“The books came today....they look lovely. Thank you for helping with this project and for arranging the printing as well. It’s a very nice thing to see the cartoons so well presented, and for some reason, more satisfying than on the website....maybe because you can’t turn a book off! You’ve been very helpful and obliging....many thanks for that, and hopefully I will be back for Book 2 in due course.”
Marketing Ideas for Authors
From the ever-prolific and results-oriented Joanna Penn, an information-packed video on book marketing. Well worth 45 minutes of your time.
100 Million Books to Direct to Your Brain
The founders of this site and app aim to bring selected snippets from the vast, vast ocean of books whose time has come and gone, and hopefully resurface interesting ideas and insights for readers. The selections are made by humans rather than algorithms.
“Hence 100 Million Books, a browser extension that shows you a new idea from a new book every time you open a new tab. There are no categories and no social features and no algorithms whatsoever. From fiction to nonfiction, old to new, science to literature, etc…it presents you the world.”
Skills for the New Digital World
One of Google's many initiatives is Google Digital Garage, an entry point to many courses designed to assist people with skills necessary to negotiating the online world. According to the introductory material:
Grow your career or business at your own pace, with flexible and personalised training courses designed to build your confidence and help you thrive.
- Discover tools to make your business succeed
- Improve your interview skills
- Prepare for the career you want
Well worth a look for anyone wanting to enhance their digital skills, whether for business or other purposes.
Women Illustrators United
Women Who Draw attempts to redress a perceived imbalance of female/male illustrators. According to their website:
“Since its launch, Women Who Draw has become the place to go to discover new talented illustrators from all over the world. It features over 2700 (and counting) professional artists, tools to help users curate their own stables of artists, interviews with industry pros, monthly member collaborations, and a resources page for artists and the people who hire them.”
Whatever the politics of the site, it showcases many excellent designers working in a wide range of styles.
Life Advice_Book Cover Design
Typefaces: Eveleth and Proxima Nova. Published by Brolga Publishing.
Introducing the Illustrations of Pawel Nowacki
Pawel has illustrated several books with us now, with a range of subject matter. He has adapted well to every request and produces illustrations with personality and energy. Here's an introduction from Pawel:
"My name is Pawel (the Polish cognate of Paul) and I’m a freelance illustrator based in Poznań, Poland. When I was a small boy, my father showed me a ballpen-made portrait — I've been drawing ever since. Being self-taught, I barely ever leave my pencil behind, wanting to be a better artist. Working almost my entire life in IT business has given me an interesting perspective on art, and at the same time equipped me with some skills that are helping me out with my art work. Coming from two such distant worlds is both advantage and a challenge which I take happily, having a great motivation from my family, especially from my beautiful wife Joanna.
I really enjoy black and white drawings. Book illustrations, comics and graphic novels were always something special for me. Being able to actually create book illustrations is like fulfilling my childhood dreams. This is also why I really enjoy working with Luke, for he is a professional, honest and friendly person, giving me the opportunity to do what I really love:)
If you are a book author and want to decorate your book with any kind of illustration I'm more than happy to help you. I always like to research the subject of the illustration to fit it best for authors idea. I usually do hand-drawn, pencil to paper sketches then scan and add some processing work on the computer with use of a graphic tablet. I always like to leave a hand-drawn feeling to the final effect. I can create book illustrations, portraits, caricatures, etc. but I stay open for any kind of drawing / art idea you might have!
You can have a look at some of my previous works on my portfolio archive at pawel-nowacki.tumblr.com/archive and also on my Instagram account: www.instagram.com/nowacki_pawel, (user: nowacki_pawel)"
Principles for Combining Typefaces
From the great online Smashing Magazine, an old post (but a goodie) on combining typefaces in a layout. An interesting table rating type combinations for 22 commonly used typefaces.
“The fact that there are no hard and fast rules about combining typefaces can make the process of making good choices time-consuming and maybe even a little exhausting. But it’s also nice to have a handy set of principles, as well as an understanding of certain typographic situations to avoid, to guide the process as quickly as possible to a pleasant typographic result.”
No-one Answers their Phone Anymore...
Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
Alexis Madrigal explains why it is sometimes hard to get phone calls answered, and why you might not feel like answering your own. As he notes, the sheer number of alternatives to the vanilla phone call have rendered it "a vanishing cultural layer". Having so many communications options (email, text, phone, messenger, snapchat, skype, etc) does create a complex landscape where different people are approachable only via specific avenues, and if you try the wrong one, a reply might be slow in coming or nonexistent.
Author Testimonial #7
“Luke Harris at Working Type Design has recently created the covers for three of my novels and the results are beautiful eye-catching images that wonderfully distil the essence of my stories. Even though the books are all so different from each other he captured the ‘feel’ of them perfectly. He is a delight to work with – patient, professional and informative, with a keen eye for detail – and the whole process has been a complete pleasure. I would highly recommend his services and will definitely be using his talents again for future novels. Thanks Luke – look forward to working with you again soon. ”
Samantha's Goodreads profile. and Another Time and Place on Amazon.
Abdi Aden talks PR for his Books
Abdi Aden, author of Shining and Yes I Can is very canny at promoting his books. Here are a few suggestions from him based on his experiences:
My PR is very basic and low budget.
