Many projects that I work on contain requests for photos or illustrations. Managing these is important from the start, as assets can easily stack up and it can be confusing. It’s not a post about gorgeous design but, like beautiful creations, it’s really useful!

Myths about ISBNs abound, trying to find the answer is as easy as sourcing a litre of petrol. In this simple post, here’s an FAQ, taken from queries I receive from my publishers and authors when I’m designing and project managing books. I hope it’s useful.

I was reading a post on a forum last week that asked about employing a formatter and it’s inspired these words as I felt it might be useful to untangle the language and roles. I also tested out Vellum to explore what apps offer and compared this to my bespoke skills. This post walks you though the Hello Lovely book page design process, explains what software I use, why and the stages, plus who to involve, what they do and why you may need them. The post covers print and ebook design across fiction and non-fiction.

You’ve heard the phrase ‘judge a book by its cover’, I’m sure and it’s very true when it comes to publishing, in particular, self-publishing when authors have more control of spend and choices. What to put on the cover and how to brief it, who to commission and who does what can be exhausting and overwhelming. I’m going to assume you’re an interested author. This blog post aims to give an overview of the styles of book covers, who does what and best practice. Grab a seat and a cuppa as it’s going to be a long but useful post!