A really cool web service called FastPencil aims to get artists, writers, and editors together online to make a book and get it published. Apparently the matchmaking service cuts the turnaround time on a final product to a few short months, which is pretty cool. On the surface it might look like a DIY publishing service for the amateur author, but FastPencil has a reasonable revenue sharing model so that you can actually make money from your book (which can also be made available in an electronic format).
Well, sometimes inspiration strikes when away from a computer (which is a non-issue for us bloggers since we never leave the cool glow of a monitor), so for those occasions, FastPencil has created an iPhone application which hosts all of the core functionality of editing/adding to ongoing projects, connecting with collaborators, reviewing published work, and perusing the FastPencil marketplace. While it’s to be expected that iPhone gets dibs out of sheer popularity, I would hate to write even a little bit of a novel on a touchscreen, both for typing inaccuracies and blobbish text selection. In any case, I look forward to FastPencil coming to BlackBerry, so I can finally finish my harlequin romance, "The Extraterrestrial Sexual Escapades of Kip Longwood and Aphrodite Honeydew".
[via PR Newswire]