Did you ever see the movie “Deception” that came out in 2008? No? It starred Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams. The cast alone should have made it a hit, but it bombed, critics hated it and audiences ignored it in spectacular numbers. Despite Hollywood’s addiction to stars and hype over content, the dirty […]
Book Design
Real World Book Design: Designing for Print-on-Demand Production
As the technology we use to manufacture books changes, designers responsible for creating those books adapt. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes reluctantly. But they adapt, because the new technology will eventually supplant the old technology. Today most books are still printed by offset lithography, and any print run over about 1,000 units will benefit from the more […]
Indie Business Memoir Scores Major Reviews
I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife and infant son in 1993. We were glad to escape the winters in New York, and had many friends in the area. But leaving home can be hard in other ways. Growing up in the Bronx and, later, lower Westchester, we were accustomed to […]
Project Focus: 2-Color Cover Design for Trade Publishers
For offset printing, 2-color covers can be much more economical than 4-color covers, particularly for short-run books. I discussed two 2-color covers for self-published books in a previous article and explained why these covers are often preferred by publishers. Here I look at two covers done for trade publishers. This first cover was designed for […]
Independent Bookstores Opening to Self-Published Books?
A lot of the trepidation authors feel when thinking about self-publishing their book seems to come from the retail bookselling community. Trying to pitch your book—from your one-book publishing company—to a chain bookstore buyer is an exercise in futility. And that’s assuming you can actually get to talk to a buyer, which is no easy […]
Self Publishing Basics: How to Create Your ARC Cover
Years ago I used to buy books at a famous bookstore in downtown New York City, in the old book selling district. This bookstore was famous for the range of subjects it carried, its steady inflow of new books, and the lively and sometimes erudite people you could meet browsing the narrow aisles looking for […]
Project Focus: 2-color Cover Design for Self-Publishers
Before the advent of digital printing and print-on-demand production, publishers had no choice but to print on offset presses, and most books today continue to be printed by offset. Book presses are large, noisy, oily pieces of heavy machinery. There are separate parts of the press for each color that will be printed, with separate […]
Self-Publishing Basics: 5 Layout Mistakes that Make You Look Unprofessional
Years ago my wife and I went to a wedding at a very prestigious “club” here in San Francisco. My wife looked gorgeous as always, and I wore a very nice light gray English wool suit that seemed suitably low-key. When we walked in the door I realized that I “hadn’t received the memo” because […]
Project Focus: Interior Design for The Age of Participation
One of the first books I produced for Berrett-Koehler Publishers in San Francisco was The Age of Participation by Patricia McLagan and Christo Nel. The overarching framework of the story of the movement of politics toward participative governance required a theme to hold the parts together yet show their relationship to the whole. These part-opening […]
Series Design Presents Unique Book Design Challenges
Some years ago I was asked to redesign the journal of the Swedenborg Foundation, Chrysalis. This journal presents essays, art, and spiritually-oriented material for their worldwide membership. The new design was clean and organized, and in the process I began a series of cover designs that went on for numerous issues. We needed to create […]
