The day before yesterday, Saturday, I decided to take a chance on seeing the rare machine that revolutionizes the publication process for thousands of fledgling authors in our neck of the woods. I say rare because there are only two in existence in our region, one in Texas and the other at the University of Missouri, Columbia. After having gone to the meetings of four Ozark writer’s groups filled with writers of all levels looking for a way to publish, I thought my visit would be instructive for them as well.
I found out about the event only a couple of days before by accident after calling to request submission guidelines for the possible printing of ten galley copies for my final edit of Journal of the Silent Majority. From where I live it’s a four hour drive up to Columbia, Missouri if you allow for the extra time it’ll take to find free parking and the Student Center where the free event, Mizzou Media’s Spring Self-Publishing Workshop was held on the lower level of the bookstore. Extra chairs had to be brought in and I’m sure the fall workshop will be heavily attended as well.
It made for a full day driving there and back in a down pour nearly all the way past the Current, Big Piney, and Gasconade rivers. The dogwoods had already faded giving way to red buds clustered under the protective patches of forests. Dramatic outcrops of metamorphic limestone line the highways nearly all the way to the Missouri River where it looked like it was at flood stage. As a former state employee Jefferson City brought back a lot of memories.
Thank goodness for the MU campus map they sent me. The size of the place is intimidating, but parking is free at the Virginia Avenue Parking Structure (garage) about a block from the bookstore where the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) is located. There it was, just like in YouTube with its transparent side panels of heavy plastic somewhat muffling the clicking and humming of the gears. I read that the EBM cost $80,000. It was a surprise to learn that the main clients of the EBM were not academics, but ordinary writers wanting to publish their works. Still, Columbia was a logical choice for its location because it’s probably the intellectual nerve center of Missouri.
Workshop attendees were given a packet consisting of the first issues of their newsletter, Coffee Break (sign up for it via email), their Pricing Guide, How to Sell Your Book at the University Bookstore on consignment, and the very important 42 page espresso book machine HOW-TOGUIDE, submission guidelines. For the ladies a testimonial was given by Meg Phillips author of ZenKinky and the Art of (not finding) Love on the Internet. Contacts I noted from the literature are:
· MizzouEBM.Wordpress.com/events/UNCOVER-2012
· mizzoumedia@missouri.edu
· www.mubookstore.com
· facebook.com/mubookstore
· twitter, #MUBookstore
The Espresso Book Machine in my case would create a prototype copy of my manuscript – not perfect, but usable for final editing purposes. The cover would have on it: “Uncorrected proof. Galley copy only. Do not quote without prior permission from the publisher.” I believe editors prefer to read perfected galleys, however created. The Print on Demand technology of the EBM can also produce the first run of the book and its future runs on demand, so I’d be killing two birds with one stone. That could be the start of a something good.
