Documentation:Open UBC/Guide/Open Education Self-Publishing Guide/Getting Started with Self-Publishing in Open Textbook

Difference between open and closed publication?

So, you’ve decided to write and self-publish a textbook. And not just any textbook — an open textbook. Before you begin, it’s important to understand the differences between an open textbook and a standard textbook, and how these contrasting characteristics might affect the open textbook author and publishing process.

Open vs. Closed

Open textbooks are open educational resources or instructional resources created and shared or published in ways that allow more people to access them. They reside in the public domain — where copy rights has been waived by the copyright holder or copyright has expired — or have been released by the copyright holder under an open-copyright licence; both of these circumstances permits free use and repurposing by others. This prototype is different from how copyrighted materials are typically managed.

The traditional textbook-publishing model assumes that the author owns copyright for the textbook and that these rights are not shared with others. In other words, all rights are reserved so the textbook is essentially closed. If the author owns copyright, they can sell to a publisher the right to print and distribute their work. The conditions of this sale are typically outlined in a contract between the author and publisher, a document that should be reviewed by a lawyer familiar with copyright law.

On its Copyright Guidance: Copyright for Authors & Creators page [New Tab] , the Yale University Library offers advice to writers who are thinking about using a publisher. They say:

However, the distinction between publishing open textbooks, as an individual or with an open-publication press, and the more traditional textbook publishers is beginning to blur. In a January 29, 2018 blog, David Wiley ponders:

When the textbook gives too many choices to the readers

Textbooks are often built in an online platform (software system or website) where content can easily be changed (intentionally and not) and many features can be added. Some argue that an online textbook should take full advantage of media beyond the text in a book. This alone can be stressful as one grapples with how to proceed in this sea of endless choices.

Building an open textbook adds even more alternatives to both the creator and those who are permitted to use and change the final product. The author is faced with millions of photos, illustrations, and other open educational resources from which to select and add to the textbook. Others, who want to customize the completed book — and are basically given free rein to do so — must decide what to change or add, a situation that is both exhilarating and exhausting. Trouble making decisions in an environment that presents too many options is not uncommon; in fact, it is a well-recognized cognitive process referred to as overchoice or choice overload.

Two roads dissected by a hill and a sign pointing in four different directions, each labeled as the right way.

As a future author and publisher, you’ll want to contemplate how these factors might impact your work and approach to producing an open textbook. For instance, consider how the concept of and responsibilities for writing a textbook are different than they were before open textbooks appeared. You might think about how:

1. Open textbook authors are members of the sharing community where knowledge is freely and openly distributed so that others can build upon it. The open textbook becomes community property rather than the chattel of a single owner.
2. An open textbook author must accept that their work will be used and changed — often without their knowledge — actions over which they have no control.
3. Open textbook authors should be willing to share editable files of their textbook in order to allow others to make changes and/or add to it in the form of an adaptation.
4. As the author of an open textbook, one should remain open minded and unafraid to receive and respond to feedback. In turn, the author can use input to begin conversations that will hopefully lead to knowledge sharing and building.
5. A self-publishing author should seriously consider maintaining their completed open textbook by updating content when necessary and correcting mistakes. These steps are necessary for the ongoing quality and sustainability of their book and OER in general.

The community also has responsibilities. As a member of this group, let academic integrity be your beacon and open principles your creed.

1. Give credit where credit is due. Copying a colleague’s openly-licensed work is not considered plagiarism; however, one should be diligent about providing an accurate, complete, and well-laid-out attribution statement for each borrowed open resource. In other words, fulfill the legal terms of the open-copyright licence by giving the original author credit for their work.
2. Deliver all criticism to an open textbook author in a constructive and professional manner.
3. Build on the existing work in the open educational commons. Like the open textbook author, be confident when sharing your ideas about these resources with others.

How can you use your experience to make an Open Textbook?

How does your experience match the requisites of open textbook writing and publishing?

For many, writing and self-publishing an open textbook is unfamiliar terrain. However, identifying pertinent skills from past and current professions will help you gauge how your expertise fits with this new endeavour and where you need to draw on the knowledge of others to fill in the gaps. Publishing an open textbook is not a one-person job, so use the information you generate from this chapter as the springboard from which to build your team.

