Book Cover Illustrations

Manufacturers and publishers have been jockeying for the best positions in the steadily growing ebook market. Most publishers are now selling ebook versions of their titles, and some are selling in serious numbers. Amazon.com has expanded its reader/client base by offering aps that allow reading Kindle-format ebooks on iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Android, and PCs/Macs — […]

Serif typefaces are often recommended for book text because they are “easier to read. ” And for the same reason, it follows that sans serif is only suitable for headlines and such. (And by way of explanation, the expert may then impart a strange theory about how the curves of the serifs “guide the eye” […]

Kerning is becoming a lost art for many segments of the publishing industry. Kerning refers to the adjustment of space between letters so they look balanced and spaced. It’s more art than science, and good kerning often goes unnoticed. Generally kerning is reserved for titles, mastheads, or other display type. Quality electronic typefaces (fonts) have […]

From the press release: The 2010 DIY Book Festival has issued a call for entries for its ninth annual program celebrating the success of independent authors and publishers. The DIY Book Festival will consider self-published or independent publisher non-fiction, fiction, biography/autobiography, children’s books, teenage, how-to, cookbooks, science fiction, audio/spoken word, photography, art, comics, ’zines, fan […]

During my career I’ve worked with and for all sorts of publishers, from the giants like HarperCollins to mid-sized operations like Paladin Press to small presses and self publishers. I even have my own “press” that puts out a title now and then. I’ve enjoyed all the work and worked with a lot of enjoyable […]

History suggests that books as we have seen them over the last few hundreds of years might soon become an endangered species, as least as far as the popular best-sellers of the last century are concerned. This is no surprise to those who consider the history of various entertainment media. Just this week, according to […]

Mother Jones magazine recently published “The Death of Fiction“ which suggests that while magazines that publish fiction are being flooded with submissions these days, the publications have fewer and fewer subscribers and readers. From this the author concludes that fiction, especially short stories, is dying. Well, maybe. But one is reminded of the old Mark […]