How to Design and Produce Your Own Book

Presents basic information about publishing your own book, whether informally for friends or family, or in a more official way.

The publishing world is being transformed by new social attitudes about making and sharing content. More and more people see themselves as producers of media—not just consumers of media. This new title in the Design Brief series introduces readers and writers to the process of publishing their own books. Indie Publishing is all about putting together content in compelling and practical formats.

Book design involves planning how content will be structured, put together, and printed onto pages. Indie Publishing provides general information about design and production that's relevant to any project, as well as case studies of particular types of books—from a collection of poems to an independent zine.

Practical elements include:
ISSN and ISBN numbers: what they are and why you need them
Barcodes:how to get them
The copyright page: What is is and why you need it
CIP data how it affects your book
Going retail: how to market, distribute and sell your book
Anatomy of a bookstore
Selling Online
Writing press releases
How to structure the page for different types of genres: fiction, poetry, art book, children's picture book, etc
How to think about typography and page layout

Virtually anything you need to know to publish your own book can be found in this illuminating (and brief) book from Ellen Lupton and her group.

Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. She is the author of numerous books, including Thinking with Type (2004), D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (2006), and Graphic Design: The New Basics (with Jennifer Cole Phillips, 2008).

Princeton Architectural Press
Edited by Ellen Lupton
176 pp / 270 col
7 X 8.5 in / 18 X 22 cm
Paperback
978-1-56898-760-6
Available Dec 2008