[bksvol-discuss] Re: How To Fast Track Your Submissions

  • From: "Jackie M." <xercon@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:21:17 -0700

Monica,

Good suggestions, Monica!  I agree with them all ... except that, concerning 
your first suggestion, the instructions for submitters suggests that using 
the .ark or .kes formats is preferable - at least, that's the way I read it. 
I have a book that I am about ready to try to submit - my first submission - 
and I did it in .ark because I thought the instructions say that Bookshare 
prefers the .ark or .kes, if possible.  I guess because the page breaks, 
etc. are better and match the original book.  I personally would prefer 
Word.  Up to now, I have validated books, but I am tired of trying to meet 
the week time requirements, as I work full-time and only have short blocks 
of time to devote to validating.  So I thought I would try to submit: that 
way I'm on my own timeframe.

- Jackie McCraw

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Monica Willyard
  To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 7:59 PM
  Subject: [bksvol-discuss] How To Fast Track Your Submissions


  Hi everybody.  Since I know we have several awesome book submitters
  on these lists who don't validate books, I thought I'd write a short
  post on how to get your books approved quickly.  If you have a
  Bookshare friend who doesn't use the lists, please let them know
  about this too.  I know of 4 small but important things you can do to
  get your book submission into the express lane.  Even making one of
  these small changes will greatly improve the speed at which your book
  will be added to the collection.  Ready?  Here we go!

  1. When possible, submit your book in rtf format.  Bookshare does
  accept books in formats like Openbook and Kurzweil.  However, many of
  our volunteers don't own those programs.  That means your book hangs
  out on the validation page until someone who owns your program can
  get to it.  Rtf is a format that almost all of the volunteers can
  handle easily.  Both Openbook and Kurzweil can save your book as an
  rtf file.  If you need help with this, just ask for help on the list.

  2. When you submit your book, please give it at least a short
  description in one of the synopsis fields.  When a volunteer can find
  out what your book is about, they are often more interested in
  reading it.  Most volunteers prefer to work on books about subjects
  they enjoy, so your synopsis about the book matters.  It doesn't have
  to be fancy.  Just pretend that you're telling a good friend what the
  book is about.

  3. When you submit a book, you will see a field for comments right
  before you submit the book.  If you will put your email address in
  there, the person who validates your book can contact you if there is
  a problem with your book.  Otherwise, if your book has a problem, the
  validater will either have to reject it, try to find you through the
  list, or has to spend his or her own time going to a library to get
  the print book to fix the problem.  Can you see how this can slow
  down approval of your book?  This isn't an official Bookshare
  requirement.  It's something you do so you can work as part of a team
  with the validater for your book.

  4. Lastly, when you've submitted your book, post about it to the
  list.  Letting people know the book is available may get a
  volunteer's attention.  New books don't always appear at the top of
  the list of books awaiting validation, so this simple step is a
  powerful way for you to let people know about your book.

  I hope these ideas help you.  I appreciate the work that each of you
  does in building Bookshare.  I'm looking forward to validating more
  of your books in the future, and I'll keep an eye out for those of
  you in the fast lane.  (grin)


  Monica Willyard

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