Ebook+Project

="OUR VOICE" -Twin Lakes High School Interactive Media Ebook Project (2011-)=


 * = ===Spring 2013===

**Available for all Readers**

 * click here for pg with all readers** ||= === Fall 2012 ===

Available for all Readers
**click here for pg with all readers** || Available for Kindle Now accepting submissions ||
 * = [[image:ov4 kindle cover.jpg]] || [[image:amazon cover.jpg link="@https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/272747"]] ||
 * **Spring 2012** **Available for Kindle** [[image:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fwiaACF%2BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-53,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg caption="Our Voice, Volume 2" link="@http://www.amazon.com/Our-Voice-Volume-2-ebook/dp/B0081LHWNI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336657862&sr=1-1"]] ||= Fall 2011
 * ====**WHAT:** __An ebook series entirely written and edited by students__ (with teacher overrides, of course), which is __uploaded to the Kindle Store and sold wherever Kindles work__. Students who participate in either writing or publishing will receive royalties. (Royalties are actually cash prizes from a fundraiser [the ebook] and students have to join the extracurricular TL Writing Club to participate in the fundraiser in order to meet State Laws). Royalties collected past the end of the school year rollover into a scholarship fund for future participants.====
 * ====**WHAT:** __An ebook series entirely written and edited by students__ (with teacher overrides, of course), which is __uploaded to the Kindle Store and sold wherever Kindles work__. Students who participate in either writing or publishing will receive royalties. (Royalties are actually cash prizes from a fundraiser [the ebook] and students have to join the extracurricular TL Writing Club to participate in the fundraiser in order to meet State Laws). Royalties collected past the end of the school year rollover into a scholarship fund for future participants.====
 * ====**WHAT:** __An ebook series entirely written and edited by students__ (with teacher overrides, of course), which is __uploaded to the Kindle Store and sold wherever Kindles work__. Students who participate in either writing or publishing will receive royalties. (Royalties are actually cash prizes from a fundraiser [the ebook] and students have to join the extracurricular TL Writing Club to participate in the fundraiser in order to meet State Laws). Royalties collected past the end of the school year rollover into a scholarship fund for future participants.====

>> ** 2) To teach students how to publish their work using the new digital tools available to them, ** >> ** 3) To open students' minds to interesting career pathways they might not otherwise have been aware of. ** >>
 * ====**WHY**: ** 1) To get students interested in writing by making it relevant, **====
 * ====**HOW**: Free software available from the internet (2 pieces) and the Kindle DTP (free to anyone) via the Amazon website. NO cost to school system. **NOTE--** The Kindle DTP is continuously evolving. At the time of publishing our first edition, it had reached the point where the use of our Mobipocket software has become redundant and obsolete when publishing to Amazon's Kindle Store. C'est la vie. Still, Mobipocket has its uses-- if you plan to publish or distribute your ebook outside the Kindle Store, it is helpful for "test driving" the ebook. Calibre converts it to the generic EPUB format so you can redistribute the ebook to any nonKindle platform. You might also want to use Mobipocket and Calibre for in-house materials to be displayed on PCs or other electronic devices.====

Software Links**

 * 1) ====We are using the free "Mobipocket Creator for Publishers" available here.====
 * 2) ====We also use Calibre, available here.====

**Sites where we have/will publish:**

 * 1) ====The page to get you started at the Kindle store is here. Kindle is Amazon's eReader and the clear leader in the field. You need to do this one because Kindle and smashwords haven't fully integrated with each other yet.====
 * 2) ====The page to get you started at Smashwords is here. This allows you to hit everybody else, including Apple's Ibook store. Takes a little longer to get everything distributed and you'll need a paypal account to receive EFT payments from them, but you can hit all the major retailing sites in one shot. (excluding Kindle at the moment). There are a few great things here, too, beyond just publishing, like coupon codes, channel distribution, and more details than what KDP gives you. ====

__**NEWS on our current eBooks**__
====**Aug 21, 2013 - I have been asked to come and talk to a group of Purdue people (educators, professors, some professional ed. tech people-- not really sure) about integrating technology in education. Um...yeah, I'll be there.**====

