The YourBookBiz Revolution Starts in Telluride:

Community Publishing 101

                             By R. J. Rubadeau

We all have a manuscript tucked away. Often it is already written. Mine is, and I’m poised for the next step. The transition from the writing life, when you went to work in your pajamas and played with imaginary friends all day, to the hard knuckled editor, business type, bean counter looking to bring a product to market is a whiplash. The Wilkinson Public Library, The Telluride Writer’s Guild, Between The Covers Bookstore and Sirius Publications are joined by the web based platform of Telluride Inside…And Out to bring a free reality based seminar/webinar/blog on bringing a finished manuscript to the world market for sale by next Christmas. Beginning Wednesday January 6^th at 6 p.m. in the Wilkinson Library Program Room, this locally led web-based interactive journey will chronicle each step along our plan to bring the first Telluride Murder Mystery from finished manuscript to publication. The Telluride community is encouraged to join this unique local partnership and support this revolutionary new experiment in the book business.

Our collective rights to free expression are evaporating under a smokescreen of corporate profits. In 1980 there were more than eighty significant publishing houses in the United States. Today there are six. Rupert Murdock has a 25 % share. The traditional book distribution system is in upheaval. Finding an agent and a publisher when two hundred thousand new manuscripts each season are competing for the opportunity is not for the weak at heart or the impatient. Compromises with the marketplace fuel the decisions of the book industry. How do you and I, as writers and readers, preserve the integrity and diversity of the published word? How do we assure that our community’s creative voice will have the opportunity to be heard?

The first in a series of four hour long seminars will describe the process of publication and outline the wide menu of options available today. Each step from editing and releasing the final draft/galley text, to finding a publisher/printing company, designing the interior and cover, doing market research and preparing a marketing plan, finding a national distributor, establishing a standard media campaign, building a web site and internet outreach strategy, finding and attending book promotion events, tracking sales, and establishing your own publishing company will be explored in real time between seminars on the Telluride Inside…And Out web page under the YourBookBiz© banner. Participants are encouraged to follow the step-by-step progress with their own project in mind (or in hand). Many optional opportunities will be made available for communal critiques and friendly editing of your own works-in-progress either on-line at the Telluride Inside…And Out blog or following each seminar.

Each week a series of tasks and projects with the ultimate goal of a published book on the shelves in nine months will be researched, discussed, accomplished and checked off. Each Sunday, beginning with a launch date in early January, a section of Gatsby’s Last Resort: A Telluride Murder Mystery will be posted for final editing, critique and author approved revisions. Links to the latest writing, editing and publishing resources will be posted, maintained and researched as we explore all the internet help sites available. Breaking news from the Print-On-Demand and small house/self-publishing industry will also be posted for discussion. Each active participant in the process, either editing, researching, or value added blogging will be acknowledged and credited in the final book.

Our local partnership members hope that the primary outcome of this year-long project will be a growing and better prepared community of soon to be published artists that will be supported, read, and encouraged in their efforts by their friends, neighbors and readers across the world. Everyone that links to our project’s website, whether local or global, will share and participate in the entire journey of this groundbreaking effort. Come out and see what’s happening on Wednesday and be a part of Community Publishing 101.