empathy  |  brains  |  heart  |  expertise

A book designer's journey…

The "Stone Age" taught us well

MediaNation was formed way back in the "Little House on the Prairie" days...(well, that's the way it feels sometimes)...circa 1995, when dial-up internet was the rage (and it was still in its infancy and not widely used), pre digital age, pre Amazon, pre AI and the oversaturated publishing market we find ourselves in today. There was no such thing as "E-books" or Kindles or any of that! It truly does feel like a lifetime ago especially when we see the immense amount of change the book industry has experienced in recent years. 

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During this "Stone Age," people like us learned how to design gorgeous, aesthetically and technically sound books in QuarkXpress then Adobe InDesign that would be sent to press (100% of the time), integrating eye-catching, hard bound covers that would pop off the shelves, velvety interior pages, tight copy, and beautiful photography. During the proofing phases the files were edited round after round to painstaking perfection—because having to redo a print job was financially and feasibly out of the question (not only that, but a habit of careless mistakes was career suicide). Terms like dot screen (dpi), lines per inch (lpi), spreads, plates, resolution, grain, stock, picas, point size, bleeds, gutters, footers, headers, body copy, FPO, t/k, were our every day language. We were then, and still are, masters of our craft—a specialized talent that not a lot of people knew how to do very well, and quite frankly, we still find that today, perhaps even more so.

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A watered down industry

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We could not design great books without technology—it is here to stay—but we've watched "all inclusive" online publishing companies pop up in the thousands over the last few years, and this, along with the aid of "AI" generated designs, has watered down what was once considered a true art, a highly-specialized craft. This has caused a majority of published works to look ordinary and cookie cutter, and has given the false impression that good graphic design is easy and that anyone can do it. Hey, we get it. Playing around with ChatGPT is fun and it can be useful, but just because it's "there" doesn't mean it is in your best interests to use it—especially if you've spent months or even years crafting your stories, novels, recipes, "how to" manuals, etc., why turn over your gorgeous body of work to a computer chip? Instead, we encourage you to hire a professional designer, a real human with empathy, artistic taste, and experience who can help navigate the unknown waters of the creative and editing processes followed by the self publishing and promotional processes. (After all, there are over 44 million published titles on Amazon alone, so your finished product, whether it's printed or digital, needs to read and look its best. Are you able to do that on your own?)

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The good news is…

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You CAN absolutely, 100% self publish but to ensure your project's success, please consider allowing a professional to assist you in meandering the great unknown, because "knowledge is power" and once you have the knowledge, you will be "empowered" to conquer the world! We are an independent design company whose sole mission is to provide life vests to other independents and small businesses as you jump into the deep end of the vast pool of digital publishing and print. It would be our honor to help turn your hard work into successful products and provide direction in editing, design, E-book/KDP set up/printing, and product promotions.

Reach out below and we can set up a time to discuss your project goals and next steps.