Friday, May 11, 2012

Self-Publishing, Kindle, The Printed Blog


Now that I have finished school, I have been happily turning my garden, getting it ready for planting, which I dearly love, and it is form of meditative, creative therapy for me, where I can reconnect with the earth, my soul and with the God of my understanding.
 
I often listen to CBC radio while I'm outside digging. I learn so much from the variety of CBC Radio programing. It's always been this way, growing up we listened to the radio as a family and individually as a great source of entertainment and knowledge.

A few days ago while digging in the soil, I heard a woman talking about how she'd written and self-published books online, through Amazon Kindle. I thought wow that's wonderful, and I wished I could do that! I was also thinking it wouldn't be possible for me to publish my blog through Kindle because I didn't think blogs would be accepted. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised to find out I could, and I would be published! I really am not certain what their criteria is, in deciding who gets published or not. I did write Kindle, inquiring what the criteria is, but haven't heard back as of yet. 

The satisfaction of self-publishing is very appealing for the talented or regular schmo, simply wanting to share their own personal stories and we all have one or even  many to tell. Too often we believe we don't have a story worthwhile sharing, but I have come to realize that we can never underestimate how our own story can help someone else.

One of the obvious advantages of self-publishing I would think, is avoiding the daunting obstacle course, hurdles that lie ahead, and the rigors of having to face rejection after rejection, from various publishing companies, not to mention the financial burdens that exist for many of us in the creative field. 

A few years back on CBC radio I also learned about The Printed Blog which is a really attractive idea to me. Founder, Josh Karp believes there is great online content out there and bloggers should be remitted accordingly. He is committed to the idea of the printed word, in hard copy publishing, as a magazine/newspaper.
Time will tell if this idea is going to fly. I sure hope it does! The Printed Blog was up and running for about a year and then he was forced to shut the operation down due to financial issues and now he has started up again with a renewed vision. I sure wish him well and the very best of luck.

During Tim Jahns' interview of Karp with Entrepreneurs Unplugged, entitled, What Josh Karp Learned As Founder of The Printed Blog, Karp impresses me as being the kind of entrepreneur the business world is in need of, one who believes in people, with a positive attitude, full of imagination and resiliently enterprising.

I  strongly believe in the power of the printed word, however why can't we have both on and off line? We all have to use our own intelligence and discernment in deciding what is valuable and factual truth, regardless of the sourced media  material we choose.

Bloggers and journalists, according to Josh Karp, are very enthusiastic about his endeavor. I believe we are redefining our ideas and notions of what journalism, and  publishing means. I think this is a good thing.

2 comments:

Promoting Kindle said...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. You're right. I do believe that the publishing industry has changed, and as writers we need to learn how to change with it. The trend has changed from traditional books to the eBook and Amazon is leading the way. The retail giant recently announced that Kindle books have officially overtook paperbacks for the first time.

Unknown said...

PK,

Thank you so much for your feedback! It's very affirming to hear some opinion about these kinds of some what controversial topics. We all have our fears of the unknown and it puts me in mind of when computers first appeared on the scene. Yes I am old enough to remember how many of us thought computers would be the beginning of the end of all that was holy!

I still relish browsing through bookstores and love the smell of a new book. However I love the instant connection of having an online presence with writers and readers like yourself to engage in this kind of discourse and discussion!

Thank you again for taking the time to read and write!

Catherine