SL Lit Fest 2008 02 02 Selina Greene

9:58] Teofila Matova: Our next presenter is Selina Greene, RL publisher and co-owner of Book and Publishing Islands.

[9:58] Maxito Ricardo: Yes, Alexander's talk will be in the OPAL Archive www.opal-online.org

[9:58] Teofila Matova: Selina's presentation will be via text, so as to preserve her bandwidth power from which she's running SL.

[9:58] Plautia Corvale: Thank you!

[9:58] Karl Nostram: *applause*

[9:58] Selina Greene: hello everyone!

[9:59] Teofila Matova: Thank you for being here, Selina.

[9:59] Teofila Matova: :-)

[9:59] Teofila Matova: The stage is all your's.

[9:59] Selina Greene: thanks for inviting me to speak Teo - it's wonderful to be here

[9:59] Rina Darwin: Hello

[9:59] Selina Greene: Before I get started, I want to apologise in advance if I disappear without warning and fail to reappear...

[9:59] Selina Greene: I am in the middle of a RL house move and I don’t have internet at my new place and I’m currently piggybacking on an unsecured network which is rather unreliable.

[10:00] Selina Greene: Because of the move and because of the perils of my internet, I'm not going to talk for long, which means more time for questions - I hope that's okay.

[10:00] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Listening on channel 24441

[10:00] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Listening on channel 16924

[10:00] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Listening on channel 32775

[10:00] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Listening on channel 58317

[10:00] Selina Greene: oops - just a bit of trouble with my tip jar lol

[10:01] Teofila Matova: :-)

[10:01] Selina Greene: I’m going to talk about book and publishing communities in SL, but mostly about Book and Publishing Islands which in terms of range and breadth of literary-related sims is the most diverse, one of the highest traffic locations with the most to see.

[10:01] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Irina Amadeus, make a contribution of $10L or more and receive a red rose for your sweetheart!

[10:01] Selina Greene: I’ll start with how our community has evolved and how it came and what we do, and I’ll take some questions after I’ve talked at you for a little while.

[10:02] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Thanks, Plautia Corvale for donating $100L

[10:02] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Marimar Berchot, make a contribution of $10L or more and receive a red rose for your sweetheart!

[10:02] Selina Greene: So, in real life, my name is Sheena Dewan. I entered SL in January 2007 with the idea of marketing my RL publishing company in a new digital environment.

[10:02] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Thanks, Marimar Berchot for donating $25L

[10:02] Abbey Zenith is Online

[10:02] Selina Greene: My company, Vision Paperbacks is based in London and we publish trade non-fiction across a number of genres. You can see what we do at www.visionpaperbacks.co.uk

[10:03] Selina Greene: Back in January, I started out like all newbies – I looked terrible and I didn’t know how to walk, but I bought my first 512 metre plot of land within the week.

[10:03] Selina Greene: I built a Vision shop, made posters with links to my books, but only a few people came, no doubt tempted by the land parcel description which included the word books.

[10:04] Selina Greene: Actually, I couldn't build, and I still can't, but I got good help

[10:04] Selina Greene: (a top tip for getting help if you can’t build – wear a ballgown and fly around your terrible structure looking helpless – it is amazing how many amazing people will step in to help a damsel in distress. Either that, or attend some brilliant building classes that are available)

[10:04] Selina Greene smiles

[10:04] Teofila Matova giggles

[10:04] Selina Greene: At this time, I got to know my SL neighbor, Roman Zeffirelli, who was running a photographic studio. In RL, he is a British estate agent living in the south of Spain.

[10:05] Selina Greene: Between us, we figured that if we had more publishers in one place, we might have a critical mass that would bring visitors in. He liked what I envisaged and so we pooled our land to make it happen.

[10:05] Selina Greene: Roman is still my SL business partner one year on and is the co-owner of the Book Island and Publishing Island sims – while we have never met in RL, we amicably and effectively co-own a thriving SL community.

[10:05] Selina Greene: So I started to talk to the few visitors we got to the Vision land and soon Scar Ayres from Blue Scar Publications in New Zealand joined us.

[10:06] Selina Greene: Madddyyy Schnook from SLguides followed shortly afterwards and the Book Publishing Village on the mainland was born.

[10:06] Selina Greene: We started to hold events and our group membership and tenancy list grew and we put ourselves forward to host the first SL Book Fair back in April 2007.

[10:06] Selina Greene: In fact, Alex who just spoke exhibited at the fair as did Elan and others that I see in the audience today

[10:07] Selina Greene: it was a wonderful success - We had nearly 40 exhibitors and 1300 visitors over 2.5 days and we held around 15 events over the weekend.

[10:07] Selina Greene: By this point, we owned nearly a quarter sim and we were full to bursting.

[10:08] Abbey Zenith is Offline

[10:08] Selina Greene: The SL Book Fair was quite a phenomenon – we timed the fair to run the week after the RL London Book Fair and we got a lot of press in the publishing industry with articles in the UK Bookseller Magazine, the Italian book trade magazine and even the UK Channel 4 news podcast.