====**Aug 20, 2013 - Volume 4 is out. We have about the same number of authors and pieces, but the page count is nearly double. Also, we had 54 students sign up for the TL Writing Club this year. That's 54 out of 700+/- students in the HS. That doesn't include the students from my Interactive Media class who will work on this year's ebooks. That's also about double of what we had last year at callouts and 5 times what we had sign up in 2011-12. We're firmly established, I think. Teachers now know we're about. The community is beginning to recognize that this exists and is growing. I've had several students ask when this year's first version will come out. We haven't even opened it for submissions yet!**====

====**Jan 13, 2013 - Volume 3 is finally out. 68 published pieces, 170 total submissions. Accepted work from grades 5-12 and from all abilities. This is officially a corporation wide, all inclusive writing project now. We've distributed pencils with coupon codes for free downloads to those who were accepted. We're quietly encouraging them to give the code out to others. It's about getting read at this point, not making a ton of money for them. So far, we've had as almost as many downloads in the first week after publication as we had in the first 2 months for the last two volumes.**====

====**Nov 21, 2012- It's official, we're now a corporation wide ebook! We have submissions for the November writing prompt from 5th graders, 8th graders, and High Schoolers. Now we have to read through them all. We asked for 500 words or so. One submission is nearly 5000! Just looking through the pile, 90% of which are typed, I see several staples. That's a good sign. Lots of excitement over this prompt. A few teachers have asked for an extension, which we can accommodate, but with everything else piling up, I'm not sure I can get this baby out BEFORE Christmas Break. Looking to add some artwork, too.**====

====**Nov 6, 2012- Lots of news today. We've chosen a cover.** Also, we've sent out an email to our entire corporation with our November "Write a Novel" prompt. We picked one that allows students of all ages to participate according to their abilities. We wanted to expand this to the MS first but what the heck? We've received very positive feedback from several teachers who liked the prompt so much that they're going to include it in some of their classes regardless of whether they submit to Our Voice. Also, our ads to encourage writers has hit a snag. Some of the clips from the kids were not allowed by administration, which was a good lesson to the kids on what is acceptable and what it not. Still, we will run ads to make kids aware of the ebook.====

====**October 12, 2012- I will be presenting a workshop at FETC in Orlando, FL, in January 2013-- showing how to build a writing culture in your school using ebook publishing.** Also, we came up with a great writing prompt for November's Write a Novel challenge. Can't share it here yet, but since I've shared it with my 8th grade communications classes, they're ALL writing like crazy people! At first, they freaked out because I told them we wanted somewhere around 500 words, but then, once they started writing, they forgot about the 'magic number' and went crazy. The tiny number of high schoolers we've told loved the idea too. I think we've got the piece de resistance for this upcoming ebook.====

====**June 14, 2012 - Mrs. K is teaching summer school and has graciously offered to collect writings from her students for a "summer school" edition.** With just her second prompt, we have 4 submissions already. Who would believe that kids in summer school would be interested in writing? Hint: WE WOULD!====

=

 * May 7, 2012- Second Volume is now out! 25 writers, 18 publishers. First edition was 16 writers, so we're moving in the right direction.** A girl stopped me today in the hallway. Another teacher (not part of the team) showed her class the amazon page on the classroom monitor after I sent out a corporation wide email (with link). The girl said she was really excited to see her name on it. Some students asked about the project and she explained it to them. The teacher added that this project was bigger than they realized. He told them how I was teaching the publishing end of it in my Interactive Media class while allowing fellow writers the opportunity to get published and be recognized for their talent. The girl was impressed with "all of [my] big ideas" and thought it was really cool that "we are able to do stuff like this." Too bad she's a senior and will never get to take my class. But she can see this little page with everything she needs to know to do it herself! Crossing my fingers-- hoping I'm helping to bring the next Shakespeare or Poe to the world stage.=====


 * May 1, 2012-** All writings collected from students. Working on the editing process now. Plan to publish within a week.


 * Apr 25, 2012** **-** So we had two challenges this semester to encourage kids to write. The first one was a Valentine's Day challenge: write about love. The second was the March Madness challenge, which was various prompts, one every school day for the entire month. Several students submitted multiple pieces. We've also had nearly a dozen random submissions-- pretty encouraging considering all the standardized testing they're doing, too.

