It's Almost NaNoWriMo!
Time to Offer Your Community Authors Virtual Creativity Tools!
Pressbooks allows writers to easily create professional-quality ebooks that can then be "published" to Wisconsin Digital Library's BiblioBoard,
In your community, around the state, throughout the country, and around the world, budding authors are priming their pens to create their own fabulous works of fiction during National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)!
For nearly 20 years, the annual event has given writers a communal nudge with the challenge to write at least 50,000 words of a novel during the 30 days of November. The non-profit program has encouraged libraries to host write-ins and events to foster local communities of creative writers, and they offer programming ideas, graphics, and resources on their Come Write In page. Today, October 11, NaNoWriMo offers an online workshop for aspiring authors to help them achieve success creating a novel in one month.
But did you know that Wisconsin public libraries now have a place for local works to be made available to all Wisconsin residents? Biblioboard is part of the Wisconsin Digital Library, made possible through the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium, a cooperative project of Wisconsin's sixteen public library systems, with funding provided by the DPI from an LSTA grant provided through the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
The Biblioboard project also includes licensing for any resident in Wisconsin to use Pressbooks, a user-friendly tool to create and format ebooks and PDFs for publication. See the article from July 6, 2018 describing the utility. Once the work is created and saved in ePub or PDF format, the work can be submitted through Library Journal's SELF-e program to be showcased in the Indie Wisconsin Statewide Collection on Biblioboard, and to also be considered for national exposure.
With Biblioboard and Pressbooks, you can easily host a "maker space" for local authors and aspiring writers. And NaNoWriMo provides an excellent opportunity to gather your writers and cultivate an ongoing relationship with some of the creative voices in your own community. Write On!
By John DeBacher, Public Library Development