[P/p/?]ublishing

April 19, 2012

One of the interesting conversations that has emerged from ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group (DCWG) is a comparison of Publishing with a capital P and publishing with a lowercase p. Or, to be blunt, commercial Publishing vs. self-publishing. But is there something in the middle? Something between a capital P and a lowercase p?

What happens when an established author with prior Published works launches new self-published e-content? Bill Amend, creator of the FoxTrot comic strip, is launching a new series of Pad Pack ebooks collecting past strips. He built them using Apple’s free iBooks Author ebook editing software, which makes it very easy to create professional-looking digital content. Expect to see more like this from other Published authors as well.

For example, I was recently talking with an author who was visiting one of the schools I serve. As I drove him back to the airport, we chatted about ebooks. Despite being a Published author with a number of books in print, he was telling me that he had unpublished others sitting on a shelf that just hadn’t gotten picked up for one reason or another. These weren’t rejections based on the quality of the work, but mostly picture books that just didn’t fit into a Publisher’s schedule or current desires. Projects that the author had started for his Publisher based on specs that then changed (a book on spring . . . no wait, we need a book on friendship).

I encouraged the author to look into iBooks Author as a way to bring the books to market anyway. It would be self-publishing with a lowercase p, but from an author with an established capital P Publishing reputation. When I explained that Apple took a 30% cut, he was initially horrified; then he realized that his Publisher takes an 85%–90% cut. Looking to self-publishing might be an answer for established authors looking to tap their backlist, branch out into a new genre, or just wanting to connect more directly with readers.

And libraries should be encouraging this. While we continue to work with Publishers, there is no reason we cannot also work to build strong relationships with Published authors who are publishing other works. Who will be the first to contact Bill Amend to arrange for FoxTrot Pad Packs in your library?

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[P/p/?]ublishing

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