Graphic Design tools

From UPrint, some useful tools for estimating font sizes and visibility on printed products, including banners, labels, business cards and file sizes in pixels.

Banner Font Size Tool -  https://www.uprinting.com/banner-font-sizes.html - Our tool to help you gauge font size and distance

Best Resolution for Printing: What is My File Size in Pixels? - https://www.uprinting.com/resolution-and-file-size-for-printing.html Our tool can help determine the best file size for your design and produce the best print resolution.

Stickers and Labels Font Size https://www.uprinting.com/blog/stickers-labels-font-size/ - Our Sticker and Labels Font Size Tool will help you visualize different font sizes and styles on various objects and shapes, making it easy to design effectively.

Business Cards Font Size Tool https://www.uprinting.com/blog/business-cards-font-size/ - Choosing the right font size for your business card is crucial for creating a professional and readable design. 

Australian Newsletter for Independent Authors

Thorpe-Bowker publishes an interesting newsletter on the independent publishing scene. Free subscription link here.

DIY renders of 3D book covers (free)

Boxshot invites users to upload their book cover and spine, then fiddle with a variety of controls to arrive at a striking 3D rendering of said cover. The basic offering is free, with a paid version offering more bells and whistles.

“This 3D book cover generator is constantly rendering a realistic book model with the pictures you loaded. Every time you move the camera or change a parameter — the rendering starts from the beginning. It may take some time for the noise to come away and you get a nice and clear 3D image.”

— Boxshot website

Recommended texts for Independent authors:

Independent authors are faced with a bewildering new world when they attempt to promote their books on snd offline. The following authors and sources do an excellent job of making sense of the contemporary publishing and promotional landscape, and all are worth reading.

Euan Mitchell's Your Book Publishing Options

How to Be an Author from Fremantle Press

Let's Get Digital by David Gaughran

Ricardo Fayet's How to Market an ebook

Amazon Ads Unleashed by Robert J. Ryan

Amazon Selling Services from Helium 10

Author 2.0 Blueprint by Joanna Penn

Advice for Independent Authors

Independent authors are often preyed upon by publishers. Writing a book is hard but a relatively linear task — write > edit> proofread, but the modern landscape of publishing and promotion is wide open, with a myriad possible strategies and pitfalls. Unsurprisingly, many authors find the prospect of self-managing their book overwhelming and sign up with ‘vanity’ presses. Many of these presses over-promise and under-deliver. With the amount of money they spend on signing up with a publisher, authors could have achieved a great deal pursuing their own promotional plan. There are many resources online to assist with this planning. Jane Friedman is also very helpful.

Here is a good roundup of Australian resources. The Queensland Writers Centre has some useful advice.

Independent publishing is hard, but it can be very rewarding. Many of the possibilities are very low cost, your reach is potentially global, an amazing thing in itself.

WorkingType Design has compiled a useful hints booklet for authors, downloadable here.

Your Name Here — The Zen of a Blank Product

Department of There's an Internet Business for Everything: Yellow Images sells blank products ready for you to superimpose your own brand/product. There's something so soothing about a plain object not covered in all of the cruft designers are paid to create.