In that timeless classic, Swayze shares the following nugget of profundity with Keanu Reeves:  

“Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true.”

Sage advice and totally applicable to The Great eBook Crisis, as I have come to label this historic moment in time. Fear has caused us throw stones at the likes of OverDrive, Harper Collins, Random House, Penguin, etc. Creating noise and voicing discontent is not necessarily a bad thing, as a problem can only be solved if its existence is made known. The key is there has to be a Part B to the equation, where some sort of positive action takes place to correct the situation. Recently ALA has been holding constructive talks with publishers and distributors to foster a better understanding of the needs and perspectives of the various parties, advancing things beyond the back and forth that has taken place so far in response to specific events (e.g. raising ebook prices 300%, initiating expiration dates on ebook purchases, etc.) . This is a reasonable step, and hopefully will help to maintain civility (something we should always strive for), but other activities need to be happening simultaneously. Hammering out arrangements with publishers doesn’t address the full spectrum of The Great eBook Crisis.

You see what Swayze understood back then, and what our profession needs to get a handle on in short order, is that talk alone is cheap. It’s not enough to be content with our traditional roles as library scientists, collecting materials, making them accessible, and then pointing people to them. We have to flex our creativity and innovate like we mean it, rather than waiting on someone else to come up with cool stuff for us to adopt. For our part here at ePublish or Bust, we’re focused on making libraries a first stop for authorship and promotion. We will be the place for authors to create and market their artistic endeavors. If our little revolution spreads, as we hope it will, then budding authors will find a home in libraries across the land. Bringing this all back home to this year’s Computers in Libraries, I was happy to see that others are starting to adopt the Point Break philosophy as well. Three organizations whose actions I found particularly intriguing were:

1 – Douglas County Public Library (CO): These guys have been way out front in forging their own way with regard to eBooks. Not content to deal strictly with OverDrive, they’ve developed their own lending platform and are directly working with publishers. They didn’t like the rules so they made up new ones that worked better. I can’t applaud this effort strongly enough, as they are taking risks to show others how this model can be successful. Apparently it’s starting to work, as on the eve of heading to the conference this article came out.

2 – Gluejar: This interesting business model seeks to “liberate specific ebooks and other types of digital content by paying rights holders to relicense their works under Creative Commons licenses.” Essentially money will be paid to creators and publishers outright to release their works for free distribution, and this money will be contributed by whoever is interested in “ungluing” a book. I think this model has major potential for first time or under-the-radar authors who are pricing their books at 99 cents or less on Amazon.

3 – Fayetteville Free Library (NY): Lauren Britton was one of my fellow panel members at the conference, and talked about the Fab Lab being created at her library. The Fab Lab is an environment in which patrons can come and make things, initially using a 3D printer to create physical objects. This pushes ePublishing into a whole other dimension, and is some pretty exciting stuff!

Perhaps the most positive aspect of this year’s conference was the general shift away from angst toward ideas and action. That vibe needs to continue, and efforts like those of Douglas County represent the gold standard. If we continue to follow that example and be creators, eschewing passivity at every turn, we can write the next chapter in the history of libraries. That’s the most exciting aspect of all to me. I’m sure there are plenty of folks who long for a time that was simpler, and hate that all this is happening on our watch. As far as I’m concerned I think it’s invigorating to be a part of this era of librarianship. It’s not just about building a better mousetrap to make sure we aren’t confined to dictated terms (although mousetrap design is lots of fun), it’s about being at a moment in time where we set the pattern for the next generation of this profession . . . ultimately making sure there is one.

So if we’re going to be the authors of our destiny, it’s high time to take a chapter out of the Douglas County manual and keep rolling. When someone takes the kind of initiative they have, our role is to ask ourselves how we can push the envelope in our own corner of the world. In Chesapeake our current charge against the envelope is ePublish or Bust, but rest assured along the way we’ll be thinking of the next steps we can take. It’s what Swayze would do I’m sure!

Exciting news came this morning when I learned that I made Library Journal's Movers & Shakers list for 2012. This is an annual list of library professionals that the publication highlights who are doing interesting things in libraries on various fronts. I was placed under the Recession Buster category for my work on an online game called $ave $teve, but the article also mentions that my next project on the horizon is ePublish or Bust (woo-hoo!). Needless to say this is exciting because a chief goal of our endeavor is to propose a model that we hope will take root in the library world. Since folks may be visiting shortly from that site/article, I thought this would be an ideal time to say a few words about an overarching theme Phyllis and I will strive to employ as we get this project off the ground – simplicity.

