Miles and Miles of Type

It would be difficult to top this website for lovers of street typography — a survey of 13 miles of one of the world's best known avenues. A great showcase of the glorious variety of public taste when it comes to type.

Integrating Work and Life — Book Cover

John Drury wanted a bold, simple design that reflected his theme of integrating life and work, and we represented that via overlapping letters, the colours for which were drawn from his web presence. The whole project was turned around in only a few days, including the print run.

Why Type Selection Matters (or How Not to Give People a Reason to Stop Reading)

Matthew Butterick at Practical Typography makes a great argument for considered type selection and use. A great line from the essay:

“The sub­stance mat­ters, but if that’s all that mat­tered, then every­thing could be set in 12-point Times New Ro­man. And that would be the equiv­a­lent of mum­bling to­ward your shoes.”

How to Help People Using Outmoded Browsers...

This nifty little Google-run service identifies the version of browser you are using and provides easy links for installing alternative browsers. Besides promoting Chrome, the site is designed to nudge people to towards installing modern browsers and to gradually chip away at the huge legacy population of people still using ancient versions of Internet Explorer.

Create your own Audiobooks with Amazon

Not content with dominating the online sale of printed books and ebooks, Amazon is also moving to extend its dominance in audio books. The e-commerce giant already owns Audible. ACX is aimed at small publishers and authors wanting to create an audiobook version of existing print editions. Given the increasing popularity of podcasting and streaming music services, it makes sense to offer independent authors a way to grab a slice of that audio content pie. Authors can create their own audio, but they would need decent equipment and some technical savvy to meet ACX's audio quality requirements. ACX steers authors towards their roster of professional narrators and producers, and offers long term distribution through Audible.

Great Art by the Virtual Truckload

Via the fine folks at Open Culture, a definitive list of the best collections of digitised artworks. 

• Google Art Project (250,000 images)
• L.A. County Museum (20,000)
• New York Public Library-Historic Maps (20,000)
• Norway National Museum (30,000)
• SFMoMA Rauschenberg Collection
• Stanford University’s Cantor Art Center (45,000)
• Stanford University’s French Revolution Collection (14,000)
• The British Library (100,000)
• The British Museum (4,200)
• The Getty (100,000)
• The Guggenheim (1,600)
• The Met (400,000)
• The Morgan Library Rembrandt Sketches (300)
• The Museum of Modern Art/MoMA  (65,000)
• The Museum of New Zealand (30,000)
• The National Gallery (35,000)
• The New York Public Library: Photos, Maps, Letters (180,000)
• The Rijksmuseum (210,00)
• The Smithsonian (40,000)
• The Tate (70,000)
• The Whitney (21,000)
• The Van Gogh Museum (3500)
• Yale’s Great Depression Photo Collection (170,000)
• Vermeer (36)

Many of the artworks are scanned at very high resolution. In the case of institutions such as the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, re-use and alteration of the artworks is encouraged and celebrated. Considerable debate has erupted as to whether the wide availability of such material is somehow corrupting the ability of the general public to appreciate the actual rather than virtual artworks.

For those institutions that allow use and remixing of the digitised artwork, authors and designers have at their disposal a vast and powerful visual resource.

Public Relations and Authors

If you are one of those independent authors to whom selling does not come easily, you might want to consider a publicist. Local publicist Phillip Anderson offers reasonably priced six week campaigns. Such campaigns typically feature the following:

• Author interviews and reviews in relevant newspapers
• Author interviews with key online news sources
• Book reviews across national and regional newspapers and online publications
• National and local author radio interviews (where possible)

Phillip can be contacted via email: phillip@phillipandersonpublicity.com.au. Before engaging in such campaigns, authors will need to get their ducks in a row:

• Make sure their books are easily available in the areas reached by the publicity
• Ensure that they have spare stock in case sales go well (though this does not apply to print on demand and ebook sales online)
• Rehearse the points they want to get across in interviews, the key selling strengths of their book, the so-called 'elevator pitch'. And have some kind of idea of potential customers and what kind of angles might appeal to them

These might seem obvious points, but we have seen a remarkable number of authors who weren't really across any of them before initiating publicity efforts. Remember: bookstores will be much better disposed to independent authors who are making a clear and sustained effort to promote their work.

Takeout Your Google Data

As the self-appointed organiser of the world's data, it makes sense that Google/Alphabet would have good data management tools for its users. And thankfully, it does, the form of Google Takeout. Anything users do on Google (photos, gmail, youtube, drive, fit, plus, etc) can be exported. Google's bots prepare your data and then email download links, or transfer the files to a linked service such as Dropbox. Download sizes can run into the multi-gigabytes. 

Startups and Other Short Lived Things

Internet startups flare and burn like meteorites in the digital sky. Some live longer than others. Some seem so obscure or pointless one finds it difficult to figure out why they were built in the first place. Product Hunt is a good place to see them going by. Also features trending tech industry news, podcast episodes and live chats with industry players.

Writing Effective Emails by Example

Writing effective emails can be difficult. Not everyone is a natural marketing guru. Goodemailcopy.com has a small collection of pithy emails from web based services to potential, existing and past customers. Some use humour, some are blunt, others cute, but few of them waste any words.

