So You Think You Can Write: The Everyman Answer to Your Potential Publishing Needs

By Shannon Owens, Reference Department

The Technology Age is upon us, ladies and gents! Anything you could ever desire is at your fingertips, rendering third parties nearly obsolete when it comes to food delivery (Seamless, Uber Eats) and retail shopping (Amazon, StitchFix). Now it’s extended into the wonderful world of publishing! ePubs and PDFs are part of our everyday vernacular, and self-publishing has become a rather commonplace alternative. You can see the draw: who needs to find a rare (and potentially expensive) agent at a major publishing house?

Who needs to have a 1,000 pound printing press stowed away in their basement? Why, nobody at all! In fact, being a member of our library gives you access to online software that allows you to publish your own book(s)!

Pressbooks allows you to create professional-quality EBook and print-ready files of your book in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats. You can write and edit your books without any worry of coding or graphic design: neither is required here. Pressbooks has several themes and formats to choose from, but it won’t take any ownership over your newly minted masterpiece! Already started writing your book? They’ve got you covered there, too! You can copy and paste each chapter into the Pressbooks format or you can upload your entire document from Microsoft Word.

Here’s how to get started with Pressbooks:

  • Visit our library website here
  • Toggle over the eLibrary drop down link and click on Pressbooks Self-Publishing on the far right side of your screen
  • Click “Connect Via Your Local Library” (the big blue button in the middle) which will direct you to the BiblioBoard homepage
  • You’ll need to create a profile: click on “Get Started Now”

Now that you’ve knocked out the basics, it’s time to get down to business! You’ll be prompted to add your book information: title, pub date, cover, etc. Most of these data entry spaces are optional, so keep that in mind if you’re still unsure on the details of the book. The main BiblioBoard page allows you to edit data, organize chapters (Main Body), and create a preface (Front Matter) or bibliography (Back Matter), etc. This same page gives you the ability to choose from twenty themes to make your book aesthetically pleasing and uniquely you! When all is complete, every “I” dotted and every “T” crossed, you can export your latest work. Worried this may be difficult? Fear not, the export process involves one button! Can you guess what that button reads? Yep, “Export”…tough stuff, I tell you!

What are you waiting for? Go get signed up and start writing (uh, well, typing) today! This program is absolutely free and one of the best resources for budding authors that our library has available. More questions? Check out Pressbooks’ YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/pressbooks


Sources:

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About WCPLtn

The Williamson County Public Library System seeks to meet the recreational, educational, and information needs of county patrons through: a significant collection of digital and print materials housed at a network of countywide locations headquartered in Franklin; extensive personal computer and related technology; and diverse and interesting programs targeted to various age groups.

Posted on September 7, 2018, in Hot Topics, Library Services and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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