Wiggling/Weaving

As I was sifting through the materials I found in the library using IUCAT and going through our textbook material, I came across a point that I thought was really interesting in Curriculum Connections Through the Library by Barbara K. Stripling,"But inquiry is much more than simply following a process. It is an essance of teaching and learning that places students at the heart of learning by empowering them to follow their sense of wonder into new discoveries and insights about the way the world works" (2003).

This project has really been a process of discovery. Even though I found a little information on creative writing and a couple of sites before I started this project, it still has been a journey--a seemingly incomplete journey since I didn't find the diversity of sources I'd hoped to find, to get to this point in the project.

I found a document on Purdue University's website for evaluating book sources; it is similar to the way in which we evaluate web resources. One must look at the author's authority, reliability, and credibility. Also one should look at the perspective of the author--does the author express a particular point of view? Does the source appear to be biased? Is it directed toward a particular audience? Also, one must look at the purpose of the piece. Is the piece meant to inform, persuade, or explain?

Similarly, this is how a creative writing workshop is run and how students evaluate and respond to their classmates work.

Because I had several book sources to sort though, I could only skim through them briefly. I pulled out some key points and put them into a powerpoint slide. I will be discussing publication possibilities with my family since I plan to try to publish a story or two that I've been working on. My main question was what steps were needed in order to publish. These sources were helpful in pointing that out. I learned that going through a big name publishing company may not always be the best way to go, particularly for first time authors.

Wiggling/Weaving

I am working on sorting through all of the book material that I found using an evaluation tool I found on Purdue University's website and bookmarked on the delicious website.

http://www.lib.purdue/rguides/studentinstruction/evaluation/bookevaluationcart.html

What was really interesting in one of the books titled, Publishing With Students: a Comprehensive Guide by Chris Weber was that when "publishing" students' work, you don't necessarily have to go through a publishing company. Teachers can scan pictures, edit the story for grammar, and make the books themselves. Also, there are different styles for publishing the books other than the standard style--there is the accordion book, the fan book, and the flag book. And kids love to see their work in book form.

Also, there are websites for publishing kids work. As I mentioned before, Scholastic has a contest for students to submit their work for publishing called, "Kids Are Authors." The resource library for the School of Education at IUPUI has several of these books, which I am including a few pictures of in the PowerPoint Presentation I am in the process of putting together.

This project has taken me a lot more time that I would have thought it would and I am still trying to piece all of the information I have gathered into something that is going to make sense to others.

Webbing/Wiggling

Just a few thoughts...

I have collected a some websites using the bookmarking site, Delicious. Many are different self-publishing sites, 3 or so publishing sites for publishing student work, and 2-3 content evaluation sites.

I also uploaded a document named Creative Writing Subject Guide to Google docs. It is the pathfinder I created last semester for my references class. I haven't "shared" it with anyone since I need to enter e-mail addresses. Instead, I clicked get the link and made it open to everyone so I think if you go to the google docs webpage, anyone should be able to open it. I think.

I'm working on a PowerPoint presentation as part of my finished product for this project. I want to take some pictures of some books I checked out from the Curriculum Resource Center--books that were written by kids. I was thinking that would be nice to accompany the youth portion of the PowerPoint on publishing.

Also, I'm slowly making my way through the books I check-out on publishing. Hopefully I will have it all done by tomorrow afternoon and I can be putting the final touches of my project no later than Sunday afternoon. But I might be pushing the deadline just a bit.

Also, I did create a webpage and uploaded it to the school's server as part of a requirement for SLIS S401. Since the webpage is about creative writing, I thought it might be something nice to include; one thing on the page is a partial draft of a story I've been working on, but have yet to finish.

Webbing

A few things...

First of all, thank you to Dawn Musolino for posting the information on publishing works by children in the oncourse forum. I appreciate the feedback. Those websites are:

http://www.studentreasures.com
http://askaboutmybook.com


Secondly, I was able to find some more resources, which at first glance, look very interesting and even helpful in getting work published, especially for first time authors. Here is the list of books I found:

Balkin, R. (1994). A Writer's Guide to Book Publishing. New York: Plume.

Blanco, J. (2000). The Complete Guide to Book Publicity. New York: Allworth Press.

Clark, G. (2001). Inside Book Publishing (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.

Mettee, S. B. (Ed.). (1997). The Portable Writers' Conference: Your Guide to Getting and Staying Published. Fresno: Quill Driver Books.

Weber, C. (2002). Publishing With Students: a Comprehensive Guide. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Wiggling

I'm not sure if this works (let me know either way) but here is the link to an article I found about book publishing, specifically Random House publishing company.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=iulib_iupui&tabID=T003&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=40&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3427200226&&docId=GALECX3427200226&docType=GALE&role=

I found this article through the database, Gale Virtual Reference Library. I think it contains some great information, just not exactly what I was looking for. I've been trying to find information on the means of publishing--sort of information on the "how to" but I haven't found much.

I also found an article about the history of publishing, but again, that wasn't what I was looking for either. I have yet to check out the books suggested to me by the librarian as I haven't had a chance to get up to the stacks and look. Hopefully I can spend my Friday afternoon browsing and then get started on analyzing some of them that hopefully are what I need.

I feel like I haven't been able to do this project justice because I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like and also because I haven't been able to find the information I am looking for.

If you have any thoughts on the matter, I would love to hear them!!!

Webbing

I contacted someone in the IUPUI Unversity Library this evening to find out if the main library houses any resources on publishing. I used the Ask a librarian chat function as my medium. In response to my inquiry, "Rosie" told me that resources can be found on the 4th floor in the stacks, Z551 - 656. I asked about other types of sources but I had to leave an offline message.

I've been contacted by a couple of publsing companies I've looked into but they are basically self-publishing companies who provide assitance to publish a manuscript without the use of an agent. The fees vary depending on services requested and number of copies requested.

Right now Im feeling a bit frustrated and overwhelmed by this project. I feel like I'm not finding enough information to meet the requirements for this assignment and there isn't enough time to keep digging, especially since I have to budget my time between other assignments for this class, another class, and I also have work.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions they care to share?

Webbing

When I searched, "kids are authors," one particular website popped out at me--Scholastic.com. Scholastic Book Fairs hosts an annual competition for Grades K-8 designed for kids encouraging them to use their creative skills to create their own book. The link to this website is http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/contest/kaa_about.asp

A couple of other promising sites are:
http://www.kidsread.com
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/authors/

As far as publishing books for young adults, I'm still kind of wondering where to go with it. I've been searching but so far I haven't found a whole lot besides what I've already mentioned. I did find, using IUPUI's catalog, a book titled, Publishers Directory but it isn't available on this campus--I have to request it from another IU library but when I tried to put in the request for the more recent editions, I kept getting a message that the item does not qualify for hold. I was able, however, to successfully request the 5th edition (1984). Within IUPUI's reference section, there is a book titled, Literary Market Place. It gives information for different publishing companies, including e-mail addresses, but if a person is unsure which company is the best one to meet their needs, I'm not sure how useful this book is since it's like the yellow pages--lists names of the companies with contact information and a little bit about the company.

So far, I have not found any useful journal articles within any of IUPUI's databases.

Anyone have any ideas?