[10:08] Selina Greene: It was a great community effort - with a lot of help from Jilly Kidd and others it was quite something

[10:08] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Thanks, Teofila Matova for donating $25L

[10:09] Selina Greene: With this momentum, we bought our first sim in April which we called Book Island and most of the exhibitors from the Book Fair moved over with us.

[10:09] Selina Greene: In many ways the aim was to create a 24/7 book fair environment

[10:09] Selina Greene: Before too long, we had an amazing and vibrant community of nearly 50 book and publishing related shops and we were out of space once more.

[10:10] Selina Greene: I should say at this point that if you've not visited the islands before, please IM me for a landmark

[10:10] Selina Greene: anyway, in August 2007, Roman and I bought Publishing Island. Madddyyy Schnook from SL guides took half a sim for us and the other half of the sim is an extension of the book publishing village which houses another 30 publishers, writers, booksellers and editors.

[10:11] Selina Greene: the two sims are adjoined and are quite a presence

[10:11] Selina Greene: In our community, we have 14 event spaces which are available for residents to use and we often have several events a week which are promoted through our group the Book Island Events and Discussion Group.

[10:11] Selina Greene: again, send me an IM if you'd like group membership, or just search in groups

[10:12] Selina Greene: Our 80 residents span a broad range of RL publishers from around the world, SL publishers, authors, writers, bloggers, book editors and SL printers.

[10:12] Selina Greene: Noteable residents include Angeline Blachere, our wonderful island manager who runs the Book Doctor editing service

[10:12] Selina Greene: Paullevinson Freenote – RL author, Paul Levinson who showcases his many fiction and academic works

[10:12] Selina Greene: Raymond and Mary Frog who run the RL publishing house Back in Tyme Publishing

[10:13] Selina Greene: SRM publishing - Elan Neruda's firm

[10:13] Selina Greene: Karl Ceawlin who runs Conte Verlag in Germany

[10:13] Selina Greene: Kitumscheid Writer who is a RL children’s book author

[10:13] Selina Greene: and many noteable names within SL as well

[10:14] Selina Greene: including Toneless Tomba, the creator of the well known Thinc Book Format

[10:14] Selina Greene: Pamela Witte and Wilbur Rich who run SL publishing house Woodard and Witte; Diana Allandale who is a RL author and runs the SL bookshop chain, Passionate Books to promote her work – and many, many more.

[10:14] Selina Greene: it's a really exciting and diverse group of people all with wonderfully creative projects

[10:14] Selina Greene: Of course, In SL, there are a number of other book-related communities which fall into various strands

[10:15] Selina Greene: RL publishers might set up their own sim, such as the Bantam Dell Island which is administered by the Electric Sheep Company.

[10:15] Selina Greene: There are also some great not-for-profit sims that are designed to promote books, writing and reading – and libraries – such as Info Island of course :-)

[10:15] Selina Greene: and Written Word run by Jilly Kidd, which is a hangout for writers, which holds social events for writers and literary types. There are a few stalls on the island featuring writers, with an emphasis on poetry and creative writing.

[10:16] Lorelei Junot is Offline

[10:16] Selina Greene: Elysian Isle is owned by a major publisher and it has shops, cafes and other non book related items as well as book shops and they hold events.

[10:17] Selina Greene: Sliterary is another respected destination with book related shops and events spaces too

[10:17] Selina Greene: Essentially, there are a number of wonderful book and publishing related destinations in SL and I hope you’ll take the time to explore them all and especially to pay a visit to Book and Publishing Islands.

[10:18] Selina Greene: I'm sorry that my talk is on the short side - I honestly didn't think that my connection would hold this long

[10:18] Teofila Matova: :-) We understand.

[10:18] Selina Greene: I'd be delighted to answer questions about book communities and about the islands now

[10:18] Caprica McCallen: is ok

[10:18] Selina Greene: as long as my borrowed/stolen connection holds!

[10:18] Teofila Matova: :-)

[10:18] Caprica McCallen: very interesting..what a great story!

[10:18] Rina Darwin: that was a nice talk!

[10:18] Karl Nostram: excellent :o))

[10:18] Selina Greene smiles - thanks

[10:19] Selina Greene: I think anything is possible in SL if you set your mind to it - the communities are a real example of strength in numbers

[10:19] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Thanks, Karl Nostram for donating $25L

[10:19] Gareth Otsuka: Volunteering for the ref desk on info international, I get people asking how to publish a book in SL

[10:19] Teofila Matova: I agree with that, Selina.

[10:19] Irina Amadeus: Could you repeat... did you say you are primarily interested in nonfiction... or has it expanded to fiction as well.

[10:19] Caprica McCallen: yes....this is inspiring.

[10:20] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Caprica McCallen, make a contribution of $10L or more and receive a red rose for your sweetheart!

