5Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing
6Distributed Proofreaders
7Recommended Books To Get You Started On Gutenberg
1.
Projects that would have seemed impossible 20 years ago are now being accomplished in the blink of an eye.
But when it comes to books, one of the major players is Project Gutenberg.
Whoever out there in the world who wants a copy of something will always be able to find it.
1.1 Johannes Gutenberg - Who Was He & Why Is He Important?
Until the 15th century, making books and other printed texts was a very laborious labor-intensive affair.
The books were mostly Bibles which were individually hand-written by monks, and therefore slow to finish.
No other form of book production was possible.
One of the first things Gutenberg produced?
I highly recommend a visit.
Fast forward 500 years to the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
eBooks are the hot new thing in reading, and the rise of the Internet makes distribution easy.
But when Amazon brought out the Kindle and made eBook reading look cool, everyone jumped on the bandwagon.
Now we have Kindles, Nooks, and lots of no-name brands.
So why do some people prefer to read an eBook instead of a printed book?
Secondly, people like the speed of obtaining a book.
But what if it is raining?
What if the shop is far away?
What if youre just plain lazy?
Its fast, and its convenient.
Thirdly, people have anonymity reading an eBook.
But if you are reading the eBook versions however, nobody knows what you are reading.
You may as well be reading the phone book for all they know.
People no longer feel ashamed or embarrassed reading the horrendous text.
Make of that what you will.
Every book which comes out is copyrighted.
This stops you and me from stealing the hard work of another author, and quite rightly so.
After that 70 years is up, the book then passes into what is called the public domain.
This means basically that the book is up for grabs.
This is where sites like Gutenberg come into the picture.
2.1 What Kind Of Books Do They Have?
And if the author is dead, remember the 70 year rule.
So there will be no books by those authors either during that seven decade period.
So that leaves the public domain books, where the 70 year rule has come and gone.
Just think about it - novels, manuals, pamphlets, reference works on every conceivable subject.
All of it will be individually scanned, read, and checked for the site.
Is your head already spinning?
2.2 How Do They Transfer A Book Online?
Do They key in It Word-For-Word?
But I briefly want to look at the technology behind transferring a book online.
They dont pop in each book word-for-word.
That really would make the process long and tedious, and they would never make any meaningful progress.
Instead they use a technology called OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Big websites likeEvernote use OCRfor their users to be able to find text files instantly by entering keywords.
It then turns the words into an editable text file.
Obviously this is not a perfect technology (yet).
This leaves errors, and that is where Project Gutenbergs volunteers come in.
But as I said, more on that later.
Its rather plain, drab, and unappealing.
It could do with a fresh lick of paint, a nice new font, that sort of thing.
But until they do a radical redesign, we are stuck with what we have.
But the site works and everything is totally functional.
Thats what counts in the end.
3.1 The Most Downloaded Books - What Are People Reading?
The front page contains a link to themost downloaded books on Project Gutenberg.
This list is constantly updated as new books come out.
The page also gives you download figures for up to the last 30 days.
Use the search book catalog search engine, not the search website one.
Lets say you are looking for a Sherlock Holmes story.
you’re free to either key in in Sherlock Holmes, or the authors surname Conan Doyle.
But just to keep things simple, lets jot down in Sherlock Holmes and see what comes up.
As you’re free to see, there are many titles available.
Typing in Sherlock Holmes brings up 48 entries.
With each search result, you could see how many people before you downloaded it.
This is useful, if for example, you are not sure you have the right title.
Gutenberg is now also hosting audio versions of the books.
Lets take a look at how to download it so you’ve got the option to read it.
As the words suggest, images is a book version with illustrations in it.
Obviously these files are bigger in size (but usually not too much bigger).
Just use a QR code scanner (free from the iOS App Store, and Google Play).
Now lets examine the file formats.
Plus, since the books are public domain, you could also host the HTML version on your website.
