Monday, June 23, 2008

Wanna Know a Secret?


What is that picture on top all about? Let me tell you...

When I was a kid I used to love choose your own adventure books; but I frequently didn't like the adventure--I wanted to make my own.

Did you ever have that happen to you? Did you ever hate a book so much that you wanted to change it?! Well here's your chance.

A few years ago, I wrote a little book called The Library Tree. It is a whimsical library folktale of sorts, and now I'm giving it away! Some of you have already bought and read this book, and I thank you for your support; there's still a couple bound copies left, and if you'd really like one, then go to my Web store and buy it...but honestly, I'd be happier if you simply download and read it free and told all your friends about it!

The book is also licensed under the Creative Commons; you can edit it, change it, rewrite it...basically do whatever you want to it. The only thing you can't do is sell it for profit.

Why am I doing this? Call it an experiment, really. Plenty of people have started non-fiction Wiki efforts. How many people have started wiki fiction books? And this is the perfect book to start it with--it's short and it's a folktale (and folktales are frequently changed as they're passed down through the ages).

I think the future of publishing will get increasingly more collaborative, and this is just a chance for me and you to test the water. So have fun! If you enjoy the experiment, or enjoy the book, then tell a friend, blog about it, write a review, or do whatever it is you do when your excited about something.

There are a few ways to get this book:
1. Go to the blog for the book (librarytree.blogspot.com)
2. Download a PDF, MS Word, or TXT version of the book on my website (http://www.scottdouglas.org/thelibrarytree.htm)
3. Go right to the wiki page (http://librarytree.wetpaint.com).

Creative Commons License

The Library Tree is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

2 comments:

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

What a cool and fascinating idea, Scott! I can't wait to see how this plays out.

Anonymous said...

Way to give away the secret. I thought you weren't gonna tell anyone.