TMOC — A Roadblock

Posted on October 15, 2012 by ehurst

As noted in the previous post, I have run into a problem.
Our single shortest route to the broadest publishing opportunity is Smashwords. If you read their style guide and so forth, you’ll discover they will not work with us on multiple authors or any kind of anonymity. Apparently they’ve been burned at some point on this, so they demand there is only one person responsible for the whole book, for the most part. I suppose we can say it was God at work making me the only writer up to now, should we go forward with Smashwords. I can still list others willing to be named as contributors and even folks who simply want to help teaching and explaining this message to enquirers.
Or, I’ll need to learn/get help formatting this thing in multiple formats and then get help submitting them to each distribution service individually. Ugh.
I’m kind of heart broken over this turn of events. Any ideas, readers?

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6 Responses to TMOC — A Roadblock

  1. dgmattichakjr says:
    October 15, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    As far as I am concerned Ed I am quite happy for you to be the listed editor/author of the book. As far as I know Smashwords only require that one person be responsible for the copyright. Failing that; I can format the book on my own PC for PDF, doc, txt, epub, & etc.
    I will chat to Mark Coker, the owner of Smashwords, and see what he advises. He is a very easy to approach fellow and I am sure that he will have no objection to our Open Source book idea. The proscription is really pointed at people that have compiled anthologies of writing that they don’t own the copyright for which isn’t the case here.
    As far as copyright ownership goes, anything that I have contributed (a tiny amount) has been given freely for you to use as you will and I make no claims etc to ownership. Let me know if I can help in any way with the editing and publishing process. I have been through the Smashwords style guide several times for my own books and those of others and am happy to offer my experience to continue the project.

    • Ed Hurst says:
      October 15, 2012 at 11:09 pm

      Thanks, David. Let me know what Coker has to say about this. There is plenty of free software available for my Linux system for formatting in all sorts of ways; the issue was the automated submission I understood was possible with Smashwords.

      • dgmattichakjr says:
        October 15, 2012 at 11:30 pm

        I will certainly pass on his answer when I get it. I am sure that we will be good to go even if you have your name on the cover (which I believe you should as the editor). Mark is a cool guy and I am sure that he will be keen on supporting our ‘Open Source’ book format.
        I have to say that you are looking pretty buff in your profile pic big fella! 🙂

  2. dgmattichakjr says:
    October 15, 2012 at 11:37 pm

    BTW: Do you have any thoughts on a cover?

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