This is not a trio of inspiring messages. Instead, the "grand" refers to "thousand." As part of the process of having something I wrote appear in print, I received an email directing me to the publisher's website. There I had the opportunity to order extra hard copies of the final product. They offered me the chance to pay a little extra if I had any figures I wished to appear in color (not a worry with this piece). But the Open Choice option was one that struck a nerve.
The premise behind Open Choice is an author can make his material freely available for a small fee. Yes: three thousand dollars. Now I'm not opposed to people and businesses making money when the customer has the option to make a purchase. For example, a Rockport Triathlon t-shirt listed the events as "Lobstah, Chowday & Bee-ah." I chuckled each time I walked past the display window … and chose to not buy that shirt. I am also not troubled that my writing could fetch $3000. What bugs me is that this is the price I am charged to let others read our writing. Not only do I do all the work with conceptualizing and composing this piece (well, this time my co-author did most) but if someone wants to read it they must pay, be employed by an institution that pays, or the author has to pay.
What the Company prohibits is posting the PDF version of the editorial (that I helped write) on my own website. At best, the agreement is that "An author may self-archive an author-created version." Hey, wait a second. I am pretty good at formatting. And I can generate a PDF that looks at least as good as what this company subcontracts to have done. Maybe I can make this work available for free. In fact, according to the agreement the other stipulation is that I tell how to link to the publisher's version. So in effect, they are promoting our stuff. Plus it will pop up when people search for it -- without having to be indexed by a paid service. Okay, it's just now 8 a.m. and I already have had one grand idea. Just 2 more and this entry has come full circle.
1 comment:
Already done, assuming you're describing this one.
And at this point a google search of "framing the professional development" spits out
this.
Seems we could just add a header with the publication information. And perhaps a link to a PayPal account to contribute to the $3000 value of the piece.
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