The Playmakers in New Zealand

I had the privilege of being interviewed on Radio New Zealand National (their version of our NPR) on a show called This Way Up. Simon Morton is a fun guy to talk toys with and so we've scheduled a number of interviews over the next few months. Stop back to hear more, but for now listen to the free Slinky podcast.

iScribed

As you may know, I self-published my book as The Playmakers in 2004. In the process of investigating my options, I discovered many vanity presses and print-on-demand publishers out there are more than willing to take a writer’s money. These outfits will print any book for a price, knowing that a vast majority of what they ‘publish’ won’t sell. They mislead writers by offering them an ISBN number (International Standard Book Number), telling them ‘Now your book can be ordered by any book store in the country!’” But as I found out, giving book stores the ability to order a book and getting them to order, are two very different things.

The Playmakers went on to win a 2004 Book of the Year Award from Foreword Magazine followed by the grand prize in the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards. Then it was picked up by Andrews McMeel-Universal, who released it as Timeless Toys. My second book, the WHAM-O Super Book (a retrospective on the toy company that gave the world Frisbee and Hula Hoop) will be published by Chronicle Books in October of 2008. All this means that the story has a happy ending for me, but that is not the case for many self-published writers. Then I thought maybe there's a better way.

This post is to announce a new venture I have started called iScribed. iScribed is an on-line community of writers, artists and photographers who share a passion for storytelling, writing, and book design. Members contribute stories, cover designs, photographs and even suggest titles for open book projects. By a system of ratings and comments, the members decide which collaborative works will be printed in real books. We don’t charge anything to members, in fact, the best stories and designs will earn their originators money. Currently the writers of the top five stories in every iScribed book we publish will earn $100 and a free copy of the book in which his or her story appears.

The site also appeals to aspiring writers with real day jobs, kids, and precious, little time. Few people have the time to write an entire book, but anyone can write a story, right? iScribed gives people a way to pay tribute to someone, inspire someone, crack someone up, thank someone and more, one story at a time.

I loved, I laughed, I learned, I lived.

And then when I wanted to share it all… iScribed!

Visit iScribed