Tag Archives: Book Design

The importance of designed books in the self-published future

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I read an excellent article this morning on the importance of designed books. Actually, the article does not mention books, but the concepts apply. Here’s a quote from the interviewee, Dave Snyder Design in the most classic sense is a potent business strategy. That’s not to say it’s only about business efficiency. Everything needs a high level of craft, but even that can’t put lipstick on a pig and make people believe the pig is not a pig. … Continue reading →

Self-publishers trade publishing dreams need excellence

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Self-publishers trade publishing dreams need excellence to provide better hopes. There are realistic, if remote, possibilities of being picked up by a “real” publisher. But only if you can demonstrate excellent sales, a sizable following, or ongoing usage (like coursework, regularly scheduled seminars, and the like). I thought the image of Victorian woodtype might help drive home the concept of tradepub being a step back to a time which really doesn’t exist any more. Traditional publishing as we … Continue reading →

Biblia, Biblia Serif, new book production fonts

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Today I’m pleased to announce that Hackberry Font Foundry has released Biblia, Biblia Serif, new book production fonts for my friends. This is specifically designed for my cohorts, writers and publishers of Christian fiction and non-fiction. That’s why they are named Biblia. I’m working on a companion sans named Draetha, which is Welsh for preach. These fonts have a long history. In the early nineties, I fell in love with the look of a font named Minister. I … Continue reading →

Tate closes, authors beware, and other normal advice

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I wanted to write a short reminder post about the trials and tribulations of authorship: the news that Tate closes, authors beware of BEA, and other normal advice. This is one of the things we need to do to help each other remember about the dangers [fical] of wandering about in the publishing industry. News like Tate closes, authors beware of BEA, and so on is just normal advice For those not aware, Tate (who is a commonly used … Continue reading →

Digital books still increasing

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There’s a lot of confusion among authors today. Primarily, it shows as: are digital books still increasing? The answer shouts back: Of Course! Here’s a quote from Jane Friedman’s post this morning Looking Back at 2016: “The market for adult fiction is primarily a digital one “It’s commonly said that in the United States, overall trade book sales are divided about 70-30 print-digital, and that ebook sales at traditional publishing houses are flat to declining. (You’ve probably … Continue reading →

InDesign CC 2017 whimpers in esoterically, under the radar

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Yes, I said that InDesign CC 2017 whimpers in under the radar. Version 12.0 has very little for me. Your usage may vary. But, this is all a normal part of the process as software matures. And, have no doubt, InDesign is matured—the best in the field. To restate things, InDesign can now do almost anything you need. It’s been that way for me since CC 2014. The result is that the engineering team adds features which apply to smaller … Continue reading →

Briskly: new font release for Fall 2016

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I’ve put this off for years, but it just seemed time. Briskly: new font release is a font made from one sample of my handwriting. An ASCII font (256-character), it will work well for desktop, Web, and ePUB. The only place you will be able to buy it with included ebook licenses is here on this Website. Briskly: new font release is here! There are some interesting aspects to this font. First, some of the characters have a unique slant … Continue reading →

Converting Books to Ebooks with InDesign CC

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Book designers often dread converting books to ebooks — the process of changing a greyscale printed book to various full-color ebooks: downloadable PDFs, ePUB FXL and Reflow, & Kindle books of various flavors from e-ink to large Fire tablet. It often seems a bit like wizard work requiring incantations, lots of smoke, and mirrors. Sad to say, on the Kindle end of things, that’s fairly accurate. Yet things are not as they seem, as InDesign CC has … Continue reading →

Reedsy simple book formatting & free!

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I received this email today from the Skilled Workman contact form: From Martin at Reedsy simple book formatting: “I’m part of the team behind the Reedsy Book Editor, an online tool that helps independent authors write, collaborate on, and format their projects. It exports in EPUB3 and print-ready PDF and we’ve been getting really great feedback from our Authors. We’ve just published a post on how to format books and thought perhaps you and your readers might find it … Continue reading →

Where is the future of books?

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I just posted a link to this article from The Bookseller: stating the digital revolution is definitely not over. Of course, that is one of those DUH! facts. The future of books is even more complex than you may think, though. How do we deal with audio, video, interactive content, and so on? Basically… The future of books is in the readers’ hands We really don’t know where it will go. Is a book, with a movie … Continue reading →