Throughout the web 2.0 boom of the early 21st century, people have had an increasing number of ways to express themselves online. Easier access to creative software, skyrocketing Internet speeds, and worldwide social networking sites have all, in their own way, contributed to this phenomenon. It’s now commonplace to share photos, videos and music online, either in a community or on a blog.

Finding new ways to share written work online has been a slower process, partly because the technology is still in a state of flux. E-readers are bursting onto the market in 2010, but many have already grown accustomed to reading on an over-sized cell phone screen.

Supraterranean was founded in 2008 with the primary goal of encouraging personal expression and creative growth, using the various tools offered on the Internet. Over the past two years, contributors have self-published many kinds of creative work: stories, photographs, experimental videos, poems and more. With no editorial selection system, contributors are free to share their work with the public immediately ­– to strike out on their own creative journey unimpeded.

Now the website is taking a leap forward with the launch of Supraterranean Books, which will publish its first e-book on July 6, 2010. The collection of early works by Supraterranean founder Nick Meador is titled Seeking the Upward Spiral. It contains just more than 300 pages of stories (two of which were previously unpublished), essays and poems hand-picked by the author. Meador also wrote an introduction detailing his creative efforts since starting to write in 2005.

The e-book will first be made available in PDF form using a “pay what you want” system of voluntary donations. Later on it will be distributed in the iBookstore, Kindle Store, and other e-book retailers, and also on Supraterranean in other file formats such as TXT and RTF. With so many different options for reading digital work, the goal is to provide the e-book in as many formats as possible.

This is an exciting time for self-publishing and creative expression in general. Over the past two years, Supraterranean has been committed to reinventing the established publishing model. The walls that once had to be climbed to release a book have largely crumbled, opening a new realm that we can now explore together. It’s up to us to show that freedom is expression.

Visit supraterranean.com/books/ or email books[at]supraterranean.com for more information.