Practical Ideas for Authors going Online

From Bookmachine, a useful checklist of must-do items for authors looking to enhance their digital presence: 

* A robust author website to anchor an author’s complete digital presence and act as the central hub and source of authoritative information on everything about the author, her books, her work, and life

* Complete author and book information at book cataloging and community sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing, as well as at all online retailers (especially an Amazon Author Central page)

* Google+ to signal to Google who an author is, what she writes about, and all of the things connected to her

* The right social media mix, which can vary — and evolve — depending on the author, the type of books she writes, and the interests and demographics of her audiences

* Mechanisms to collect, manage, and effectively use email addresses

* Ongoing efforts to maintain accuracy and relevance across all of these

* Effective cross-promotion (across titles and authors)

Culture Shock — Cover Design

An Egyptian man leaves his homeland for a better life in Europe, but must navigate his way through different cultural mores and expectations, and enter the minefield of a cross-cultural romance. Our cover blends the two worlds, with a muted colour scheme to match the era covered in the story.

Red Dragonfly — Cover Design

Combining several city skylines, a contemplative Chinese woman and Matteo Ricci's beautiful world map was an interesting challenge. Trevor Hay's book (in the process of being published by Arcadia, an imprint of Australian Scholarly Press) is a fascinating examination of cross-cultural contact and emotional connection. 

Talking Her Way to Book Sales — Promotional Tips

Cleo Lynch, author of "Careering Into Corrections" has documented her own promotional activities in the hope that some of them might come in useful for other writers. Hear more about Cleo here and buy her book here.

Resources

• Publisher provided package of book covers
• Author biography
• Updated photo of author (perhaps holding the book)
• Updated list of previous talks
• Business card
• Pamphlets (rudimentary, as befits the technologically and financially challenged or more professional)

How did I start this ball rolling?

• Friends, rellies: Cousin worked for charity — gave talk for their IWD luncheon; some coverage in their local press. Sold some books (book sales are never staggering – just a steady trickle).
• Contacted Service Clubs and Social Clubs via email addresses and websites along with promotional material outlets — Senior publications (my age group), radio stations, newspapers (need to be innovative with covering letter — try to think of a catchy opening sentence). Did get one radio interview with Radio National). Not sure what book sales resulted from these initiatives.
• Sent promotional material to libraries – this has had very limited response, but am a friend of my local library, which resulted in an author presentation for which they did the promotional work, with leaflets, posters, on-line bookings etc. (From this I was asked to do two more talks, one at the Friends’ AGM on my volunteer work, and another at a local writers’ group on the pitfalls of publication).
• Always carry a package of book cover with business card and promo pamphlet inserted, and a copy of book. Learnt from experience that sales can result in the most unlikely places, e.g. conversations on a bus, functions etc.

In any event, the most successful of these initiatives has been from service clubs.

Advantages: 

• Rewards and outcomes vary, e.g some expect the talk to be free and may offer wine, chocolates, free lunch/dinner, however many pay varying amounts for travel expenses and your time.
• If they enjoyed the talk, they tell others.
• Usually sell a trickle of books
• Opportunity to distribute promotional packages to interested persons and so tap into potential future engagements

However, as much of my modest fame depends on my interaction with the audience I ensure that my delivery is as professional as possible. So I offer the following:

• Prepare your talk, i.e. compose it, type it out, go over it, rehearse it.
• Ensure that your talk will not go over the allotted time (many of these clubs have gratis use of community rooms and have to vacate by a certain time),
• Ask for a microphone (and any other technology you might require), lectern for your prepared talk and small table on which to display your book (I take a plate stand) and promo material.
• Don’t read your talk – but keep it handy for reference
• Be aware of your target audience, i.e. if elderly, many will be hearing impaired, many will be inclined to nod off, (yes even mid-morning!), may have posture problems that compromise their comfort (One compliment I often receive is ‘I looked around the room and no one was nodding off!)
• Introduce yourself, thank people for attending, give brief overview of your book, why you wrote it etc. and if possible, try a little humour (e.g. I say ‘I wrote this memoir originally for my children and grandchildren, who I might say, are completely underwhelmed by it’).
• Speak slowly, use microphone, engage all audience (while some speakers recommend you focus on one spot, it is good to try to sweep your gaze around the room to try to engage as many as possible).
• By all means include readings from your book in your presentation, but I’ve found it more useful to limit fumbling for pages, by identifying one passage to read from the book, and then to include others in my typed out presentation, and introduce such passages as excerpts from my book.
• If you use power point, don’t use it as a passive tool – you are the speaker, power point is an accessory. Some of the most boring talks I’ve attended have been when speakers spoke indistinctly, leaving power point to do the work.

While compiling this, I received a phone call for another booking. I took details, i.e. date contact name, name of Club, email address of contact so I can forward promo material (or postal address). I gave my address for confirmation and details of talk. This takes my bookings up to August.

Recent Cover Concepts — April 2016

As usual, our recent book design projects have featured a wide range of subject matter — a book of sonnets, a novel dealing with a huge telco and a guide for beginning singers. Projects currently in the works include a handbook for stroke sufferers, a novel about cultural contact between China and the West and a history of judicial executions in Victoria.

Lexie London — Book Cover

Our client already had the artwork they wanted for this children's title, but needed to liven up the type treatment. The nature and proportions of the image precluded the use of the middle two thirds of the page, so we utilised overlapping text and text on a path to fit in the rather long title. Typefaces used from the top of the cover: Another Shabby, Seaside Resort and Tommaso. Published by Brolga Publishing.