Pressbooks

To create a Pressbooks account, you will need an institutional e-mail address.

1. Create an Account, or Sign in at the top right.
2. Enter the information required to register your new account.
   • If you do not have a book to create, choose the option to “Register my book later”.
   • If you have a book that you are ready to begin working on, choose the option to “Register my book now”. During registration, keep in mind that the Webbook address (the URL) cannot be changed after it is created. The Book Title can be edited, but not the URL.
3. Pressbooks will send you a link to activate your account. After you activate your account, you are ready to start creating your own Pressbook.

1. Go to “My Books”
2. Click “Create a New Book”

3. Fill out the Book Info
   • The Webbook address (the URL) cannot be changed after it is created. The Book Title can be edited, but not the URL.
   • Make sure you choose “NO” for Privacy. Having your book visible to the public means that it is published and accessible. We recommend keeping the book private as you work on it and only make it public once you’re ready to have the world see it.

4. Click “Create Book”

1. Go to “My Books”
2. Click “Clone a Book”

3. Fill out the Source and Target book information
   • The Target Book URL cannot be changed after it is created. The Target Book Title can be edited, but not the URL.

4. Click “Clone It!”
5. The new book will now appear in your list of “My Books” and you can begin editing it.

Here are some guides for how to create a Pressbook. Due to there being different instances of Pressbooks, their instructions may vary slightly.

Books

• Pressbooks Guide by BCcampus
• Publishing with Pressbooks: A Visual Guide by Amanda Grey for UBC
• Self-Publishing Guide by Lauri M Aesoph for BC Campus

• Pressbooks User Guide by Pressbooks

Videos

• Pressbooks Basic Training by Amanda Grey for BCIT
• Pressbooks Video Tutorials Series by BCcampus
• Introduction to Using Pressbooks (by Pressbooks)
• How to Use Pressbooks (by BiblioBoard Library)
• ASCCC Webinar: How to use PressbooksEDU for OER (by Pressbooks)

Checklist

When you have finished writing, editing, and reviewing your content and are ready to publish your book, here are some next steps in order to get your book ready for publication.

1. Choose your license
2. Accessibility Check
   • Go through the BCcampus Accessibility Checklist. Accessibility is part of the assessment criteria for books to be added to the BCcampus Open Textbook Collection.
3. Create a cover image
   • Open BCIT has created a cover template (sample to the right) that you can use to create a cover image. Contact us and we will send you the template.

4. Request ISBN
   • Contact us if you would like ISBN numbers for both print and digital formats for your book. We can also deposit a digital copy of your book in the Library and Archives of Canada collection once it is published.
5. Fill out Book Info
6. Choose and Export files
   • Exports are static copies of the book, so every time you make changes to the book you will need to re-export.
   • Download and double-check the formatting for the PDF version of the text to make sure everything looks correct.

Publish

Publishing in Pressbooks means making your book publicly accessible. This is done at the top of the “Organize” page by toggling the book from Private to Public.

You can make the whole book publicly accessible as well as choose individual chapters that people can see. You can make the book public, but hide chapters that you aren’t ready to publish yet. Hide chapters by un-checking them for Web and Export.

After publishing,

1. Contact us and we will make sure a copy of your textbook is added to the Open BCIT Collection.
2. Submit your book to OER repositories such as,
   • BCcampus Open Collections
   • MERLOT (you will need an account to submit)
   • OER Commons (you will need an account to submit)