pfancher's blog

This week I finished the layout for the book. The content has been sent to the author for review and for him to revise. I also built the cover design in InDesign. Finally, I made a plan for the showcase next week.

This week I began threading the text into the book layout. I'm done with chapter 1 and 1/2 done with chapter 2. This will continue to take a few days because I have to do it in the MTRF and I'm only free during their open hours for a couple of hours at a time. So it goes. I hope to finish adding all the text by Friday at the earliest and Sunday at the latest. The side bar stories are giving me a hard time. Some of them are 200-500 words long. Not sure how to deal with those yet.

This week I put the final touches on the layout and cover design. The author approved of the cover design with a few small changes. Dave Blakesley asked for a few small changes to the layout, which I finished yesterday. The margins are giving me some trouble. I like the white space so I want to put as much as possible in a large footer. However the author prefers the content in the sidebar.

This week I worked on second drafts. I send Dave several second editions of the cover design. None of them are perfect. The basic idea is pretty much set, but one image is giving me a tough time. Just can't seem to find the perfect one. I'll keep looking.

As far as the layout goes, I also send Dave a second edition, which took inspiration from Presentation Zen Design. I think this draft is much more interesting than last time. However, the design is still very 'young'. It's starting to take shape but needs more time to develop and grow.

My main goals for the past week were to take a more unconventional approach to the book layout and to develop some mock-up cover art. I ended up creating about a dozen cover designs. Dave selected one that he likes the most and gave me some feedback. I'll have the second draft of the cover art done by the end of the week. As far as the layout, I'm working from a model Dave pointed out in the book Presentationzen Design. I have the layout complete, with styles, for several pages.

After meeting with Dave, we've settled on several things. 1) No color in the text; it's too expensive. 2) Trim size 7.5x9.25. 3) We have a vision for the cover art.

Following up on that, I hoped to get the cover drafted, but the cover didn't work out as well as I imagined. I'll plug away again next week.

This summer, I was sitting by my neighborhood pool reading Snow Crash by Neil Stevenson. In the chair next to me, I noticed a handsome ‘bear’ reading 1493 by one of my favorite historians Nathaniel Philbrook. Lounging half in the pool, a young man was engrossed in The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. As I looked around this space, I was reminded of one of the many reasons I love living in D.C.

I spent the last week or so attempting to learn how to use Publisher and InDesign from video tutorials, without too much success. I think I just need to get in there and play around. Because of this, I have not made much progress on the book layout or cover design. I have spent some time making sketches of possible cover designs, searching for images that may work for the cover, and checking out some interesting book layouts.

My progress thus far has primarily been research. Dave contacted the author and sent me all the files. We’re still waiting on some revisions from the author, so I’m doing some prep work.

1 – I’ve researched the primary competitor in this market, Bryan Garner. I’ve looked into how his books are designed and promoted. I’ve also research what journals and blogs have reviewed or promoted Garner’s books. From that, I’m trying to figure out who the key players may be to create some buzz around the book I’m promoting.

I'm going to start by introducing a project that I think the class will be interested in, but I promise to tie it back into the readings by the end. A friend of mine introduced me to a start up project that aims to create a "platform built for the future of the publishing industry". The start up project is called Booklr, and it may be one possible 'future of the book’. Booklr leverages social media and essentially crowd sources the traditional roles of the book agent and editor.