When I think about the word publisher, I still think about some huge building in New York City where there are hundreds of people with pencils between their teeth and frantic looks on their faces running around some skyscraper making the magic happen. Maybe that's an image I stole from a newsroom, but whatever. My point is, I think of someone else, typically a whole team of someone else's, bringing a book to life.
But now, anyone can publish a book. I published one with my laptop. That's amazing.
And a new company called Storybird wants to give parents, teachers, artists and anyone else looking to make fun, fast, and quality short story books a publisher in their own right.
As they say:
"Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds. We curate artwork from illustrators and animators around the world and inspire writers of any age to turn those images into fresh stories.
It's a simple idea that has attracted millions of writers, readers, and artists to our platform. Families and friends, teachers and students, and amateurs and professionals have created more than 5 million stories—making Storybird one of the world's largest storytelling communities."
Here is what one could look like:
It's fascinating to see the publishing world move not just toward more DIY options for content creators, but toward high quality, curated, and beautiful DIY options. We are in the era when publishing is not just moving to the laptop and iPad, but flooding there. The same people who are creating the code and the design are the same people who are into open source. The same people who are making these tools better are veterans of publishing, parents and artists themselves, and business-people who are comfortable with the way that content moves and comes to life in the digital world.
It's incredible. And now Storybird is putting it in our hands. I immediately sent this off to my friends and family with young sons and daughters. Looking for a way to blend books and digital living? Here you go.
What do you think?
Image courtesy of Storybird.com
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