Please stop complaining about e-book design.

[Moejoe]

from: http://www.nizejpodpisany.com

Fair warning: this post is about my book cover designs, but it was not penned by me

There is a lot of complaining about how badly electronic books are designed. It’s true that 90% of e-book designs are crap. Most designers can tell you that. Probably exactly the same thing they say about paper books. The only difference is that in case of p-books they sometimes spot and share a good stuff.

http://www.nizejpodpisany.com/2009/0...e-book-design/

[zelda_pinwheel]

hey ! namenick is your fan ! well he's completely right, of course. bravo to you and congratulations. wishing you more fame and readers !

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

hey ! namenick is your fan ! well he's completely right, of course. bravo to you and congratulations. wishing you more fame and readers !

I'm a fan of his stuff, which you can get on Feedbooks too

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I'm a fan of his stuff, which you can get on Feedbooks too

yes, i'm a fan of his too. i love his twitter stories.

[Abecedary]

I agree with the one comment (so far) on that site--he's talking purely about covers and goes nowhere into any aspect of book design beyond that. If only there were some old adage about books and covers...Oh well, someone should come up with one.

Still 'grats on the mention, Moejoe.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Abecedary

I agree with the one comment (so far) on that site--he's talking purely about covers and goes nowhere into any aspect of book design beyond that. If only there were some old adage about books and covers...Oh well, someone should come up with one.

Come now! Surely valid statements about the most irrelevant aspect of book design are equally applicable to all other all-but-unrelated aspects of book design.

- Ahi

[Hellmark]

Well, book design does refer to cover art, and page layout. Since page layout is largely done automatically now, that leaves the artwork.

[dreams]

Congrats, Moejoe. It was a nice mention of your covers.

http://www.nizejpodpisany.com/2009/0...e-book-design/

Open your imagination to e-books. There is a lot to be done. 90% of designs are waiting to be improved. This would be much better, if we all start to find and share great, inspiring examples of e-book design. I have a perfect collection to start with. Fiction e-book covers designed by Paul John Lyon. They’re amazing. Look at them. What’s even more exciting is that PJ Lyon is a self-published fiction writer.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

As a former graphic artist and full-time web designer, I see no reason why a good writer can't be a good cover artist as well.

[Penforhire]

Other than the skills of visual and verbal art are quite different. Is it that hard to imagine someone with a gift for writing but who makes better use of Crayolas by eating them? I'll agree there are aspects that map between them, such as use of positive and negative space. But being a talented writer implies nothing about your artistic ability.

Steve, you're more Onuissance, um, Renaissance man than most of us.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

As a former graphic artist and full-time web designer, I see no reason why a good writer can't be a good cover artist as well.

But you should probably not do the cover for you own book since you will not be able to make the right commercial decision and not care so much about that the cover should be correctly related to the book.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by tompe

But you should probably not do the cover for you own book since you will not be able to make the right commercial decision and not care so much about that the cover should be correctly related to the book.

Yeah, you're right. I never use enough boobs.

[fugazied]

Seems a bit nitpicky to me (compaining about design), unless they specifically mention how crap kids books look compared to their printed color versions.