A situation I face frequently, and I think I can speak for Phyllis on this as well, is sifting through the deluge of information that comes my way while looking for answers to the many challenges posed by life. Whether I need to figure out the correct wiper blade for the rear window of my car, identify poison ivy in my backyard, find a good book to read, etc., there are any number of places I can obtain those answers and subsequently plan a course of action. The problem comes in figuring out how deeply I want to explore a topic before calling it a day. More and more my goal has become seeking out the simplest, most elegant solutions and filtering out the extraneous details.

As Phyllis and I began laying the groundwork for this project, we made a solemn promise to each other that we would strive to keep the solutions to the questions we seek to answer as straightforward and simple as possible. Our mission is to sift through the information deluge as it relates to ePublishing so that you don’t have to. We’ll cut a path through this jungle and show you a clear cut way to make a writing project happen from start to finish. Before we delve any further into the ePublishing biz though, I thought I’d say a couple of words about our approach to writing the greatest vampire novel in the history of ever and putting out our findings on the Web.

#1 – The Book: With simplicity in mind Phyllis and I chose a single tome to inform us on how to write a novel. Remember we are self-professed amateurs, and defiantly so! When we started talking about doing this over the summer, we had planned to read several books on how to write a book. This entailed picking out titles such as the Dummies books and other similar gems, but we quickly found that most of them consisted of common sense advice, were more than a little boring, and frankly were far too lengthy. We wanted something that cut right to the heart of the matter and threw out all the filler. As such we have adopted Stephen King’s On Writing as our bible for all things writing. It’s a lean 288 pages, and really only half of that is devoted to the nitty gritty. We figure he’s done pretty well for himself, so he must know a thing or two. As such we combed over his formula and adapted it to our needs and abilities. Nice and simple.

#2 – The Web, Etc.: To detail our journey and present our findings along the way, we wanted to group our blog, Twitter, and Facebook outlets in one place. That way you don’t have to go from site to site to see our latest musings. To accomplish this miraculous feat we developed a site using Flavors.me. This service allows you to create a simple web site that is clean and elegant, and most importantly allows you to group all of your outlets in one place. To know all things ePublish or Bust you simply have to go to www.epublishorbust.com and you can take everything in at once. (Note: If you’re coming to the blog via the Library Journal article, be sure to visit our home page for the whole kit and caboodle).

So the bottom line, and our pledge to you as we hurtle ourselves into the unknown, is that we will keep all of this as simple as possible. Remember, if you can’t trust two individuals who discarded the Dummies books for being too involved to keep things simple, then who can you trust : )

One of the things we plan on doing here at ePublish or Bust on a weekly basis, is discussing the many goings on in the ePublishing landscape. As a librarian, I'm particularly interested in the way libraries and publishers are dealing with each other. With that in mind, there's a story out today that is a perfect illustration of why Phyllis and I are embarking on our little project.

It appears that Random House has just drastically increased their pricing model on ebooks, which in all likelihood will make purchasing their products cost prohibitive for most libraries. As this article from Library Journal details, an ebook that was $40 only days ago is now $120. One of my colleagues mentioned this to me yesterday at lunch, and sure enough our chief non-fiction selector called me up this morning in utter shock that she was coming across skyrocketing prices.

As far as I'm concerned Random House has every right in the world to do this. They are a business and if they feel that this is the path to good returns then that's how they must proceed. Naturally reactions are going to be strong among interested parties, ranging from displeasure to outrage. Given what we hope to accomplish with ePublish or Bust, from my perspective the timing of this development couldn't be more perfect.

There has to be a better way to make the most of the changes taking place in publishing. What we hope to do is work directly with authors and publishers, giving everyone a shot at reaching a readership. We want to get more books, by more authors in our catalog faster, and provide a forum for the authors to communicate directly about their works. The democratization of publishing, giving unknown authors a chance to readily launch their works into the world, is the new reality. There's no better place for them to come to produce, publish, and promote their works than the public library. We're going to create that place here, and show how it can be done.

Does this mean there's no place for the "Big Six?" Of course not. It just means that there's a lot of other people who have been invited to the party, and libraries are the logical place to help them get published and noticed. We can help Random House and the others as well, it's just more difficult (if not impossible) to do at $120 a pop during lean times.