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Schools as Publishers Copyright 2005 by Ed Howdershelt http://abintrapress.netfirms.com     A CD full of books published by... a high school class?     Sure. No sweat. Ignoring for a moment all the usual obstructions to new ideas that are automatically generated by bureaucracies, why not? The school could use sales of the CDs to generate extra funds, if not for themselves, for local charities. Most CDs created in this manner would instantly become collectable items.     What high school student -- or teacher, for that matter -- who writes, paints (on or off a computer), or composes music wouldn't like to be able to say he or she has been published? How many parents would object to having a published author-artist-musician in the family?     The school could sell the contents of a given graduating class's CD for a year or -- with extended permissions -- indefinitely, either on similar CDs or as individual files. Without such extended permissions, sales rights to the works would revert to the students.     The CD could contain written, artistic, and musical works. All writing, composing, editing, and layout efforts could be instructional class projects. The CD could be sold through local (school) marketing efforts -- another part of the instructional class, actually -- and on international websites such as Amazon.com, Powells.com, and other places. (see my sig lines at the end of this article for more sales locations)     Schools routinely toss thousands of dollars at flashy jock-style events and projects, many of which require the use of special equipment, facilities, vehicles, and costly insurance coverage. Is it really too bizarre to think that a school could also spend a paltry few hundred bucks for a block of ISBN numbers to apply to class-created CDs, especially since it's highly likely that the money will be repaid many times over?     Written works would have to contain original characters. I can't stress that enough. No Star Wars or Star Trek or other such fan fiction could qualify for legal reasons. Music couldn't contain riffs or segments 'borrowed' or 'mixed' from commercial works. Works of art couldn't contain images or likenesses from copyrighted or trademarked sources. The key word is 'ORIGINAL'.     Since all schools have access to lawyers, let the lawyers do their thing and cough up the necessary contracts and permissions. Everybody involved would sign on a dotted line and then get to work on their contribution to the CD.     A block of ten ISBNs presently costs less than $300. They could be purchased in the school or school system's name and a school administrator could record the use of an individual ISBN at the Bowker website.     To contact me for more info, email: AUWG (at) yahoo.com. Replace the ' (at) ' with an '@' and no spaces or click my email link below. They're both just gimmicks to prevent spammers' robots from collecting my useable email address. Thanks for the use of your eyeballs, Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press Science Fiction and Semi-Fiction http://www.abintrapress.com Fictionwise: http://tinyurl.com/26v45 Ebookad: http://tinyurl.com/2o5d6 Mobipocket: http://tinyurl.com/239v3 Powell's: http://tinyurl.com/388jc * What's a teacher's bag? Click here to see one! * Back to SITE INDEX Email Address on this page