Thursday, March 20, 2014

Syllabus and resources of interest

The Syllabus is now available here.  Thanks to the generous support of the University of Ottawa library the class will have the opportunity to use Open Journal Systems to create a class journal. More details will be provided at a later date.

Directory of Open Access Journals (2014). Press release on new application form for DOAJ journals. Retrieved March 20, 2014 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dr3jnOygvuDlONSBv8lho4McQsEPFd0a5gtxjCmKd9k/edit

Tools for book self-publishing

Following are some tools that appear to be promising if you are interested in book self-publishing. Note that I haven't checked into this in any depth and haven't actually self-published a book myself (at least, not yet). Comparing the options could be an interesting term paper topic.

PressBooks developed on WordPress platform. Free to use, or can pay from $10 for ebooks Pro (to remove PressBooks watermarks and covers some storage).  

Smashwords free publishing for authors / marketing system with revenue sharing with authors (you can make your books available for free as well). You can upload a book developed into Word for conversion into epub format.

Feedbooks based in France - supports multiple platforms.

Kobo - free to publish.  Converts files to epub format.

Lulu - free. Any format.

Calibre - free open source e-book management tool. Self-publishing option. 

ibooks author - Apple's free app for self-publishing books "for the ipad". I gather that books created with this tool are not available for non-ipad users.

Book Creator - tool for ipad. Free to create one book, cost to create more. Books published are optimized for ipad, may be available on other e-book readers such as Kindle and Nook.

Articles and items of interest

Canadian Urban Libraries Council / Conseil des Bibliothéques Urbaines de Canada work on ebooks and public libraries.

Leong, M. (2012). Self-publishers can't afford humility. The National Post. Retrieved May 2, 2014 from  http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/12/14/self-publishers-cant-afford-humility/
(alternative title: how my self-published book became a Canadian bestseller in six months)

Canada Council for the Arts. n.d. Writing and publishing. Retrieved May 2, 2014 from http://www.canadacouncil.ca/writing-and-publishing.aspx  - describes grant program and awards for Canadian writers and publishers; blog may be of interest.

The Canadian Authors' Association. FAQS: publishing.  Retrieved May 2, 2014 from http://canadianauthors.org/national/faq/

Magazines Canada. How to start a magazine. FAQ for new and would-be publishers. Retrieved May 2, 2014 from http://www.magazinescanada.ca/resources/start_a_magazine