San Francisco Writer's Conference Self-Publishing Boot Camp

POSTED ON Feb 21, 2011

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

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I’m down at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference today, giving a talk on book design for self-publishers. It’s part of Carla King’s Self-Publishing Boot Camp, which is being offered in the post-conference section.

Carla has lined up some other experts to speak also, and I’m hoping to have time to speak to some of them. A full report will be coming.

Here are two questions I’ve been thinking about as I get ready to publish my new book:

  1. Seth Godin‘s new publishing venture, The Domino Project, has announced their first book, called Poke the Box. The cover of the book has no type on it. No title, no author, no nothing. Godin says that when you see the book online, there’s always text next to it, so who needs it?
    Would you publish a book without a title on the cover?
  2. Aaron Shepard uses a square image instead of the usual book-shaped tall rectangle to show his books on Amazon. He rightly points out that it gives you a much larger area to advertise and is therefore more noticeable. But, of course it doesn’t look like a book.
    Would you advertise your book with a “cover graphic” that doesn’t look like a book cover?

Amazon links are affiliate links, thank you. Photo by Rodefeld

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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