Feed: Concordia Publishing House
Posted on: Monday, August 16, 2010 9:53 AM
Author: Concordia Publishing House
Subject: Get Published by Concordia Publishing House
Get Published by Concordia Publishing House
Concordia Publishing House asks authors to fill the Concordia Writers Cooperative
08.16.2010 – Saint Louis, MO—For 140 years Concordia Publishing House (CPH) has been in the publishing business. This year, however, CPH decided to give authors the chance to be their own publisher with the release of the Concordia Writers Cooperative (CWC).
The Cooperative is a social marketplace of sorts, where lay people and church workers alike can meet and collaborate, publish and sell resources, and find the content they need.
Since the site went live on April 15 it has had a modest start, with 200 authors signing up and dozens of product being submitted.. Of these submissions, many have passed doctrinal review and the rest are in process.
"The authors who've pioneered the Cooperative have been very patient and have helped us to find many of the process's rough edges," said Robert Lail, a developer for the CWC.
Last week the Cooperative began selling the resources that have passed doctrinal review, and the development team is hopeful that everything will start to snowball now that the site is fully functional.
CPH developers are hopeful that the CWC will take off, especially because the site is reliant on having authors to populate the site. Without author submissions, the site cannot work.
"Authors need consumers and consumers need authors," said Lail. "I think the Cooperative will either reach a critical mass and become awesome, or limp along—useful, but only in the margins."
That is where CPH hopes that the public will step in and fill the Cooperative with resources. CPH encourages anyone to take the Bible studies, sermons, devotions, children's messages, and more that they have written over the years and submit them to the Cooperative. The expectation is that eventually, when the CWC is populated, there will be hundreds of resources available to the greater Church body.
"We're hopeful that the CWC will increase collaboration and cross-pollination among churches," said Lail. "By lowering the hurdles to authorship and broadening the array of resources available to congregations, my hope is that the Cooperative will shrink the LCMS's globe."
To learn more about the Concordia Writer's Cooperative or start uploading your works today, visit concordiawriters.org.
