Category Archives: Book Design

InDesign CC begins the solution to ugly HTML lists

Skilled Workman Posted on by

One of the real issues with ePUBs and Kindle books are the horrendously ugly HTML lists which have no typographical relationship with the rest of the copy in the book. InDesign CC has made a large step forward by beginning their development of a robust convert-to-text option for our ePUBs. Let me show you the issues with a sample document:   Here we see a small bulleted list using an oversized red dingbat from the font, Embellishments … Continue reading →

Multiple linked TOCs in ePUBs for CC

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One of the new changes to InDesign CC is an innocuous checkbox at the bottom of the Table of Contents dialog box for: Make text anchor in source paragraph. What this does is make sure that any TOC has functional links in the exported ePUB. As Ron Bilodeau commented, “You can now have multiple ID-generated TOCs within your document(s) and they will all exist with correct links within your exported ePub file.” Now you can have custom … Continue reading →

Longer books sell better!

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I had a frustrating weekend. I was reading a novel. I enjoyed it. But it stopped halfway through— BANG!—just stopped. I was irritated. I had just started getting into the characters. So, I bought the second one in the series. It was also very good, but it did the same durn thing! So, I bought the third one in the series, and it did the same thing. There’s one more book in the series, and I’ll probably … Continue reading →

The new Self-Publishing Handbook is released!

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My handbook for the new breed of self-publisher is out! Why do you need to read this book? As I have become involved with the amazing variety of the new breed of authors—self publishing pioneers, it has been stunning to watch and listen as they discuss the problems they are having because they are working in Word. If they are dealing with quality issues, Word rarely has an answer. In fact, it’s sad to see that there … Continue reading →

Does quality matter in the new publishing paradigm?

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As I have been experiencing, learning, teaching, and writing about on-demand self publishing over the past decade or two [I actually started self publishing ebooks in 1993 or 4], one area of book design has slid right past most of the new authors. This is quality. We won’t even discuss how quality dropped in the slide from letterpress to offset. That’s back in the dark ages, pre-digital. Silly person! That doesn’t matter any more. The one that … Continue reading →

Just released a 69 page preview of my Self Publishing Handbook

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The book is due out in May, 2013. It will be called: Practical Professional Self Publishing Handbook The book is written for those authors who recognize that professional production is key to having their books taken seriously. They are also tired of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars every time they release a book. In addition, they are sick of the need to be constantly contacting their designer to get special previews, gift editions, updates, and all … Continue reading →

The Book Designer’s Book Typography and Fonts package

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Make your book professional with the Contenu/Buddy production group Self Publisher Book Typography & 16 Fonts Only $49.99 or 12 Radiqx house fonts for book design Only $29.99 For self publishers the conversion from Word to InDesign is a huge leap. The goal is a professional look to their book designs, but immediately the problems of typography raise their head. In Word that is not so much of an issue because the typography controls in Word are … Continue reading →

Graphics In InDesign: an excerpt from “Practical Professional Self Publishing Handbook”

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This is the first portion of the new Practical Professional Self Publishing Handbook due out before summer this year. InDesign is the true replacement for FreeHand Many designers are still upset that Adobe took FreeHand off the market. We remain convinced that FreeHand was a far superior vector drawing program to Illustrator. Actually, I bring good news. InDesign is actually more closely related to FreeHand than it is to Illustrator. Ole Kvern and I have commented on this many … Continue reading →

The sadness of Word & how it’s damaging self publishing

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As I have become more social online, the prevailing grief for me is listening to all the new authors whose main problem is that they are using Word. Whether it’s one of my Facebook groups like Christian Indie Authors or Indie Christian Authors, a Google+ community like Christian Authors, or the authors who tweet, the ones in Linked-In groups, or GoodReads groups, and many more, the common lament is, “How do I do this in Word?” The … Continue reading →

Typography does not start with font design

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This is the first major confusion in typography. Many believe that typography is font choices. They spend a huge amount of time on which fonts to choose, how fonts developed historically, and the reader reactions to these fonts. This indeed is a good portion of typography, but this pursuit misses the entire point. The point of typography is to use words to communicate. Font choices can help—but this is really a small portion of what we need … Continue reading →