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For my research topic, I’ve decided to do a “How-to” guide that assesses the basic elements of initiating a small press for those who want to become publishers. My research will focus on these basic area:

1. Intention and developing business concepts, such as knowing what types of books you intend to publish and who the audience will be

2. Start-up action such as setting up business accounts, websites, licensing, and reserving tax codes

3. Sources of expense, including agreements and contracts, royalties for writers and designers, printing, shipping, warehousing, marketing, etc

4. Finding and commissioning writers: this will include accepting and reviewing manuscripts as well as the editing and completion process

5. A basic illustration of the journey a manuscript makes once it reaches a publisher until it is on a consumers bookshelf

Essentially, my paper will be a summary of my interview with Tod Davies, other available interviews with publishers, available literature on starting small businesses and presses (although there are few guides on becoming a publisher and more on how to self-publish), and online guides and classes. Think of it as a literature view targeted at people with incredibly short attention spans.

Although my paper topic seems dry compared to others is our class, it’s the beginning research before I write my own business plan and dive into the entrepreneurial market as a small publisher. The goal of my press will be to publish didactic texts in these two fields: children’s books and picture books on alternative subjects, and picture books and texts for improving adult literacy. My goals are numerous but rooted in my passion for bridging the literacy gap in this country. Two broad goals are: To improve literacy and make books give struggling adult readings books that meet their low reading level but high critical thinking level, but also to approach children’s unique postmodern understanding of the world through new ideas and concepts.

You can visit these links to get a picture of what I intend to publish:

http://kidcrave.com/uncategorized/unconventional-childrens-books/

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/category/Adult-Literacy.aspx

http://www.literacyconnections.com/PictureBooksforAdultReaders.php (the recommendations for adults, as you can see, are bleak.)

Graphic novels, and the darker humor of writers like Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez have also had a great impact as tool for barely literate readers from the ages 15-35.

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As E-books are becoming the future of literature, and Amazon continues to drive Barnes and Noble out of business, I wonder what product will come out to fill the need that book retailers provide.

I try not to embrace the sentimental side of keeping technology old, though I have a tendency to do so.  When Windows Vista was released I complained about it until a programming friend of mine said, “I don’t want my computer interface to stay the same for twenty years.”  The comment stuck with me and now I try to embrace rather than fear change.

So I will get a Kindle, or an Ipad, or whichever technology wins this race.

But the bookstores that are going out of business did provide another service that the E-books aren’t compatible with:  shopping.  The process of going to a bookstore, browsing for titles -often picking books that make us look smarter to leave a better impression-, and buying a coffee afterward, is not fulfilled by online shopping.

I believe this is a basic need of our society, and more coffee shops might spring up throughout the town.  If E-books are the wave of the future, maybe Starbucks with digital book kiosks will accompany the new technology.

If anything, putting more commerce online may reverse the seventies trend of community centers shifting from downtown to the mall.

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I have decided to conduct my research project on the history of bookbinding in America.  I am still gathering sources, but my interest in this topic so far has been on the impact of mass-produced books on methods of bookbinding.  I will also examine the art of bookbinding by hand in contemporary America through an analysis of courses offered at the American Academy of Bookbinding. 

I am starting my research with a book entitled Bookbinding in America.  It’s a little dated, but it is a nice starting point.  I am currently looking at conditions leading to the introduction of machines to bookbinding.  I am also looking at the introduction of cloth bindings, the beginnings of casing, the invention of machines operated by hand, then by horse, then by steam and now by electricity. 

The meat of my paper, however, will be the role mass-produced paperback books played in changing bookbinding in America.  I will also look at how hardcover books are bound in contemporary America, how hardcover bindings differ from paperback bindings, and why hardcover books, which are presumably more expensive to bind, are still produced (I will look at the motivation driving this production).

So far, the subject of my paper seem a little random, so my primary task over the next week or so will be to find some kind of continuity between these subjects.

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Jennifer Margulis’ ideas on the five most important elements of a written work has stuck with me for several days (ah heck, I guess it’s weeks at this point). Last term in Composition, Dr. Battistella discussed the importance of having a clear character (not just in the fictional sense) and ensuring that the character appears first in each thought, sentence or idea. Well Jennifer’s thoughts on those five elements just expanded this idea for me.

I won’t lie; it was hard for me to imagine my topic as a character. I think of characters as fictional beings, a product of my imagination. But I realize in a research paper the character is my topic. So when Jennifer suggested that the character should: 1) be strong, 2) be at the center of some tension and 3) grow, I gained a little more perspective how to utilize my character to full effect.

Why shouldn’t I think of my topic as a character? A topic isn’t flat and stagnate, unless I let it be, so why shouldn’t there be tension and growth? Now I just have to figure out how to apply this in my writing…wish me luck!