Publishing experience

As you consider which of your talents might transfer to producing and publishing an open textbook, write down related positions you’ve held. These might include:

• Editor
• Graphic designer
• Instructional designer
• Librarian
• Marketer
• Project manager
• Publicist
• Researcher
• Writer

Next, by each role, describe the details of that job. Then fill out the below table by matching your skills with the knowledge needed to produce an open textbook. The skills gaps can be filled by others.

Area	Open Textbook Publishing Skills	My experience	Relevancy/Skills	Support Required (Y/N)	Potential Candidates
Book Production	book design
	graphic design
	layout
	project management
	research
	technology: authoring platform
Writing/Editing	copy editing
	proofreading
	writing
OER	open-copyright licenses
	copyright/public domain
	OER research
	OER evaluation
	OER production
	open textbook writing
	attribution statement

Writing Experience

Previous writing experience comes in handy for both you and your contributors. Seasoned textbook authors know that this kind of project can take one to three years to complete when all stages are factored in: consultation, planning, researching, writing, and publication. The writing portion alone can range from six to eighteen months, depending on the length and complexity of the book. Knowing this upfront and understanding the determination and specific skills required to complete the task helps set the stage for successful authoring.

If you haven’t authored a textbook before, create a list of other writing assignments you’ve completed or contributed to. These might be:

• Textbook(s) in your field or another
• Book(s), fiction or non-fiction, in an unrelated field or subject
• Chapter(s) for a textbook or other book
• Course content; course packets; supplementary material for a course
• Article(s) published in a professional journal
• Article(s) published in a magazine related to your discipline
• Reviews about books in your field
• Letters to the editor for a professional journal in your field
• Professional blog about subjects in your field

Qualifications as a writer — in any capacity — prepares you in other ways too. As a writer, you will know what to look for when selecting colleagues as contributing authors. Although writing is not synonymous with book production, many authors are acquainted with at least some aspects of publishing. This know-how, however minor, can be very handy when planning an open textbook project.

Common concerns

Lauri shared her story on the BC Open Education Self Publishing Guide , which is the textbook we adapted from:

I'll lose money

Does giving work away really lead to lost income?

Not so, according to a 2013 survey conducted by Dana Beth Weinberg [New Tab] where she analyzed responses from almost 5,000 authors who took the 2013 Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest Author Survey. She found that nearly one-fifth of self-published authors earned no income from their writing and for those that did, the annual median income was less than $5,000. Even authors who worked with a publisher only made between $5,000 and $10,000 per year.

So you’re probably not going to miss out on riches by giving your work away. And for those searching for financial backing to write and publish an open textbook, there are various funding sources available.

Now for concern number two: won’t letting others make changes to your textbook undo your hard work, steal your control, and lead to chaos?

I’ll lose control over content

In his chapter, “You Can’t Sell Free, and Other OER Problems,” in Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science, Robert Biswas-Diener discusses the concern many authors, and potential authors, have with their “control over content” if released into the Commons. He says:

Are you losing control or sharing your knowledge?

What’s in it for me?

If you’re not going to get rich and you’re giving up control, what reason is there to write an open textbook? During the faculty workshop I describe above, I didn’t try to defend the benefits of writing an open textbook. Instead, I asked the audience why — and if — they thought this was a worthwhile venture. This is what they said.

Your work will be more widely read.

1. There is a movement underway in which it is believed that work that is funded or supported by public funds should/must be openly shared and covered by an open licence.
2. If authors release their original work or revisions made to someone else’s work openly, the risk of repeating existing knowledge is decreased. Instead, sharing one’s work promotes building on existing work and collaboration.
3. Some people see this as a social justice issue in which knowledge and education need to be available to everyone, in particular members of marginalized groups who face systematic barriers.
4. Having access to open textbooks and OER helps authors who wish to customize, or adapt, an existing work for their course, institution, region, or country. (See Reasons to Adapt an Open Textbook [New Tab] from the BCcampus Open Education Adaptation Guide.)
5. There is no doubt that writing a textbook requires commitment, time, and fortitude. Yet, there are certainly benefits for the author.

