Hi Monica, You've hit a homerun here! I'm not sure how to put this so as not
to hurt anyone's feelings, except to say it right out. Please don't anyone
take exception to this, but those books that are from what might be
considered journeymen submitters, should be snapped up by validators from
the group as soon as posted so they don't languish in the step-one pool.
Those that go through the work of providing as clean and as perfect a
submission as is possible, shouldn't have their books sit in the pool where
the three or four monthers can get them and hatch 'em! As you surely know
,it can be very disappointing after all the work, for your book to disappear
down that hole and not know what's happened to it! Cluck and all that,
smile, Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Monica Willyard" <plumlipstick@xxxxxxxxxx>
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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