[10:20] Selina Greene: Gareth - the best way to publish a book in SL is to invest in some SL publishing software such as Thinc or to contact Bergman Books or Neobooks

[10:20] Selina Greene: all fine producers of SL books

[10:20] MHS Donation Jar [C] whispers: Thanks, Caprica McCallen for donating $5L

[10:20] Gareth Otsuka: OK, cheers Selina

[10:20] Selina Greene: if you decide to publish yourself, Thinc is the easiest format in many people's opinions

[10:20] Gi Tammas: Selina, Why do you think books/publishing and SL seem to work well together?

[10:21] Selina Greene: Irina - Vision only publishes non fiction in RL, we don't do fiction yet

[10:21] Selina Greene: Gi - interesting question - I think that SL is a wonderful interface to put authors in touch with their readers first and foremost

[10:21] Irina Amadeus: And does Book Doctor, Angeline's group, only edit nonfiction then?

[10:21] Selina Greene: also, there are exciting formats for inworld ebooks that hold a lot of potential - as well as inworld podcasting etc

[10:22] Selina Greene: Angeline is here in the audience - we don't work together in RL, only in SL - I think Angeline is happiest working with fiction, although she would take non fiction on as well, is that right Angeline?

[10:22] Free Radar HUD v1.1 by Crystal Gadgets

[10:23] Angeline Blachere: Yes that is correct, but Fiction is what I do the most of

[10:23] Selina Greene: I think another reason why SL and books are so exciting is that there's so much scope for fantasy

[10:24] Selina Greene: authors create avis to reflect characters in their stories which is something I find quite fascinating

[10:24] Rina Darwin: has your RL business been affected due to presence in SL?

[10:24] Selina Greene: apart from spending too much time inworld? lol

[10:24] Tempest Hirano: lol

[10:24] Selina Greene: sure - Vision has commissioned a book as a result of being inworld -

[10:24] Selina Greene: we commissioned madddyyy schnook to write a book called

[10:24] Selina Greene: How to Get a Second Life

[10:25] Selina Greene: which we published in December - that's doing well for us

[10:25] Rina Darwin: apart from community, what is it that you find facinating about SL for your business?

[10:25] Abbey Zenith is Online

[10:25] Selina Greene: and we've been seeing sales for our books that are featured in the Vision shop on Book Island too - via Amazon

[10:26] Selina Greene: from a business point of view, I value the educational platform SL can be

[10:26] Rina Darwin: great, thanks.

[10:26] Selina Greene: to talk about things like how to submit proposals to publishers, whether to engage a literary agent

[10:26] Selina Greene: it narrows the gulf and divide between publishers and authors in a positive way I believe

[10:27] Rina Darwin: why is SL better for that? couldn't it be possible to bridge this gulf in discussion forums/mailing lists?

[10:28] Selina Greene: absolutely Rina, but there is something valuable I believe in the real time, personified nature of SL - it's possible to have a much more personal exchange and dialogue inworld in many ways

[10:28] Selina Greene: like this here :-)

[10:28] Angeline Blachere: Could I add, that SL allows us access to people in a very face to face way that isnt possible in RL.

[10:28] Rina Darwin: yes, absolutely

[10:29] Selina Greene: I agree Angeline

[10:29] Selina Greene: one of the problems I find with owning and helping to run the sims is that I don't get out and about as much as I used to

[10:29] Gi Tammas: as a consumer I appreciate the ability to "check things out"

[10:30] Selina Greene: and I'm wondering if anyone else has discovered any great book communities that I've not mentioned

[10:31] Selina Greene smiles

[10:31] Selina Greene: does anyone else have any other questions?

[10:32] Gi Tammas: What are your long range plans for your islands?

[10:32] Selina Greene: to keep building on what we're doing already

[10:33] Selina Greene: we'd like to be holding more events and more discussions in the coming months for sure

[10:33] Angeline Blachere: Selina, I have been asked about another Book Fair, Do you think we will rpeat last Aprils book fair?

[10:33] Selina Greene laughs at Angeline putting me on the spot

[10:33] Selina Greene: sure - I would love to do another Book Fair around April time

[10:34] Angeline Blachere: Sorry LOL, someone asked me yesterday

[10:34] Selina Greene: with more space than last year, I think we can make it really something

[10:34] Selina Greene: it nearly killed us all trying to get it organised last year - I'm sure Teo can relate - it's a lot of work, but we would love to do it again

[10:34] Selina Greene: if anyone would be interested in getting involved, do please IM Angeline or myself

[10:35] Teofila Matova: Any other questions for Selina?

[10:35] Irina Amadeus is Offline

[10:36] Teofila Matova: If not, then let's give a very warm thanks to her.....

[10:36] Selina Greene: thank you so much for having me here today!

[10:36] Teofila Matova: Thank you, Selina!

[10:36] Rina Darwin: thabks

[10:36] Marimar Berchot: Thanks Selina!

[10:36] Teofila Matova: It was our pleasure!

[10:36] Karl Nostram: *applause*

[10:36] Teofila Matova: :-)

[10:36] Selina Greene: I hope you'll all pay us a visit sometime soon :-)

[10:36] Mata Loire: thank you so much Selina

[10:36] Abbey Zenith is applauding

[10:36] Maxito Ricardo: thanks!

[10:36] Irina Amadeus is Online