- Word of mouth anywhere you can, such as my kids' basketball. Take-away shops, public places.
- Schools I visit and speak at.
- Making t-shirts.
- Websites, also other book-sellers websites.
- Calling places saying "I have a book." Like example some writers festivals, Dymocks Camberwell also run a book night every November for self-publishers.
- Social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Also learn when new social media come up like snapchat.
- Find small festivals, such as Clunes -- self publishers do well there. People attend from all over the world,
Author Testimonial #6
“Working Type Design created the cover of both of my books The Shed and Underneath my clothes. Luke was fantastic to work with and so patient with me when it came to layouts etc People comment all the time on how great my book covers are...especially The Shed.I can highly recommend Working Type Design.”
Creative Mornings Melbourne
Serial founder of interesting design-based companies (Swiss Miss, to-do app Teux Deux, and Tattly, Tina Roth Eisenberg is also behind the global design talks known as Creative Mornings.
Melbourne has its own series, so if you're interested in designers talking about designy things (there's a different theme every month), then consider going along. At the price of free, how could you miss it? In a section impishly titled "convince your boss", the organisers advance the following argument:
“From design legends to hometown heroes, CreativeMornings speakers are selected by each chapter based on a global theme. Past speakers include visionaries such as Seth Godin, Ben Chestnut, Jessica Hische, Debbie Millman, Simon Sinek and David Kelley, among many others. These accomplished individuals share their stories and lessons they’ve learned throughout their careers and in doing so, pass on invaluable knowledge to the audience. I will walk away from the event feeling motivated and inspired to apply those lessons to my own work. ”
Independent Publishing Promotional Options
We asked author Roger Mendelson, author of Eliyahu's Mistress, to jot down a few thoughts re. promoting his book in the age of social media:
"The days of publishers promoting novels are over, unless you are a high profile author. If you want to promote your book, you have to do it yourself. I am on this journey and despite my novel, Eliyahu’s Mistress winning the IPPY 2018 Bronze Award for best Australian/NZ fiction, am finding it difficult to gain momentum. There is no magic bullet. If you believe in your novel, you require more persistence with promoting it than writing it.I say this as someone with considerable business experience, so I can only imagine the frustration most authors must feel.
Traditional media is fast dying, so if you have a very low budget, social media is really the only option. For this to be effective, you need to define who your readership is likely to be and target this group. It needs to be very specific. Eg middle-aged country people, single older women, retired couples, young single men. I am not an effective Facebook user but I can see that with a very low budget, this really has to be the major medium to use."
Safe System Critique — Book Cover Design
Experienced traffic engineer Rob Morgan has written a scathing critique of the current road safety paradigm, the so-called "Safe System". He sums up his argument with the following excoriation: "the Safe System’s demand to abolish the old order of evidence-based road safety and speed management has been a clarion call to action and — unless we put a stop to it — its continuation will put us on an inexorable path to the creation of an unchecked state.
The cover incorporates surveillance, Victorian roads, an image of Stalin and is set in Proxima Nova.
Is Google's Material Design boring?
When a massive company like Google attempts to standardise the look and function of its many user interfaces (UI) with a single design 'language', it is naturally big news in the design world. Many welcomed the move away from drop shadows, fake wood grain and bevels etc, but others argue that the new look lacks personality, fails to advance the Google brand and is too uniform.
Steps to Publishing Your Book
The diagram below provides a breakdown of the steps involved in creating, designing, producing and publishing a book independently. There are quite a few steps involved, but with our assistance and those of other professionals, the process is not quite as painful as it might appear...
Killing Babies — Book Cover Design
Born and bred in the bush, nineteen-year-old Daryl Bishop's number came up in the tenth National Service Ballot in 1969, and he shipped out to Vietnam in 1971. Killing Babies is his unvarnished account of his training and war experiences. Fortunately, no babies were harmed in the making of his book, but the stigma and after-effects of serving in that unpopular war is honestly related. Published by Sid Harta, and written in an authentic, engaging and very Australian voice. Our cover features Darryl's own necklace of cartridges, jungle foliage and a helicopter used by both US and Australian forces. The title typeface is Eveleth.
“Once again thank you so much for all the help you gave me in getting my first book over the line to be published. BTW the young journo who interviewed me for the local paper was very impressed by your cover design. Am getting help from most unlikely places. A woman rang from North Qld to do a podcast with me on Bindi’s and Bulldust and today a woman from Canberra is spreading the word on some site to do with finding a good book to read, she liked it that much.”
Two Fine Free Font Offerings
When IBM commissioned a typeface family for their own internal use, they also released it for general use. Clean and practical, Plex also has some style and warmth. With sans, serif and monospaced subfamilies and many weights, one might wish that many businesses relying on dull typefaces such as Arial and Times New Roman might make the switch and use something much better for free.
“With four subfamilies, eight weights, two styles (roman & italic), and 100 Languages, IBM Plex™ can do just about anything you need it to. Just download, add to your font manager, activate and enjoy.”
Another free offering, Overpass is not quite a grand as Plex, but with eight weights and true italics, it is a fine and generous offering. Very smart and highly readable, and more space efficient than Plex.
Author Testimonials #5
“I would strongly recommend you to anyone requiring this kind of service. I absolutely love it. Thank you so much. You are a genius.”
