When co-authors Bob Stuckey and Ken Cooper contacted me about designing their business book, The Control Catastrophe: Why your organization is wasting money and how to fix it, they gave me a brief description of their manuscript and identified their target audience—corporate executives, managers and supervisors. The Design Process I began my process by looking at other books…
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First-time author James Gibson contacted me about designing his memoir, Just a Long Walk. I asked if his manuscript was finished and if it was professionally edited.* It was not, so I suggested that he contact Andy Doty (Editwright.com) for editing and book coaching services. Andy got the project and circled back to me to design…
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Seasonal holiday promotions begin in summer, way ahead of fall. “Pumpkin Spice” is everywhere, and Christmas displays are popping up already. All of these products are competing for buyers’ attention, and one of them certainly captured mine. While I was shopping at Target, I saw new boxes of Halloween cereal that stopped me. A separate…
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Today we purged the majority of old printed samples we have kept in the basement for more than twenty years. Why did we purge? The shelves were full, and we needed space. Recently, we talked about how to manage those shelves. What should we do with all this material we had once thought was so…
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After a busy afternoon, I went to the library to pick up a book on order. While I was looking around, I saw a special display with books about dogs. One children’s book caught my eye because I recognized the author, Mem Fox, and the illustrator, Mark Teague. I stopped to read their story, Cat Dog. It…
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This summer, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the Van Gogh exhibit. It was fabulous. We were dazzled by more than seventy-five paintings and drawings by master artists Vincent van Gogh, as well as Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand. While we were enjoying the paintings, we saw a book…
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My friend Bobbi wrote to me: “I’m frustrated with this photo stock website, which was my image source. I seem to recall you suggested several sites—some free—for graphic images, but I can’t find them. Do you remember what they were? I really need a new source.” Many online resources I replied, “Here you go!” and…
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I’m a book designer who frequently listens to webinars (and podcasts) about book marketing and publishing. They keep me up to date. I’ve been listening and watching for many years. Most of the information is not new to me. However, it reinforces book publishing concepts every author should learn. Recently, I attended an excellent webinar…
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