A few new covers, some drafts, some finalised, with the usual range of subject matter…
Jenny Wellington on ABC Radio
Jenny Wellington, author of the very entertaining novel Damengin, was interviewed on ABC Sunshine Coast — audio below.
“Damengin is a country town in Queensland weighed down by the worst drought in living memory and its inhabitants are all desperately waiting for government drought relief.
The bad news is that the funds have been sent and spent by Council's Shire Clerk Shifty Grey and his corrupt cohorts.
This is a rollicking fast-moving story about political skulduggery, greed, love and lust. It features outrageous characters, blossoming romances, pathos and importantly, has an incredibly happy ending.”
“A lovely Aussie story that everyone can relate to. Loved reading the book right from the start. I could hear the author reading the story to me at the start and as I got further into the book, wrapped into the characters of the story, I couldn’t put the book down as I sat in on the edge of my chair wondering what was going to happen next.”
Life With a Psychopath Talk with Franca di Pietro
Franca will be discussing her thought-provoking novel “Life With a Psychopath” at Mornington Library.
Details as follows:
Recommended for adult audiences
Francesca Di Pietro has a passion for storytelling, especially tales which highlight the dark side of human nature, including manipulative and aberrant behaviour.
Her debut novel, Life with a Psychopath tells the story of a young Italian woman, who enters into a relationship beset by racism, manipulation, and physical and verbal abuse with the charming and charismatic Shaun.
Carmella will not be beaten by Shaun’s behaviour and brings female empowerment to a new level. A compelling and gripping story of triumph, highlighting how victims of violence and abuse can overcome adversity by reaching out to those around them.
Join us at Mornington library where we are supporting 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence.
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Mornington Library, Vancouver Street, Mornington, 3931
The talk is free. Bookings here.
Book Cover Designs for September 2022
An interesting variety of topics covered in the latest round of cover designs in progress…
Book Cover Designs for July 2022
A small selection of current cover designs, with the usual variety of subject matter…
Book Cover Designs for June 2022
A few recent book design offerings from WorkingType Studio. A variety of topics and treatments…
Book Cover Designs, May 2022
Recent Cover Designs — January 2022
A fairly wide variety of designs for January 2022. High contrast, bold type and strong colours.
Why Do Publishers Still Use Half Title Pages?
Though somewhat rarer than they used to be, half title (or bastard) pages sometimes appear at the beginning of books, followed by a blank verso page and then the full title. The practice of half title pages arose as a means of protecting the full title page from the wear and tear of the printing and binding processes. Of course, an alternative solution would be to simply add a blank page, and indeed, some book designers do exactly that. When books have to lose a couple of pages to fit into a certain page signature, the half title is the first thing to go. Personally, I think some publishers like the extended throat clearing involved in blank pages, half titles, full titles, endless prefatory pages and so on because it distinguishes their work of literature from other less exalted works that get down to business within half a dozen pages. It is a bit like those high art movies that start by listing all the nested organisations responsible for the production of that particular masterpiece — the list is sometimes startlingly long.
Birds of Prey by David Hollands
Eminent naturalist David Hollands has released his latest magnum opus and we highly recommend it to all lovers of Australian nature. David Hollands’ Birds of Prey Australia contains a beautifully written chapter on each of the birds of prey found in Australia. The photos were all taken by David in the field. Full of fascinating insights and amazing images, the book is available from his website, and from many bookstores. David has many earlier titles available such as Cranes, Herons and Storks of Australia, Owls, Frogmouths and Nightjars of Australia and Waders, the Shorebirds of Australia, among other titles.
WorkingType Design Samples Online
To view many and varied samples of our cover and book design work, try some of the links below:
Print folio by category: http://workingtype.com.au/index
Book Folio: http://workingtype.myportfolio.com
Full design archive: https://goo.gl/photos/6dzV55fEW6GgGVE59
Reedsy: https://reedsy.com/luke-harris
Recent Design Work and Blog Posts: http://www.workingtype.com.au/blog
Twitter: workingtype
Book Cover Designs for October 2021
The usual wide variety of topics and typefaces and approaches this month. Never a dull typographic moment…
Book Cover Design for September 2021
A few of our recent covers and cover drafts, covering the usual broad range of subject matter. Striving for high contrast and high impact and interesting type combinations.
Steve Nurse Discusses his New Book "Cycle Zoo"
Steve (right) with Jesse Heath, OzHpv Challenge 2021 Photo John Hagan
There is a saying in recumbent bike manufacture, “The best way to make a small fortune making bikes is to start with a large fortune” and the same thing can be said about self-publishing a book. Its hard to rely on self-publishing to make money. It might happen, but don’t bank on it! In the first instance self-publishing should be about wanting to get your message out.
