Almost Published

Internet Archive:
To upload our ebook to the Internet Archive, we simply need to select the file and then fill in some simple metadata.  I don't think there is anything too complicated here. I am assuming that we can simply upload our book in the epub format.  I can't find where it says otherwise...

Feedbooks:
If we want to upload our book to Feedbooks, we're going to have to practically recreate the whole book.  They don't allow to upload a book that has already been created.  I don't know if it is going to be worth doing this since we've worked so hard already on creating great formatting.

Scribd:
We could totally publish our book on Scribd!  It's simple--just upload the epub format and that's that!


Kindle:
See my previous post for a more in-depth look at Kindle publishing.

Becoming Digiliterate: Marketing Our Ebook

Sad sad SAD, I am so sorry that we never got around to advertising this bad boy!  That's one of my fave things to do, and with my job, I kind of know how to go about marketing.  Here are a few ideas of social media marketing strategies that I hope are helpful, and who knows?  Maybe this thing will make it big!

• Facebook.
• Your best friend.  Create a page for the ebook, and list it under the "book" category.  Make the cover the profile picture, but then be sure to make the cover picture something with PEOPLE in it, preferably a group picture of the class or something.  This will make the page seem less like an advertisement and something that people who know class members will want to know more about. 
• Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words...and people like them way more than a thousand words.  Document the progress of your ebook with pictures and post them as it progresses.  This will create anticipation for the final project and people will be more likely to check it out once it's done.  Maybe they'll even ask you guys about it!
• Invite EVERYONE to be a part of the group or to like the page.  They probably will.  Then once they do, they'll receive all of your updates.  Be sure to invite author pages or people who will have an interest in the project to like the page.  (Like, if the Provo Library has a Facebook page, invite them.)
• Post like, 2 or 3 times a week.  Post questions, polls, etc. (things that generate participation).  
• Like other people's stuff and comment AS THE PAGE (this will be better if everyone in the class is made an administrator/contributor.) Be sure that you only comment or like things that you WANT the ebook to be associated with.  For example, like and comment on BYU's page, or write on their wall or something.  But don't go liking offensive images or things like that, especially when you're on as the ebook.
• Instagram
• You can use Instagram to post to Facebook.  Create an Insta account that the class has the username and password to so that they can post related images and gain a good following from their personal friends.  
• Instagram makes pictures cool and also incorporates hashtags really well, so use hashtags like #literacy, #byu, #english, #digiliteracy, etc.  and your posts will come up whenever anyone searches one of those.
• Use apps like Like4Likes or other apps that you can download.  These basically just get random people to like your pictures, but the pics with the more likes show up the most on Instagram when people click on the little magnifying glass.  Also, it'll get you a lot more followers.  Since this book is something that is easily downloadable, it can get popular wherever and isn't confined to a nearby audience, like a local business or something would be.
• Put a link in your bio.  Either to the Facebook page or where it's available for download or the class blog.  There are no hyperlinks on individual posts, so say "Link in bio" after a post if you want to direct your audience somewhere else.
• Twitter
• Start a Twitter account under Becoming Digiliterate or something and USE THOSE HASHTAGS.  
• Follow a lot of people and they will follow you back
• Post questions and stuff to start discussions, but also the occasional funny meme or something.  People like humor.
• LinkedIn
• I'm not super familiar with this one, but it's great for finding professionals.  Most authors probably have a LinkedIn account, so get the students to make accounts and get in touch with them there.  
• Have them ask authors, professors, etc., to review the book and give their opinions.
• Goodreads
• Start a Goodreads page for the group!  Invite your friends and start discussions on the wall.  Give links to the Facebook page and where the book is available.  Participate in other discussions and  MAKE REFERENCES TO THE EBOOK. 
• Use Goodreads to post on Facebook
• Amazon
• Get people to review this thing on Amazon.  We know that the higher people rate it, the more it will be suggested.  Ask through all other media outlets for people to write reviews and rate your ebook.  ADVERTISE THAT IT IS FREE. People LOVE free stuff, no matter what it is.
• BYU
• Post flyers on the boards around campus for the social media accounts.  Tell them which hashtags to search.  Put them on the corkboards around the JKB, JFSB, the Wilk, wherever you want
• Use The Scoop.  Ask Tess Hauglid to put a plug in for the ebook in the Humanities newsletter that goes out once a week.
• Ask your professors and classmates to download and review the book.  Be proud of your work and they'll be impressed!
• Piggyback
• Reading in the Digital Age had quite a lot of downloads.  I'm not sure how to do this, but I bet it's possible to find out where those downloads came from.  Advertise Becoming Digiliterate as a sequel and available for free download.  You've already got an audience, so don't lose them!  They can be a really great place to advertise and will most likely read book 2.
• On the class blog
• I don't know if anyone really followed our blog, but there are ways to put "widgets" on the blog, or little pictures of the Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter logos that you can click on and they'll direct you to the respective pages.  Super helpful!  
• Put down contact info if people have questions.  Since the rest of the class will be leaving, this should be optional for them, but Dr. Burton should have his email or some way that readers can get in touch with him for more information.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was... Also Kind of Rough

So my Entry to English Studies class spent the majority of the semester collaborating to create an e-book about the movement of reading and literary study to platforms like Amazon, Goodreads, and the Kindle. If you are about to embark on a similar journey, here are a few tips based off my personal experience:

1. Our process was to first study these platforms through personal use, then choose a meaningful novel in our lives, and then use the novel to discuss a certain point about our e-book's subject matter. If I could do it over, I would have formed a table of contents for our book as a class before we ventured out on our own to find topics. I felt stressed not really knowing which points I should address for the good of our book, and forming the table of contents after having chapters formed is an awkward process. I also would pick your subject matter before you pick your novel (if going this route), and would match your novel of choice to the things that the book as a whole require you include in your chapter.

