“For writers, few steps in the publishing process are as strange as the state of suspended animation between submitting a manuscript and seeing the book appear in stores. The sudden change in cabin pressure from writing to waiting can be jarring — and can last a very long time. ‘It comes as a huge shock when it happens the first time,’ said the Irish writer Colm Toibin, whose first novel, ‘The South,’ appeared in 1990, a year and a half after he turned it in. ‘It was all slow and strange.’”
New day rising
“I’m not sure any author is ever completely satisfied with his or her publisher. With my own two ears, I’ve heard folks who’d realized projects with houses I can still only dream of – Penguin, Vintage, MIT Press – issue the selfsame complaints about sloppy copy-editing and limp marketing those of us a notch or three down the ladder make.
Nevertheless, I’ve always regretted publishing Everyware, a think piece if ever there was one, with an imprint primarily known for how-to manuals for aspiring Web developers and Photoshop jockeys. It was a mistake, and it was my own; I was both overeager and insufficiently confident in my book’s merits. And as we’ll see, I paid for it…
Therefore, be it resolved: inspired by the luminous example of Edward Tufte’s Graphics Press, as well as that of our good friends at Chin Music, we’re going to try a little experiment. We’re going to publish my next book, The City Is Here For You To Use, ourselves.”
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Brian Dettmer: Book Autopsies
“Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures.” (Thanks Airbag!)
Atlas, Schmatlas: A Superior Atlas of the World
“Need to know the capital of Vanuatu? Interested to find out the major export of Madagascar? Itching to find out about the (homo)sexual tension on Columbus’ trips to The New World? Then we have just the book for you!
Atlas, Schmatlas is a 128 page hardback book chock-a-block with essential information (fact and fiction), maps, and illustrations about every country in the world.” (Thanks Chris Glass!)
Nobrium: Towards True Precision in the Control of Excessive Anxiety
“I can’t imagine that a modern day pharmaceutical company would produce a book like this one. Although this was produced by Pentagram in 1971, the diagrams look as contemporary as any found today. A truly splendid book to lay your hands on if you can. This is one of the sad things about so many great books, they are in such rare supply. This book must be considered one of the definitive examples of diagram heaven.” (Thanks Heath!)
‘The Little Know-It-All’ book report
“Although some of the topics are universal to all fields of design, this book is designed for the graphic designer. It’s well-suited for students and emerging professionals as a
handy reference guide. It would be perfect for a freelance designer working on their own, providing them with information that will benefit their designs and business.”
Covering Photography
“Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. The images / book covers contained in our database may be accessed via a number of categories including by Photographer, Author, Publisher, Publication Date and Designer.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)
The Best Figure Drawing Books Ever
“I put together this list of my favorite figure drawing, sketching and anatomy books for fellow artists and student friends. You can download any and all of these books for free. I hope you’ll find them useful.”
On self-publishing
“Regrettably I don’t have as much time as I’d like to author this article in polished format, but I wanted to put my thoughts out there while they’re fresh. You’d think I’d have time to slow down now that the book is done, but with running a job site, preparing material for several presentations before the year is over (including a ginormous workshop), maintaining this site, oh and a family and full-time job, “busy” is a severe understatement… I could probably summarize my thoughts in one sentence: The process of self-publishing isn’t as glamorous as some (myself) thought it would be.
One evening shortly after the book was published, I recounted with Suzanne everything I had done over the last 10 months to go from an idea for a book to a finished, published book. Having already co-authored one book through a publisher, I compared the experience of self-publishing, and here’s roughly what I described…”
Happy birthday, Smashing Magazine!
Congrats to the fine folks at Smashing — it seems like it’s been much longer than a year since the magazine launched, considering all the comprehensive roundups they’ve published. Anyway, your humble xBlog editor is happy to be participating in the anniversary festivities so be sure to check out Smashing every day this week.
Turn on the music, break out the champaign, get out the balloons and whistles, but — more importantly — keep track on what will be happening this week on Smashing Magazine.
World’s leading designers, developers and graphic designers will be celebrating with us. We’ll also have some giveaways for each and every one of you.
Be prepared. This week we’re going to smash you big time. Really.
UPDATES:
7 Sep: Smashing Freefont and WordPress Theme (free downloads for all)
7 Sep: 170+ Expert Ideas From World’s Leading Developers (part two of the piece I contributed to)
6 Sep: 1st Anniversary Giveaway (48 free software packages, licenses, accounts and credit giveaways)
5 Sep: 50 Designers x 6 Questions (part one of the piece I contributed to)
4 Sep: 40+ Books For Professional Design & Development (free book giveaway)
3 Sep: Get Out The Balloons: Smashing’s 1st Anniversary (celebration announcement)
