New cover of Hashtagstories Vol.1 – what do you think?
As I’ve almost finished a second set of hashtagstories, I decided to change a cover. There was something I didn’t like about the original one. It was pure, simple – and didn’t show how versatile can be the world of Twitter hashtags. And yes, I wanted to make it dirty.
For those who want to know, what the hash is this #hashtagstory about, please read the kick off post. The book can be downloaded from here.
Please have a look. Compare to the original one. What do you think?
E-book covers inspired by the design of mobile applications
I’m a mobile freak and here you have another prove of it. These are the brand new covers, I’ve designed with a help of my Twitter friends for two volumes of my short stories, which will be available in a couple of weeks through Smashwords/Barnes&Noble. In the meantime you can download a free edition here. I describe the stories as tech-absurd. The bot-behaving gadget-eating error-ready part of you will understand, what I mean.
The brief I issued to myself was simple: get an attention of geeks with a message: “technology is wonderful, but…” (oh, and check the bottom bar for options).
Publish a book with your literary tweets
A free cover for your book
Have you ever thought of making an e-book with your literary tweets? If you still have doubts, consider this: you can easily do it yourself, you can do it without any costs, you can use the book as a promotional tool.
Below there are tips based on my personal experience. Just make sure you’ve got a large coffee ready – and make your book happen!
How to collect a content?
Twitter search is currently showing results from 9 recent days. Nobody will find your fantastic tweet, if it’s 10 days old. 10 days means “gone”.
It might be difficult even for yourself to collect your own Twitter stream. And here is a rescue: Tweetbook. It’s a wonderful web service, where you can make a pdf or xml file with your tweets (up to 3200). Having all of them in one editable document will make it really easy to select the golden ones – those you want in your book. »»»
15 free covers for Twitter fiction books
If you are considering to publish a book of your literary tweets, the only thing which stops you might be a lack of a cover. Problem solved. You can pick up your favourite one from below. They all are for free. I’ve designed them to help self-publishers like myself. What I’m only asking for is to download my free book, leave a review and spread the word.
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
“Twitter Fiction Book Cover” by Nick Name is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share alike 3.0 Unported License.
#VSS Anthology – vote for your favourite cover!
As you know, a first anthology of the best #VSS Twitter stories is being finalized right now. It’s a really exciting project and as a DIY writer/designer I’ve volunteered to create anthology’s cover. Out of several designs, two are the strongest – with each one having an idea behind.
Cover A
A book out of a tweet box. Simple idea, classic book design. I can make a version with strong colors as well.
Cover B
I used Wordle to generate a word cloud. In a final version there will be a cloud made from a final text of the anthology. The idea is to capture a tremendous variety of thoughts and worlds created by #VSS Authors.
I would be grateful if you leave your vote and share comments. For more info please follow @vssanthology.
My favourite cover for #VSS Anthology is:
- B (53%, 25 Votes)
- A (47%, 22 Votes)
Total Voters: 47
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How to turn Wordle into an e-book cover generator
Wordle is a fantastic word cloud generator. Its creator, Jonathan Feinberg, has managed to do one great thing: with the selection of fonts, colors and a whole idea how the words are composed, the effect is far beyond the IT world. It already belongs to the world of art.
With Wordle it’s all fun. You enter URL address (f.e. of your blog) and get the cloud of most popular words used. You can also paste a text – and this is actually a possibility Wordle is giving to self-publishing authors. When a writer wants to publish an e-book, with a destination places like Feedbooks, Smashwords, Scribd and alikes, the prepress knowledge is not needed any more. In fact, in most cases the only missing part is just a jpeg picture with a catchy cover. And it doesn’t need to be hi-res CMYK file. One screenshot is enough.
Below there are some tips and examples of how to create it. »»»
Please stop complaining about e-book design
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.
When we talk about e-books the one single design association is a mix of white background, smiling photostock figure and a huge “how-to” title. Does that mean, that well designed e-books don’t exist? And this is what really bothers me: recognized, experienced book designers either ignore e-books or reject them.
Please stop it. 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. »»»
Recently updated Polish tech-absurdist and mobile fiction writer 3.0 beta. Addicted to ebooks and technology. Guest writer at 
