Our Self-Publishing Experiment

Ever heard that old adage about “too many cooks in the kitchen?”  I definitely thought about that when Dr. Burton proposed the idea to create a class ebook to us.  How were nine very different people supposed to create an ebook that was cohesive, informative, and would be effective?  Well…I learned!  This project has been challenging for all us, and there have been both good and bad aspects of it. 

First, the good.  I learned SO MUCH about self-publishing that I had never known.  I loved being able to use current social sources, not only stuffy scholarly articles that used big words and doctorate degrees to prove their points.  I liked that the Average Joe can contribute and be a valuable voice today.  It also helped me feel like all the time I spend on social media is not wasted; it’s research!  So that was good for my conscience.  I liked how many times we had to edit our individual chapters, and the great feedback that we were able to give each other.  I’m someone who likes to write and considers everything perfect after the first draft, so while it was a blow to my ego to have to go through my own stuff so many times, it was good for me!  I also found myself invested in the chapters of my fellow classmates.  This was a project that affected all of us, and I wanted them to succeed just as much as I wanted to do well myself! 

Then there were struggles.  I don’t think that the work was divided up fairly with this project.  Some people had to spend long hours compiling and editing everything, while others had nothing to worry about over the weekend.  I also think that if we had been editing each others’ work from the very beginning, there wouldn’t have been a need for so many drafts and different versions.  Everyone was also on different schedules with a million activities going on in their lives, so getting all the chapters in to be edited by their due dates was hard as well.  That’s just something that collaborative efforts have to deal with though.

Overall, this project was good for me.  I think that our book, Becoming Digiliterate, was a worthwhile effort and I liked putting the things into practice that we learned in the classroom.  I think that other classes should do this project as well!  Maybe start it a bit sooner so there isn’t such a time crunch at the end, but experience is the best teacher!