Comments on: Personal Development for Smart People

By: Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:21:53 +0000

Printing an in-progress book or novel out as you go in a pre-publishing mock-up is a brilliant idea. Thank you for sharing.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 15:13:02 +0000

Good for you Steve

By: Bert Plat

Bert Plat — Fri, 13 May 2005 14:54:59 +0000

You’re welcome.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Fri, 13 May 2005 12:30:08 +0000

Thanks for the resources, Bert! I shall definitely check them out.

By: Bert Plat

Bert Plat — Fri, 13 May 2005 08:12:15 +0000

I’d definitely use a different typeface for the eBook than Bookman; it loses most of the detail should people decide *not* to print it out.
Right now I’m enamoured with the Gill Sans, although Sassoon or Bell Centennial work well, too. For print I often use Goudy Old style or Garamond if it’s going to be a good print. But most of this depends on what kind of message you wish to get across.

As for books: take a look at The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type by Alexander W. White or Basics of Design: Layout and Typography for Beginners by Lisa Graham; more books can be found at http://www.fontmenu.com/site/books.html.

Some websites:
http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
http://e-books.org/index.html
http://www.will-harris.com/index.html (check the Esperfonto feature!)

Maybe you should take a look at this page, too:
http://www.ebook-designer.com/design-faq.html

Hope this helps!

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Thu, 12 May 2005 18:25:49 +0000

I’ve done a lot of tweaking to the defaults already. The font I’m using right now for the ebook text is Bookman Old Style 11 pt (I expect most people would print the book out instead of reading it on the screen), but I’m not sure I’ll keep it for the final version. Do you happen to know of any books or web sites which provide intelligent layout suggestions? I’ve found only a little information on this so far, such as in Dan Poynter’s books. I’ve also seen books that needed work in this area. I modeled my choices thus far after other books that I found to be well presented.

By: Bert Plat

Bert Plat — Thu, 12 May 2005 14:52:31 +0000

Most of ‘em had no concept of space: big blocks of black dominate the page. Mostly they were written in Word, which has abysmal defaults for line and character spacing, justification, line length, paragraph and page setups, and so on. WordPerfect was, and is, a lot better in that respect. Fonts… don’t talk to me about fonts. :,-

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Thu, 12 May 2005 12:19:57 +0000

What was it about the layout of other self-published books you disliked?

I worked out the basic layout (fonts, spacing, styles, section heading, quotes, etc.) before I started writing, so the book is being written in that layout as I go along. My initial formatting is for the ebook, so I’ll need to reformat the content for the printed version. I’m aiming to keep the layout clean and simple. Usability and clarity is more important to me than beauty. So I’m not going to pad the book with cutesy images like some books do (cough, cough, The 8th Habit).

By: Bert Plat

Bert Plat — Thu, 12 May 2005 08:06:36 +0000

Just to please an old aesthete: who’s doing the layout?

I’ve seen a number of self-published books, and even if the content was good, form was often so dreadful that I couldn’t finish reading it.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Wed, 11 May 2005 17:13:13 +0000

I already know about Dan Poynter’s site and have two of his books: Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. My wife also went to a workshop from him before self-publishing her own book. She followed his plan step by step — it works.

I like his recommendations for how to write a book (i.e. the process). I’ve created a book binder with a mock cover page and spine, and when I finish some new text, I print it out and add it to the binder. This helps me see the book becoming real as something physical I’m constructing. And I also find it easy to grab the binder, re-read previous text, and make editing notes in the margins. I can even do that while watching the kids.

By: Clint Waller

Clint Waller — Wed, 11 May 2005 16:51:44 +0000

self-publishing is the only way to go.

i found the following book extremely helpful in this regard:

para publishing main website:
http://www.parapublishing.com/

more direct link for self publishing info:
http://www.parapublishing.com/getpage.cfm?file=/homepage.html&user=#user

By: Ria

Ria — Wed, 11 May 2005 16:25:06 +0000

I started reading your articles from Dexterity as well and have found them to be both very inspiring and encouraging. Inspiring because you’ve personally “tried and tested” what you suggested and come out victorious. Encouraging because you’ve acknowledged the common problems and internal, mental and often times, “spiritual” struggle that most of us go through and have overcame and “lived” to tell it all.

As with the rest, I can’t wait to get a hold on your book. Your writings have the common sense, down-to-earth approach of Dr. Robert H. Schuller that I’ve identified very well with.

Stay focused on what you believe. I’ll be waiting for the book.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 11 May 2005 14:37:30 +0000

Well at least if its an e-book there won’t be any worries about the book going out of stock.

And how do you sign an e-book anyways…

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Wed, 11 May 2005 12:28:48 +0000

I’m not planning to do pre-orders. I think that’s more trouble than it’s worth.

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 11 May 2005 11:01:08 +0000

Is it possible that different technics work for different people. I think Tony Robbins has some good stuff and it seems to work for him. But not everyone that comes in contact with it seems to be affected in the same way. Perhaps each of us needs a different technic.