Electronic Publishing for all?

Publicity, publicity, publicity; to repeat a now-famous maxim. If you have some words to share,in today’s electronic world, getting your own words online, into people’s Kindles, iPads or distributed through Amazon are the ways to do it. Recent publishing surveys high-light the slow decline in sales of traditional books, steady rise in electronic versions but the meteoric rise in self-published titles. Don’t forget, self-publishing could yield big financial returns! Do you want to find out more?

Clarborough & Welham IT Group have come together with local author, Kath Sutton, to promote her recent title, Clarborough & Welham since 1778. Kath’s book project is funded by Sharing Heritage from the Heritage Lottery fund. The book was released in August 2015 in conventional ‘hard copy’ but in conjunction with Clarborough & Welham IT Group is looking to produce e-book versions for distribution through Amazon.

The IT Group has also taken first steps to launch an associated website (www.clarborough-welham1778.btck.co.uk) which will be designed to explore the methodology that Kath used – and reflections on their use – during researching and creating her book. This will be aimed at researchers/authors who may follow similar local history paths to Kath in the future. Currently, the vast majority of self-published e-books fall into the fiction or fantasy categories, so our project is groundbreaking too.

Both of these projects, e-book publishing and website development are in their infancy. We are looking to form a small group based on Clarborough & Welham IT Group’s current provision to move these projects forward. This new group will be in addition to our usual groups which will continue as usual. The new group will include tuition in such key skills as conversion of word processed material into Kindle and iPad products, guidance on upload-ing such products to Amazon and related e-publishing topics. A second focus will be development of the above website. This will include not only structuring and developing the site content but also selecting relevant extracts from Kath’s book to illustrate these themes. This latter task will not only involve critical analysis of Kath’s book, but also extracting sections from our proof copy and conversion to pdf files which will be incorporated in the website.

An initial meeting, for anyone interested in getting involved in these projects, is scheduled for 15:15 on Tuesday 22nd September at Clarborough Village Hall. Anyone is welcome to this initial meeting although prior booking of your place would be appreciated. The meeting will start with a brief introduction by Kath Sutton before IT Group tutors explore possible ways forward for the group.

This could be of interest to anyone looking to develop any of the skills associated with e-publishing or website development as well as anyone with such skills who would like to help. For further information, or to pre-book your place at this initial meeting:

Contact Greg on (01777) 700 918 or e-mail clalrboroughwelham@gmail.com