Just download the HTML file, and double-click it to open in your net online gate.
Short for electronic publication, this is one of the most common reading formats.
ePubs work in a variety of readers, including Apples iBooks.
Just download it and double-hit a Mac computer to open it on iBooks.
Windows users could use the excellentCalibreas a possible reader.
Read for eBook management.
Wikipedia has alist of possible ePub readersfor various platforms.
Amazons Kindle is probably the most popular and most widely used eBook reader ever.
Its the one that the others have a go at emulate.
Getting eBooks from outside Kindle into the Kindle requires a few more hoops but nothing major.
Download the mobi file, and then go into the Kindle section of your account on Amazon.
There, you will find a special secret address for sending files to your Kindle reader.
These addresses can be changed if you dont like the automatic ones provided to you by Amazon.
You should also bear in mind that you only have 5GB of free space in which to send documents.
So use this function conservatively.
If it doesnt arrive within a couple of hours, give it another spin.
The last text option is the simplest - plain text.
No images, no formatted text, just the plain text.
These files are also the smallest, which is good if you are crushed for space on your gear.
Plain text files are good for reading on your smartphone.
As I said, Gutenberg is now hosting the audio files of books.
Probably not the rarely read books, but most definitely the popular titles.
All audiobooks are read by volunteers forLibrivox(more on that later).
Two things to bear in mind though.
One - these audiobooks are read by volunteers, so the voices and standards of recordings may vary.
That could be a lengthy and tedious process.
Keep the Gutenberg folder - all future eBooks will also be put there.
What Else Do They Offer?
Books are not the only thing that Gutenberg offers.
Lets take a look at what else is on offer on the site.
But its not only the blind and visually impaired that benefit from audiobooks.
People with normal sight enjoy them too.
Its a great way to learn correct pronunciation.
4.2 About Librivox
Librivox takes the idea of crowdsourcing to audiobooks.
Then you might download it from Project Gutenberg.
The best recording equipment to do the job is normallyAudacity.
Just fire up the software, put on your headset, and then go for it.
Read audio with Audacity.
It is actually quite difficult and nerve-wracking to do something like this.
So it will take a few attempts for you to get it right.
4.4 Sheet Music
This section is a bit of an enigma.
The section is marked as dormant and the files (once unzipped) have the file format .mus.
According to the site, this requires Finale.
The XML files require SharpEye.
Neither of these programs are free (they are both free trials and then paid).
The files are in ISO format (which can be opened by a program such asVirtual Clone Drive).
Choices include BitTorrent, FTP, and more.
Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing
Project Gutenberg also has a freeself-publishing portalarea.
What is this service?
Well, no-one explains it better than the Gutenberg page itself.
Check outMakeUseOfs guide to self-publishingfor a great introduction to the subject.
And what is good is that there is no minimum time commitment.
you might do the spare 5 minutes here and there whenever you have a moment.
If one week you have no time, then no worries.
No-one is going to chastise you for letting the side down.
The entire project is utterly fascinating.
Simply sign up for an account and you are in.
This is the pagewhere all of the proofreading takes place.
hit the link in the activation email that is sent to you, and that is it.
You have officially joined Distributed Proofreaders.
But you oughta start off slowly, build your way up, andlearn the proofreading rules.
There, you will see the current books being proofread.
Each title will specify what language it is in, so you dont get something in double-Dutch.
Some will also specify BEGINNERS ONLY.
If you are a beginner, then these titles are for you to practice on and find your feet.
But once you get the hang of things, leave these titles alone for other new beginners.
You should always preferably choose something you have an interest in.
when you obtain opened one of the books up, you will then be randomly assigned a page.
Lets take a look at the set-up.
This first window is full of stats about the book you have chosen.
You dont need to really pay attention to this (unless you really want to, of course).
Slightly above from that is a link that says Start Proofreading.
Click that to be taken to your page.
If you see any errors in the editable text, then correct it.
