Wondering

So, as I said before, I've found a couple of useful web sources on publishing. But I was thinking about publishing, from a kid's perspective. If I were a student interested in writing and publishing, or if I were a teacher and wanted my class to write a book, either as a whole, or in groups, how would I get started? Would I let the students form their own groups according to what they are interested in writing about? There are a few things to consider as well. Art--do I allow some students to do the writing and some to draw pictures to go along with the story? What about time requirements? How long should I allow the students to spend on this project? I know I've spent many hours writing a few pages and then many more hours revising that work. After the project is finished, there's the submission process. Do the students participate in this as well? Students should be aware at the start of the process that then end result is publication so a certain rubric would need to be defined and followed so the students are presenting their best work for publication.

Exploration

Seeing as how I'm interested in YA literature and publishing fiction for young adults, a good starting point would be to check out other books that have already been published and also try to find out information on publishing.

A few YA books that I have found intersting:

• The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
• The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
• The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
• The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

I did find a few websites that publish books for young adults when I was looking into what it would take to publish the story I was working on over the summer (but had to put on hold for Grad school) and one looked promising--Authorhouse publishing.

Author House is a self-publishing company. You pay X amount of dollars, depending on which package you want and the services you need and then you submit your manuscript. Someone at the publishing Company contacts you on your progress and is basically "an agent" for you throughout the process. Turns out, I have a distant relative that works at Author House. I was also contacted by another company but the services were different and the cost was more. I've yet to find something that is better that I don't have to pay out of pocket to get started.

Watching

I am unsure about this project but I suppose I should just go ahead and jump in with both feet. Thinking about things that are important to me, I would be interested in exploring more about creative writing. I was an English major as an Undergrad, with my concentration being creative writing. But also, I would be interested in exploring the publishing of creative writing, particularly for young adults and possibly the idea of kids as authors. I've seen books published that were writting by kids. The track I am on in the SLIS program is Media Specialist. I really enjoy working with young people and really want to work in a high school library. I am certain that exploring this topic will be beneficial down the road when students come to the library to find out more about writing and publishing. I think that one of the AASL standards that applies to this is 4.1.8, "Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning." Also, I believe that 1.1.2 also applies, "Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning."