ABOUT

BRINGING THE GLOBAL E-BOOK REVOLUTION TO COVID-19 ERA SENIORS: 

DIGITALLY PUBLISH YOUR LEGACY

"I started doing this to honor my father's legacy, because I care."
(Robert Cettl)

SENIOR LIVING IN A POST-COVID-19 NEW REALITY

The US CDC announced that seniors are at greater risk from contracting and dying from Covid-19 than all other age groups, especially those vulnerable in nursing homes. According to the CDC, “As you get older, your risk for severe illness from COVID-19 increases... for example, people in their 50s are at higher risk for severe illness than people in their 40s. Similarly, people in their 60s or 70s are, in general, at higher risk for severe illness than people in their 50s (while) the greatest risk for severe illness from COVID-19 is among those aged 85 or older”.  It’s the new reality that well must live in.  But how do we make the best of the situation?  

YOUR CHERISHED LEGACY [YCL] is an independently funded post-Covid-19 incentive, an Australia-China joint venture, which provides discounted digital publishing services to seniors and their families, allowing them the opportunity to have their memoirs, photo albums, scrapbooks, artworks and indeed any documents they wish published in industry standard digital formats.  Once published, these collections of cherished memories can be hosted on our tie-in eCommerce site and/or made available for the world to see through YCL’s international ebook distribution network.

At YCL, we believe that post-Covid-19 senior living is a vibrant and important part of the community life-cycle, that the love and dynamism of seniors handed down to their children and grandchildren is the core of the family legacy tradition.  However, most often this treasured part of the intra-familial relationship is handed down orally, through spoken communication during family events and occasions.  Nevertheless, in these times of increased social isolation, many seniors have started, resumed or completed their memoirs, photo collections, scrapbooks and other works of personal or creative content to relive and share their lives as well as maintain a healthy creativity.  In this, however, they are very often denied the benefits of the contemporary digital age, unable to transfer their hard copy or word file manuscripts to full ebooks and digital photo-books, let alone navigate the network of (self-)publishing platforms available.  And with family members supportive but both busy and themselves daunted by the vast digital publishing network, assisting seniors in these pursuits can be difficult and time-consuming.

At YCL, we assist seniors and their families to turn these memoirs, photo-books and scrapbooks into archival quality digital documents that can be easily circulated within families and also available to the entire world: the best gift seniors can give the global community is the story and record of their lives as part of the human ensemble.  We work optionally case by case on either a not for profit basis or potential hosting and more traditional royalty basis, but we are more concerned with easing the process of information sharing for seniors and their families than about additional income revenue streams, though are willing to accommodate such should it be of interest.  Sharing the creative expression and other output of senior voices is the concept at the heart of YCL.

DEVELOPING SENIOR-ASSISTED DIGITAL PUBLISHING

YCL was started in July/August 2020 by Australian-born Robert Cettl (51) in consultation with his senior age father George (86).  Robert was in China teaching English at the University of Jinan, Shandong province when Covid-19 erupted.  Unable to return to his home country of Australia or directly care for or visit his father during the Covid-19 epidemic, Robert quickly made all necessary care arrangements online.  In their talks via video and phone software Skype, Robert discovered that his father had a wealth of written, photographic and even video material pertaining to his life and travels, including a memoir.

From his home/work base in China, Robert formatted his father’s memoirs and other written work into two full-color e-books, a photo-book (forthcoming) and an ethnographic feature-length video, making them available online for the world to share in his father’s remarkable life adventures.  Soon, his father’s illustrated, dust-jacketed hardcover was added to the National Library of Australia in the nation’s capital Canberra, where it resides for posterity.  So too, it generated much interest among his friends and former workmates in his home town.  After making his father’s life story and materials available through transmedia dissemination (publishing work across multiple platforms and in multiple media formats), Robert pieced together an international digital publishing network that he was determined to utilize to enable other seniors and their families to similarly share their precious life stories with the international community.  Information sharing.

Though initially targeting Australian seniors, with Robert’s father as a starting point, YCL - as run entirely online - is now made available to seniors and their supportive families internationally, primarily in the native English speaking countries of the USA, UK, Canada and New Zealand but including China and soon branching out globally.  Through a network of freelance contractors, YCL is now able to offer its digital publishing service internationally, providing seniors and families with the following services: manuscript proofreading and editing, ebook and print book (paperback and hardcover) publishing, photo-book publishing, library catalog inclusion worldwide, optional ISBN registration and - upon freelancer engagement - even photo and video editing / post-production / exhibition.

In specializing in the digital publishing needs of seniors and their families, YCL is the sole dedicated transmedia digital publishing incentive catering to the post-Covid-19 reality we all must now live in the best we can.  In this, supporting global information sharing is the service YCL proudly provides.