1. Authoring a textbook is a form of scholarship that can influence your field and contribute to your credibility.
2. Writing a textbook can lead to more professional opportunities. At the University of British Columbia, e.g., their Guide to Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Procedures at UBC 2016-17 [PDF – New Tab] states that “Contributions to the practice and theory of teaching and learning literature, including publications in peer-reviewed and professional journals, conference publications, book chapters, textbooks and open education repositories / resources.”
3. Sharing one’s work as an open textbook will contribute to the knowledge-sharing community and, hopefully, lead to new ideas from others who then share these out.

Financing my open publication

In terms of money, open textbooks are free for students, faculty, and anyone else to use. But they’re not free to produce. If you decide to write and publish an open textbook, you need to think about how you are going to compensate not only the people who help you, but yourself as well. The cost of producing an open textbook is often underestimated by authors.

Before you begin, make a list of the individuals you will need to support your project and resources.

Funding and compensation comes in different forms. Besides cash, in-kind contributions should be considered. For example, UBC offer support by providing access to instructional designers or librarians. The OER Grants offered by BCcampus Open Education to faculty and staff in this province stipulate that:

Typically, the creation of an open textbook is funded (often through grants) by:

• Open textbook projects
• Government (provincial or state, federal)
• Philanthropic organizations (e.g., Hewlett Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
• Professional societies (e.g., Association for Psychological Science)
• Consortia (e.g., Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction)
• A faculty author’s post-secondary institution (grant, release time, in-kind contributions, other)

At UBC, there are several funding opportunities that you may want to consider:

• OER/Open Textbook Grant
• Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund

Collaborating with others

Tips when collaborating with others to create an open textbook

As you plan the content of your book, think about experts in your field who might write on a specific topic. To help make a decision about who to approach, ask yourself if contribution from an individual will add value to your textbook and whether or not they have the experience to author a chapter or section for a textbook. Familiarity with open education is a plus.

The BCcampus Open Education team oversaw the production of fifty-four new open textbooks and ten major adaptations during its initial phase. Inviting collaborators to participate was left to the lead author who had proposed the textbook idea to us. It was felt that, as the subject-matter expert, this individual was most qualified to make these decisions. From the sidelines, our project managers watched the interplay between the primary author and their contributors. We learned what worked and what didn’t, and how problems could be avoided in the future.

The biggest lesson learned was the importance of establishing expectations for your contributors before writing begins. If you decide to invite one or more colleagues to provide material to your textbook, determine the parameters of this business relationship and then clarify with each author the following points:

1. Who will own copyright
2. Disclose the type of open-copyright licence that will be used to release the book. Be prepared to answer concerns and questions for colleagues not familiar with open textbooks.
3. Decide if contributing authors will be compensated for their efforts. Be clear about how much they will be compensated or paid.
4. Provide written details about their contribution, including:
   1. the topic — be specific
   2. length of their work by word count
   3. layout of the contributing piece including sections and subsections, number and type of images, tables, graphs, or other support resources
   4. the timeline and deadline for the first and subsequent drafts
   5. the timeline and deadline to review questions from the copy editor and make revisions

Use a contract or written agreement to clearly describe these expectations so there are no misunderstandings.This will be a valuable document to reference if either party has questions during the writing process.

Where can I get support?

Self-publishing a book is not new. With advances in technology and the advent of the Internet, this endeavour has been made that much easier. Still, producing your own book — especially a well-written, high-quality textbook — is a big undertaking, and for best results should include a team of individuals, each armed with skills that would otherwise be filled by employees at a publishing firm. Remember: When you self-publish, you become the publisher.

BCcampus published over fifty open textbooks. Each author was assigned a project manager — similar to a managing editor — who organized book layout, scheduled copy editing and proofreading, attended to editorial development, ordered the textbook cover, and saw that the book was promoted and posted in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. When we moved to the next phase of our work and encouraged authors to look to their post-secondary institutions for support, it was recognized that many of the publishing tasks — previously filled by BCcampus staff — fell to the author. This realization was one of the impetuses for writing this guide.

