One of the hallmarks of a professionally published book is the attention to the details. When my team designer Kerrie Lian designed the interior of my client’s book, she used several elements related to airplane pilots to carry a graphic theme throughout the book. The title of the book was: If the Customer’s the Copilot, You’re in the Wrong Seat. My client, Brian Dennis used a pilot metaphor when he wrote and self-published this book on customer service. Marty Petersen, our team illustrator created the stunning cover illustration of the interior of an airplane cockpit. Here is the front cover: This is the first chapter’s title page….
Our team recently provided branding and publishing for speaker Brian Dennis. We guided Brian through the process of self-publishing his second book while at the same time created his brand, built his website and designed his marketing toolkit within a 4 month period. The expedited schedule was precipitated on an important upcoming speaking opportunity for Brian. My publishing team members edited his book, designed the book interior, finished the cover, converted it into an ebook and uploaded the files to Kindle, Barnes & Noble and Apple within 3 months. Meanwhile, other members of my team created his brand and marketing toolkit with a new…
This month I’m shining the spotlight on a recent client project, and to explain how to make a memoir paint an exceptional picture of someone’s life. Gene Rhodes wrote a comprehensive memoir of his dad, Billy Rhodes—an adventurous spirit who passed at a relatively young age. Gene meticulously compiled his dad’s diary, letters, old photos, documents, hand written notes and log books into a 320-page record of Billy’s life. Gene came to us in 2011 for help with laying out the book interior, designing the cover and to learn how to make a memoir rise above others through excellent design and production techniques….
Our client, Shima Shanti, of Peace Waters Publishing came to us with a collection of illustrations and text to combine and arrange into a children’s book. The picture book design and layout needed something to tie all the pages together and unify the collection of drawings. I came up with the idea of using stock images of abstract watercolors in the backgrounds of all the pages to enhance and support the drawings. My designer, Kerrie Lian looked at the book one spread at a time to coordinate the watercolor backgrounds with the colors, patterns and imagery in the drawings. Shown…
Sometimes our team will receive a partial manuscript or a manuscript that has not been edited or proofread. If a self-publisher provides us with a properly formatted manuscript, we can save them time and money on editing and proofreading services. Once the manuscript has been edited and proofread we can move on to the design and layout stage. Your manuscript should be formatted in a typical 8.5″ x 11″ MS Word document so it is easy for you and our editor to review, markup and make text changes. While your manuscript is in the editing stage it will NOT resemble a book page layout. Our graphic designer will do that later during…
Our team just completed a branding and publishing project for John Hall. This included designing marketing materials, a corporate ID package, book design, CD packaging and website development. It was a massive undertaking, bringing together the skills and talents of 10 team members into a 5-month project. John came to us to help launch a new direction in his successful speaking business based on his new book, Do What You Can! John provides advice, motivation, insight, and a step-by-step system to help people not simply meet their goals (business, career, personal) but to achieve extraordinary results. John’s core message is: “Get…
Several of our clients and team members won book awards at the 2012 Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Book Awards banquet held on May 17th. Julia Hubbel of Principled Networking won 3 awards. Her first book Wordfood won 1st place in the Business/Career category and 2nd place in the Self -Help category. Julia’s second book, Tackling the Titans won a merit award in the Business/Career career category. Team members Kerrie Lian designed the cover and interior of both books and Barbara Munson edited both books. Shown below are the covers of both books. Our clients Mary Anne Harvey and Randy Chapman, Esq. of The…
Designing a children’s book was a treat for my team! As a team leader serving the publishing community, I have the privilege of helping authors publish their books and launch their websites. Every client is so passionate about his or her book, product or service, it’s fun to live vicariously through their work for a few months. Occasionally a client brings a project that seems to leap heads and shoulders above the rest in regard to the intriguing subject matter, quality of content, scope of work, artistic challenge and affect it has on our community. One such project was Alphabet Denver,…
My client Mike Gannon took home 3rd Place in the Inspirational and Memoir categories for his book If These Ears Could Sing at the 2011 Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA EVVY Book Awards banquet last night. Melanie Mulhall edited the book, Kerrie Lian designed the interior and I designed the cover. Mike Gannon and Jeri Costa flew in from Reston, Virginia to attend the banquet last night. We had a fabulous time supporting and cheering on Mike as well as Melanie, who took home a 1st Place Editing Tech Award for Called: Women Hear the Voice of the Divine by Gretchen…
Are you publishing your first book? Congratulations! Would you like a road map to show you the book production process and outline each step to go from manuscript to a professional, printed book or ebook listed on Amazon? Over the years of designing books for independent publishers I’ve recognized first-time publishers could use a quick reference guide on time frames, tasks they are responsible for, and how to work with contractors such as editors, designers and printers. I created an easy-to-follow 10-page guide with checklists of action items, standard time frames, an overview of the design process, and where to obtain important items (such as ISBN…