Weekend Resource: The Book Designer

My weekend resource this week may be a little niche, but I feel like its often got information that can be used beyond just the publishing world, like general design information that can be used for all kinds of marketing. But the site really does focus on self and indie publishing, and it’s full of great information for writers at all levels. So, pursue the site, take a look at all the free resources, and start to look at every book cover and interior with a designer’s eye.

Book Review:

3 out of 5 Stars

The people over at TheBookDesigner were kind enough to give me a copy of the new book Joel wrote along with Betty Kelly Sargent, The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide: Every Indie Author’s Essential Directory-To Help You Prepare, Publish, and Promote Professional Looking Books.

This book is exactly what it says it is: a list of everything you should need to get your book polished, published and promoted. It’s broken in three sections: Prepare, Publish and Promote. In the Prepare section you’ll find listings for the people that will help you polish your work, like editors and designers, in addition to resources to make you a better writer, like professional associations and books to read. Publishing covers exactly what you would think it would: printers and distributers. Besides web designers and social media experts, the promotion section also includes contests, resources like blogs that will review your book, and sites that will let you list it.

Overall, I gave this book three of five stars for two reasons:

1) Everything in here can be found online with a Google search and, inevitably, the material in here was outdated the moment it was taken off-line and put in a static format. That said, THIS WILL SAVE YOU A TON OF TIME. You could spend hours or days researching this stuff on your own. Having it all here is awesome. At the beginning they ask for updated information to be submitted, so I’m curious how that will be communicated to people who have purchased the book, or if this will be like the Writer’s Digest Market Books that you need to re-buy every year (or buy a subscription to the website) to have up-to-date information.

2) I wanted there to be a lot more information about each of the categories listed. When I published my first book, I didn’t realize I needed separate content and copy editors. Based on my work with NoiseTrade, I know a lot of self-published authors don’t really understand the different ebook formats, or the difference between a print-on-demand publisher and a vanity press. Again, all this can be found online, but if you’re going to look it up, you might as well be looking up the services too.

I’ve had a really hard time deciding whether I’d recommend people purchase this book or not, and this is what I’ve decided: if you are fairly experienced in self-publishing, this will save you time and is totally worth the eight bucks. You know what you need, and this will give you a nice, quick way to find it. If you’re new to self-publishing, you really need to be spending the time researching all this stuff yourself. It’ll save you A LOT of money in the long run, even if it eats up your nights and weekends. Then come back in two or three years and buy the current version.

**Review copy was provided to me at no cost by the publisher in exchange for an honest review**