If you buy the paperback edition of Beverly Williams’ new-adult, science-fiction thriller, romance Survival Kit’s Apocalypse, we will send you a free copy of the digital edition.
Aaron Barnhart is a true community leader and an advocate for learning, teaching and developing self-publishing. Over the past three years, Barnhart has been building a relationship with Mid-Continent Public Library, which serves three counties near Kansas City, Missouri.
His relationship with MCPL began when the library approached him and his wife—co-founders of the history-based press Quindaro Press—about leading local history courses.
“But in discussions with staff I knew they were starting to develop their curriculum and were looking for someone to teach self-publishing,” said Barnhart.
It was then that he began teaching classes twice a year at Woodneath Library, the home of MCPL’s Story Center.
“For the first year of the class I mostly taught using tools that we had used to produce books over the years—high-end software like InDesign and Photoshop,” cites Barnhart.
However, it was his introduction to PressBooks that sparked a new idea.
“I had actually used the paid version of PressBooks already, and liked it. But it wasn’t until MCPL offered it for free to its patrons that I entertained the idea of what if we did everything through PressBooks?”
He began testing that idea, and was able to produce the exact same products through PressBooks with ease. First came an advance review copy of a book using the Print PDF export feature; next, taking that same PressBooks document and outputting it as an EPUB file for digital use on platforms like Smashwords and Kindle.
“It was a 100% compliant eBook that looked good the very first time. Try doing that on InDesign!”
Barnhart teaches two classes at Story Center: one on production, another on sales. During the latter course Barnhart often points aspiring authors to SELF-e, a platform that makes it easy for writers to submit works through their local libraries. The eBook then becomes available to local patrons and all submissions are considered for becoming a “SELF-e Select” title, which are digitally distributed in libraries across the U.S. and Canada.
Barnhart sees these softwares, offered for free through public libraries, as a public service for self-expression.
“When people are looking to tell their stories, they go on the Internet, and there are increasingly bombarded with webinars and books to buy from ‘self-publishing experts’,” notes Barnhart. “[People] should not have to pay money to some huckster to learn how to communicate through the medium of the written word. I reject the narrative that the free market is the only source a person can turn to when learning how to make things.”
Barnhart also sees these classes as an opportunity to create community through his local library, and beyond.
“The virtual world is increasingly being monetized,” Barnhart remarked, pointing to platforms like Facebook where “reach” comes at a price.
“That’s why libraries, with their mission to act as a public square, are so vital. They are committed to offering authors and creators a chance to gather with audiences at no cost.”
For Barnhart, combining low-stress, no-cost book production through PressBooks and a means to distribute through SELF-e is an impactful one-two punch. As he put it: “Pairing BiblioLabs’ [products] with public libraries is a natural fit for aspiring storytellers to learn the art of growing an audience.”
To learn more about BiblioLabs and our community engagement products, contact us today.
I really love my Kindle, so I was wondering if I could do this. The answer is YES.
If you have a kindle, go to ‘content and devices’ on you amazon account. Then choose the settings tab, and at the bottom there will be an email address for your kindle device. You also need to authorize an email address the kindle can receive emails from.
Now go to AO3, and click the download button on the fic you want. From there select the .mobi format
Download the file, and send it to you kindle email.
Then it will show up on your kindle as a document, but it reads just like any other book! YAY.
I assume that if you are reading an unfinished fic, you might have to delete from the device and then send again when updated.
But honestly, one of my big barriers to reading long fics whether done or stull in progress is just getting the time to get started, and being able to put it on a reading device will sure help.
To expand upon the topic of “how to read your favorite fan fiction on your ereader and/or tablet” post…
There is a free program - regularly updated and absolutely wonderful - for ebook management called Calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com/ ) which allows you to add books, tag them however you want to, and organize them so you can keep downloaded copies of your favorite fan fictions or ebooks organized and at the ready. Calibre comes with a variety of plugins for creating covers, downloading books, adding books… there’s even a plugin for downloading fan fiction from sites other than AO3. The best bit is that via Calibre you can load any book file from it onto just about any ereader or tablet you can think of. Have a Kobo - sideload with Calibre! Have a Kindle - sideload with Calibre!
And if you search the internet for Calibre plugins you can even find ones to help you with organizing other ebooks you have from whatever source you can think of. Calibre is an excellent book management program.