To get to my book story, I have been building and designing bikes since about 1987, went on the first long-distance rides on bikes I’d built around 2000, and wrote the first version of my Cycle Zoo book in about 2009. Back then I wrote, edited, illustrated and laid out the whole book, and supplied finished pdfs to Publishing Solutions. They then organised the ISBN and printing of about 1000 copies.
After that it was up to me to sell and distribute the books but that was difficult. Sometimes I’d take books to bookshops to sell, and they’d never pay. It was impossible for me to sell all the books, so I still have boxes of books in the back of cupboards at home. However the first edition of the book helped with entry into an industrial design master’s degree which gave me paid work designing bikes for 2 years. Putting it out was worth it just for that.
I’ve stayed in touch with a couple of the contacts I made after the first book. I designed a cycling board game and Anki Toner put that on his cyclingboardgames.net website. Link here. And I was interviewed by Chis Starr at 3cr. I usually attend local recumbent bike gatherings and this didn’t stop. As well I’ve kept on building bikes, and became the editor of the Australian Human Powered Vehicle Magazine Huff.
Somewhere along the way I got the urge to write a book came again, and I had enough new material to add to my previous book so set about rewriting Cycling Zoo. Fairly early in the process I got editor Neil Conning and book designer Luke Harris on board. I conversed with and interviewed a few people involved in cycling to broaden the book’s appeal, and I’m happy how the stories came out. So Adam Hari about spoke about speedbikes, Gayle Potts about refurbishing bikes for refugees, Nell Sudano about electric bikes and teaching cycling, and Alyson Macdonald about boardgames and her cycling.
Publication for the new book is by print on demand, so the book is available anywhere in the world, and is printed in quantities as small as one in the nearest printing centre including Melbourne, the UK and the USA. I have ordered and sell or give away copies for myself, family, friends and reviewers. Normally I will give away books to reviewers. An example is Chris Starr who volunteers for and runs the Yarrabug Cycling show on 3cr.
Where to buy Steve’s book:
After a phone interview with Chris, she mixed the show and put up a podcast page for the show, a resource I can use to let people know about the book. She deserves at least a free book for her efforts. The weblink is here .
Anki Toner really only wants to document every cycling board and card game no matter how obscure, and a lot of these are based on European races such as the Peace Race, Tour de France, Vuelta D’Espana and Giro D’italia. An example is here, analysis of the games is well researched and concise. But he was happy to showcase a new game I had developed and put online, called Cycle Challenge. He’s included a link to my book page in his excellent coverage of my game which is all you can ask for.
Adam Hari features in my chapter about speedbikes, which are fully enclosed, highly aerodynamic cycles designed to break speed records. I was happy to mail him a book at cost, and he was happy to publicise it on his Instagram, showing a video of the book pages involving him and his machines.
Coming up in early October I will be part of the Laidbackbike report Youtube series but meanwhile I will continue improving websites, contacting potential reviewers, contacting those mentioned in the book, and working on ebook versions. I put a book poster on the side of one of my bikes yesterday and have already been asked about it (a mum and her kids caught up to me on their electric bike and were chattering furiously) so will work on improving that too.
Have fun promoting your book. Selling oodles of copies and making money might be your initial aim but you might come away with something more valuable..
Leaning trike with poster.
Book Covers for August 2021
A few recent book covers, from thoughtful spiritual tomes to legal advice…
July 2021 Cover Designs from WorkingType Studio
The usual variety of subject matter — book cover design is never boring. Literary fiction, crime fiction, children’s books, business advice and local history. “Fragile Power” uses variable typefaces (Acumin), which is a powerful new design tool.
Recent Cover Designs
The usual wide range of subject matter and design treatments. Never a dull moment…
Move Over Murakami...
A recent cover design for Mundaca, an accomplished work of fiction combining Generalissimo Franco, the Basques and Australian surf culture. Spotted on the shelves of the Village Bookshop in Noosa.
Recent Cover Design Drafts
Mutton Birds are Go!
Ganga Powell’s lovely children’s book “Do Mutton Birds Have Maps and Other Poems” (brilliantly illustrated by Eileen Curd) has been selling very well at Blarney Books and Art in Port Fairy. Here’s the Facebook post from the bookstore in question. If you can’t make it all the way to Port Fairy, the book is also available on Amazon and Booktopia.
