I remember, at age eleven, seeing a copy of Lois Duncan’s 1976 young adult horror novel Summer of Fear featuring its original cover art at the Multnomah County Library and knowing immediately that I had to read it. And it wasn’t because I enjoyed the cover design; it was because I could barely look at it.
Ooligan Blog
Escaping the Need to Know Everything
By Kaitlin Barnes
It’s no secret that the publishing world has a fear of digital technology. Ebooks especially are still often treated as the red-headed stepchild of the publishing world—a wild, untamed format that only those with high-level, specialized skills can attempt to conquer. The fact of the matter is, however, this simply isn’t true. Anyone who sets their mind to it can master the art of creating ebooks, yet most remain afraid to try. Specifically, people seem to be afraid they don’t know enough to even make an attempt.
Putting Design into Perspective: Book Design as a Rhetorical Situation
By Jenny Kimura
No matter how brilliant a piece of writing is, if it doesn’t know who the audience should be or doesn’t give enough context about its subject, the writing fails to be read, understood, and shared. It fails to communicate. The same holds true for book design.
Demystifying Book Metadata
By Stephen Hyde
The scene opens on a classroom. The students’ eyes are glazed over from the glow of the computer screens, half of them open to D2L, the other to some Instagrammer’s latest post. The professor asks the question, “What is metadata?” and one person, with a fox-like grin on their face, raises their hand and calls out, “It’s data about data.” Everyone breaks out in applause, confetti rains from the ceiling and cupcakes are served. This has happened to me more times than I can count, and yes, a quick hand raise asking for clarification could have solved all my problems but then I wouldn’t have had a blog post idea. So come with me as we take a journey on self-education and find out what all the fuss is about metadata and why you should actually care about it.
Styles Clash
By Justin M. Knipper
It might sound odd if you’re not already an editor, but the differences in style guides at publishing houses can be a tedious affair if you’re not at least a bit fluent in the main English-language house styles.
From Digital to Analog: Why Digital Content Gets Turned into Books
By Sydney Kiest @SydneyKiest
When so much original content is accessible for little to no cost online in digital form, why is that this content is being turned into and sold as physical books, and what does this say about the value of a book? perhaps this strange concept can be mutually beneficial for both the consumer and the publisher.