==== **Mar 1, 2012 -** The first March Madness challenge today netted a complete poem within the first hour of its announcement. Scooby dooby doo! It was good too. Very colorful. At this rate, we will have seventy five submissions for the second edition of Our Voice. We're down to two cover art choices. And we're adding a page at Mrs. K's new website for the Writing Club. It will be much easier than our on-campus site, which the students have balked at because they have trouble sorting it out. I'll post a link to that page at a later date, when it's more than just a page. ====

====**Feb 25, 2012 -** Mrs. K has initiated a second writing challenge-- a March Madness challenge. She has done a great job encouraging students to submit work, and we have enough pieces to put out a second edition for this semester. I need to make a poster with the old cover and the new one (haven't chosen it yet, though) to promote the project. I read the piece from the 'Anonymous' student. Without knowing who wrote it, I have to say that there doesn't seem anything in there that is unpublishable and nothing that to me would seem embarrassing. Our building principal has seen it and liked it, so I guess we'll publish it. No word from Kindle Singles still. I'm sure they have a pile of submissions to go through. Looking at submitting "Our Voice" to NCTE for a rating-- give us some goals.====

==== **Feb 17, 2012 -** Mrs. K has a dozen submissions for her "love" writing assignment challenge. One student wants to present as anonymous because he's afraid that his reputation would be sullied if people knew that HE wrote such a thing. Sad. He should be proud of his work and proud that he can write. It's a shame that people are afraid to show their talent or intelligence to others. That's one of the things this project is supposed to help eradicate. So, what to do - accept and publish it, or deny it? ====

==== **Feb 12, 2012 -** No response from Kindle Singles yet. Mrs. K, one of the English teachers on this project, has challenged the kids to write about "love" since it's February. I haven't seen anything in my box, but she's getting submissions. She also found a thing about submitting student magazines to a national group of English Teachers. They rate them, which would give us a benchmark to work against (goals for improvement!) We may submit the second edition. Also, starting to look for a new cover. I've got my eye on two pieces of Student art on display down by our Main Office. Starting to think about a webpage for the project. ====

==== **Feb 10, 2012 -** Just finished spending two days with John Kuglin (check out his site [|here]) learning some cool new stuff. Also got to show colleagues from around our 11 School District Coop about our eBook project. One former teacher, two former colleagues, and one former student were there. Does that make me old? Anyway, John was the keynote speaker at FETC this year and talked about our project in front of 2500 education professionals. I hear we got a round of applause. He suggested today that I consider presenting my projects there next year! Wonder if my students will be as excited as me. ====

====**Jan 27, 2012**-- Working on getting our school's Course Guide into eBook format. Administration and counselors are very enthusiastic about this idea. I can never find the printed version anywhere in the building, nor can I find the web version easily. So... I'm going to FIX THAT PERMANENTLY. We're talking about doing the Student Handbook too, but since we have a contracted printer, we have to figure out the legalities.====

==== **Jan 22, 2012--** Just became aware of the "Kindle Singles" program. Submitted "Our Voice" for their consideration. If we get accepted, it could be huge. Their site says it takes up to two weeks for a decision and they're looking for fresh ideas. Cross your fingers. ====

====**Jan 16, 2012-- Article in the Lafayette paper. This is a regional paper with a larger circulation than our own local paper. (We still love our local!) GO THERE.** Response from community so far has been very positive. People are downloading the sample at a fairly regular clip and commenting on how much they love it. Students who "missed" publishing in the first edition are asking if there will be another this year because they really want in. We have decided to add a second edition for this year-- target date Easter weekend.====

====**Dec 24, 2011--** Article in the local paper. Front page, very nice write up. GO THERE**.**====

====**November 24, 2011--** First real problem: Students are leery to be the first ones to publish. They're afraid their work isn't good enough. I plan to add a foreword in the eBook and on the Amazon page stating that this is STUDENT work, not professional, and to keep that in mind when adding a review. Reinforcing the idea that participants are pioneers and that when everyone sees this project completed, they will all want to be a part of it. The first eBook will be a little thin, but the interest is definitely there. Lot of buzz in the building. Still on track for Christmas.====

====**October 15, 2011**-- We have our first two submissions from students via TLCampus (our school's Blackboard style system). We have settled on a name for the Project-- "OUR VOICE." We have several pieces of high contrast student artwork to look at for the cover. Will soon introduce Media students to the eBook publishing process.====