Copyright and open license

Before you begin writing, make sure you have a firm grasp of what copyright means and how applying an open-copyright licence — typically a Creative Commons licence [New Tab] — or designating your copyright to the public domain will affect your textbook.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, copyright is

copyright logo

The laws that govern copyright vary from country to country. The term “copyright” (copy + right) was first recorded between 1725 and 1735.

The copyright owner of a work, such as a textbook, is permitted to sell or distribute their work as they deem fit. This includes by assigning a licence or offering permissions to another party. For example, if an author decides to sell a book to a publisher, the contract might state that while the author retains copyright, the publisher has the right to print and sell the first copies of the book globally. In other words, the publisher has “First-time, non-exclusive, worldwide rights,” and for this right, the publisher pays the author. After the publisher has exercised this right, the author may resell their work.

For information on how UBC deals with the Canadian Copyright Law, see Copyright Basics FAQ [New Tab]

Fair Dealing and Fair Use

Open textbooks created or adapted under the supervision of and funded by BCcampus Open Education have not used the fair-dealing clause of Canada’s Copyright Act when selecting external resources to be included in an open textbook or other open educational resources (OER). All materials created and external resources selected for these open textbooks are either released under an open-copyright licence (see Using Open Licenses below ) or are in the public domain.

The definition of fair dealing according to the Library at Simon Fraser University is as follows:

If you work and live in the U.S., then you are likely concerned with fair use. According to the U.S. Copyright Office:

For more information on what is fair dealing or fair use, take a look at the Fair Dealing Requirements for UBC Faculty and Staff [new tab]

Using and applying Open Licenses

When creating an Open Textbook, it is best to use an open licensed materials. Take a look at the guide below on What is an open license, how to identify an open licensed materials and how to attribute:

• Open Licensing for Instructors
• Open Licensing for Students

Where to find open licensed materials

• Take a look at the Finding Open Education Resources [New tab]
• or you can also adapt from existing open textbooks. See Finding Open Textbooks [New tab]

Is using other people's open licensed work considered as plagiarism?

While using and/or changing the openly-licensed work of others might feel like plagiarism. It isn’t.

Merriam-Webster defines plagiarize as:

Using material from an open textbook or other open educational resources (OER) and adding it to your own textbook is not considered plagiarism for the following reasons:

1. You are not stealing because the original author has already given you (and everyone else) permission to use and change their work by releasing it with an open-copyright licence.
2. You are not stealing or passing off the original author’s ideas or words as your own because you will give the original author credit for their work with an attribution statement. Giving credit to the creator of a work is a legal requirement if you want to use an openly-licensed resource.

Who owns the copyright of the open textbook you have created?

Who are the copyright owners for your open textbook?

Determining who will own copyright for the various components in an open textbook — before writing begins — is very important. For example, when the BC Campus's Open Education Self-Publishing Guide was first created, this was one of the first items that BCcampus project managers discussed with authors, and the results were included in the contracts they signed. They learned early on that a faculty’s contract with their employer might state that the institution owns copyright for all writings produced during employment. Therefore, we needed to be careful about copyright ownership: was it with the author or the author’s employer?

It’s possible that, as the primary author and publisher, you will decide to pay contributors for their work and their copyright. If this is the case, outline this condition in those contracts. A writer who is paid this way is called a write for hire.

Here are potential copyright owners participating in the creation of an open textbook.

• Primary author
• Primary author’s institution
• Contributing authors
• Photographers
• Illustrators
• Graphic designers or others who contribute tables, graphs, charts, etc.
• A contributor’s institution

It is not usual practice to include copy editors and proofreaders as copyright holders. Instructional designers, who assist with the layout of a textbook but do not contribute content, are also not included.

Once you’ve established who owns copyright to specific material in the textbook, decide how you will acknowledge each creator for their work. This information should be recorded in your project timeline.

For more information on copyright, take a look at the following resources:

• UBC Copyright website [new tab].
• Open Course & Educational Resource Guidelines [New Tab]

Reference

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