by Zach Miller
Quick Summary
The Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project provides independent authors with professional-grade tools so they can publish their work. It also offers readers and would-be authors a rich collection of freely available titles that demonstrate MLPP's potential, many of which are collected together in the MLPP Book Showcase.
MLPP’s book design tool, Pressbooks, is available to all Minnesotans, free of charge. Pressbooks is an easy-to-use online service that enables authors to create attractive content using a wide variety of templates and formatting options. Pressbooks allows ebooks to be kept private, shared with other authors or editors, or made publicly available. Templates are available that are specifically tailored for poetry, fiction, family history, dissertations, and many other content types.
The works listed below are all a part of MLPP's Book Showcase, and they're just the tip of the iceberg: since its inception, Minnesotans have initiated over 1,000 book projects using MLPP. To get yours started, look for inspiration below, then check out MLPP's step-by-step instructions.
Cookbooks
- Growing Up Foodie, by Nicole Marie (Simonian) Masika
- Ingredients of the Environment: A Cookbook, by Hazel Chew
Creative Writing
- Babel Fish Bouillabaisse II, by Barbara Fister
- Joe: Just an Ordinary Earthling, by Edward A Szynalski and Allen L Petro
- Potluck: Creative Works by Minnesota's Library Workers, by Bridget Reistad and Rachel Wexelbaum
- This Was 2020: Minnesotans Write About Pandemics and Social Justice in a Historic Year, collected by Ramsey County Library
Handbooks
- Clickbait, Bias, and Propaganda in Information Networks, by Barbara Fister, Rachel Flynn, and the Students of IDS101
- Indus Magnet School K-12 Student Handbook, Laurie Bitter, Principal
History & Memoir
- Atwater, Minnesota: 1934-1935, Letters from Small-Town Minnesota, by Ruth Harriet (Covell) Stafford
- The Bards of Valley View, by Bob Douglas
- CLIC Turns 50: A history of Cooperating Libraries in Consortium, 1969-2019, by Karen Harwood
- Two Praries, One Place: A Historical Geography of the Kasota Prairie, by Bob Douglas
Poetry
- Family Reflections: Entries from the Annual North Branch Area Library Poetry Contest, edited by Amelia Birkholz
- Feelin’ Thielen Poetry Contest: Poems Submitted by Youth in Grades 4-12, presented by Lake Agassiz Regional Library
- The Inner Journey North: Poems from a Minnesota Expatriate, by Bruce Horton; Edited by Valerie Horton
- Stuck at Home: Entries from the 2021 North Branch Area Library Poetry Contest, edited by Amelia Birkholz
Textbooks
- American Environmental History, by Dan Allosso
- Change: A Leader's Perspective, Leadership Education Graduate Student Voices on 21st Century Change, by Kendall Larson
- Culturas hispanas a través de la pantalla / Hispanic Cultures Through the Screen, by Ana M. López-Aguilera
- Mujer y naturaleza: Una colección de textos para el debate, edited by Ana M. López-Aguilera and Adriana Gordillo
- The Public Speaking Resource Project: An Open Education Resource with Room to Grow, by Lori Halverson-Wente and Mark Halverson-Wente
- Words of Wisdom: Intro to Philosophy, by Jody Ondich