2. Trust your peers. I learned a lot from reading my classmate's chapters.

3. I don't know how to exactly avoid this, but try your hardest to divide the work load evenly. Also, I hate Calibre with a fiery passion, so I personally would not suggest using that platform to create the e-book. Though, I only had this assignment once, and am told that it was harder because I was using a Mac. It took 10+ hours to create a version of the e-book that we only looked at once before creating the next build. I don't think it's necessary to create a new build with each new round of chapters, so I would also suggest creating one build every two, three, or even four weeks. That being said, it could be tempting to just create an iBook because it is so easy, but I think it is really worth it to create an e-book that can be read on the Kindle.

Overall, I think collaborative learning has its benefits. The fact that we created an e-book as a class of eight and a professor that can now be published is incredible. I will continue to reference our book for many years, and am overall very grateful for the experience.

Learning From Experience

When I learned on the first day of class that we would be curating an ebook and then actually publishing I almost could not believe it. But Dr. Burton our English professor had proof that the impossible had been done by a previous class in their ebook, Writing About Literature in the Digital Age. So from their example we began our own process to publishing our own ebook Becoming Digiliterate.

We had a prompt to write about a piece of literature and relating it to what we find on three digital literature platforms: the Kindle, Goodreads, and Amazon. We blogged about those ideas that we had, and then we each individually further developed the best ideas into chapters.

Then came one of the harder parts, putting all of our ideas into a working table of contents through this blog. This was useful for ideas, but eventually during class we were able too discuss our two chapters and decide on which part of the book it fit in: Find, Read, Connect, and Create. This seemed to be most effective.

At first we were doing most of the writing and blogging from our own separate homes and other than the blog we had no communication amongst us until class time. We all downloaded the WhatsApp app, and we were able to send text messages to a group text. We also had been using the Google docs and been sharing those files under folders as one of our classmates compiles the ebook. Google drive
was mostly effective, but there were some glitches in sharing.

Overall I would say that the ebook is worth the price. Through the writing process I was able to learn so much more about the three platforms we wrote about, and also To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee that was my focus of my two chapters. My whole opinion on digital literature has changed, and our ebook can also help other students and avid readers feel the same.

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!

The Worth of a Project

Group projects are hard.

I think that at some point in every person’s life, they’ve had one of those group projects that make them never want to work with another person ever again. When I was told at the beginning of this semester that I would be working with the rest of my nine-person class to create an ebook about digital literature together, I agreed on the outside, but on the inside I was cringing.

A whole semester for a group project… I was definitely prepared for the worst.

At first I think it was difficult, everyone had their own ideas of what should and shouldn’t be included, how it should be formatted, who was in charge of what, as well as so many other issues. But as we began to actually communicate with each other and realize the importance of (the dreaded) peer editing process, we began to learn and grow together as a class instead of trying to learn individually, which would have failed. While it stretched us all, the fact that we had to rely on and help each other ultimately created unison throughout our ebook while still maintaining each individual identity and opinions. The work wasn't always evenly distributed, and this did cause some issues, but we had some kick butt people who really took their work into stride even when they were overwhelmed. This project never would have worked though if each of us hadn't buckled down and opened ourselves up to criticism and critique from our professor but also each other.

My class' whole purpose was to create an ebook about studying literature in the digital age. In some ways our project helped me with this concept, and in other ways I felt it took away from it. While our ebook as a whole definitely shows ways that digital literary study can be furthered, I did feel as though we focused so much on individual aspects of this concept that I barely actually got to put these theories into use. But I do believe that this ebook will be able to help me, as well as others, as we make the transition from classic literary studies to digital literary studies. And I don’t believe that it’s a “one or the other” situation, I think it is possible that both digital and classic can work hand in hand if we let them.

For myself, this project taught me the value of letting others read my work. I hate sharing my work before I believe it's perfect, and this forced me to. I learned that some situations require me to work with others, and this made me take interest in their works as well. And I also learned that my opinion can matter out there with this new turn of the digital age.

So what began as a social nightmare in my eyes, ended as a project well worth my time that taught me not only about digiliteracy, but also the value of a group project done well.

Evaluating the class, and the project, and the everything.

How does one begin to evaluate a group project honestly, in a place where the entire group can see it and know exactly who said it? Perhaps timidly, or with only praise. It can be difficult to be honest when your anonymity is taken from you. It is as Oscar Wilde said, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

So with that in mind, when it comes to this project I will say what Slaughterhouse Five's protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, desired to have on his Tombstone: