Today we have a guest post by: Douglas Klostermann. Doug shares his extensive knowledge and tips on creating ebooks with our readers. Enjoy! ~JP

Publish Your E-Book to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple iTunes and iBooks for Free

Using the knowledge, tools, and tips I've gained from my experience as a best-selling e-book writer, I explain every step of the e-book process from formatting through marketing, in order to help you publish and sell your e-book as easily and inexpensively as possible.

Why Now is the Time to Join the E-Book Revolution

Statistics about e-books, e-book publishing, and e-readers are being reported and discussed with increasing frequency and the overall conclusion is clear: e-book sales are rising at a dramatic pace.  E-book sales in the United States currently exceed those of the other formats, including hardback and paperback sales, and grew 200% from 2010 to 2011.  Electronic books are now outselling printed books on Amazon.com - hardcover and paperback combined - and the Kindle e-reader is the best-selling product on Amazon.  Apple's iPads are selling by the tens of millions, Android powered tablet sales are increasing, and numerous other companies are developing and selling tablet devices.  There is no better time to join the e-book revolution.

E-books can be read on a PC or Mac, on an e-reader device like a Kindle, Nook, or Sony Reader, on an iPad, Android or other tablet, or even on an iPhone or other smart phone.  The publishing playing field has never been so level for self-published, independent authors.  Your e-books can be up for sale on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple iTunes and iBooks at no cost to you.  They will be available on these sites along with all the printed and digital books, with the potential to be found and purchased by anyone shopping and searching online.

With e-books you can publish your books as soon as you complete them, then make changes and additions to your text or descriptions at any time and have the new versions posted and available in minutes or days.  If you have information, knowledge, or a story that others are interested in reading and the skills to write, format, put on sale, and market an e-book, the process is both straightforward and free or very low cost.

This tutorial will cover each step of the process, and is excerpted from my much more comprehensive e-book about creating, formatting, publishing, marketing, and selling e-books called The E-Book Handbook, which goes into further detail about each of these steps.  Learn more about The E-Book Handbook - A Thoroughly Practical Guide to Formatting, Publishing, Marketing, and Selling Your E-Book:
http://www.dojoklo.com/Full_Stop/The_E-Book_Handbook.htm

Setting Up a Website or Blog

Before or as you start writing your e-book, it is important to begin putting some other elements of your future e-book empire into place, including a blog and/ or website, which are important for creating awareness of your e-book and marketing and selling it directly to potential readers.  I suggest that you spend some time to build this foundation that will be helpful for selling and marketing the e-books you will be putting so much effort into.  When your e-book is finally ready for publication and you are eager to start selling it, you'll be glad that some of the groundwork has already been established.

WordPress is perhaps the most powerful and versatile free blogging platform currently available, and is also easy to set up and use.  You can start a free blog at WordPress.com, but I highly recommend that you use the (also free) WordPress software available at WordPress.org to create and host your blog on your own website.  There are several reasons for this.  Free WordPress.com blogs hosted by WordPress are intended to be personal blogs and are not intended for people who will be using their blog to sell something or to make money.  Right now your blog may not be intended or designed primarily to sell your e-books or to make money but rather to discuss your subject or your thoughts.  But over time the number of posts you write about your own e-books might grow, and your affiliate links to products on sites like Amazon may increase and it may begin to appear that your blog is intended primarily for selling.  So rather than risking having your blog suspended at some point by WordPress, and to give yourself the ability to explore other ways of advertising or earning income through your blog, it is best to host it on your own website.  Plus hosting it on your own site will allow you the options of customizing your blog and using versatile WordPress PlugIns.

I had an unexpected opportunity this weekend. In fact, it was so unexpected that it was one of those things you wish you could have prepared for and had more time to explore. However, I seized the opportunity when it fell into my lap, like any good graphic designer enamored with their work would. While attending a book signing event with my grandmother, and after driving over 3.5 hours to get there, we truly discovered a gem. Nestled in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains and part of the Big South Fork National Land Preservation Area, we discovered a colony where you could easily step back in time. WAAAAYYY BACK. And by colony, I mean just that. The community of Rugby TN was apparently originally settled by the British in the 1880s. And now, the community is a tourist attraction bringing in history lovers from far and near. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to find something that would thrill me and those in my profession from a career standpoint. But I did.

In the center of the community stands a building, refurbished, though authentic: The Rugby Print Shop. Still furnished with tools and equipment from the era I couldn't get enough of the way our earliest career ancestors must have felt laying out copy and 'designing' their papers and flyers. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them!

And though I didnt get to set up an actual demonstration or see the press in action, here is a shot from the community's website: http://www.historicrugby.org/

Word art used to be a setting in Microsoft Word that brought a grimace and groan to every professional designer. Specifically when used by clients in sentences such as, "I've mocked it up for you with Word Art!" If you were afraid that was what this post was going to be about you can now let out that breath you've been holding. What I'm talking about today is actually incredible imagery created solely with WORDS!

I stumbled across this outstanding campaign on the Nebraska AIGA website for their 19th Annual Show. After spending an insane amount of time just looking at the pieces, I knew I needed to share my find. Check out these images—

After seeing these remarkable designs I knew I would have to try one myself. As many of you know I do all the marketing for my author grandmother, Barbara Howell (www.splintersbook.com) I figured what better to play with than something that would tell her life story and correlate with her book. For those not familiar check out her site to get the full impact.

I decided to start with a simple shape, a saw blade and using illustrator was able to slowly build the shape out thanks to paths, etc. What I actually did was create a basic text outline of the words and placement I wanted to use and then go back in and begin playing with fonts, etc. While I'm not an expert with this yet, it is something I plan to use on projects in the future and something that I thought was a lot of fun.

I hope this inspires you to try your hand at it! If it does, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it your final pieces and I will post them on the blog in the future!

Contrary to the rules for traditional billboard design designing for an LED billboard is now a totally different endeavor. Much like a designing for print varies from designing for web.

Whereas with a traditional billboard you might battle the speed of travelers, when you go digital, suddenly there is a new element at play: your ad is now also only showing for 6 – 10 seconds. This means the rules just got tighter.

Clients who want to maximize the ROI on their billboard budget will often opt to create a campaign. That’s to digital technology you can now create a series of billboards showcasing a single concept. Each billboard would contain a new piece of info.

Experts suggest that serious marketers take advantage of "day parting". Day parting refers to scheduling ads at their prime time-times most likely to hit their chosen demographic.

In addition to the overall organization of your billboard ads, it’s also very important to consider the actual design elements you are using on your pieces. Among these are to the number of elements, the typography you select and your choice of color.

Simple is Better

When it comes to a fast moving a digital billboard design one of the biggest considerations is keeping the billboard simple. Fewer elements larger, larger elements and simple arrangements are required to fully showcase work.

Brighter is Better

Unlike the traditional print where brightly saturated colors may appear gaudy or tacky-design for LED requires just that. Keep your colors fully saturated and create strong contrasts to create eye-popping designs.

The biggest rule of Digital Billboards is to avoid white backgrounds. White backgrounds not only require more energy and more light to produce but they also show imperfections and are generally frowned upon. Black on the other hand is your best friend and should be used liberally.

Title Case is Better

When it comes to Digital Billboard typography your basic web rules will apply. Choose sans- serif and bold formatting whenever you can. Beyond that you want to stick to title case lettering. Avoid using all CAPS at all cost.

Now that we’ve covered the rules lets check out some recent digital advertising:

A perfect example of the opportunity presented to change the message throughout the day is this campaign from McDonald's. This billboard changes depending on the time of day to represent the food you'd be wanting at that time:

Photo Courtesy: http://www.clearchanneloutdoor.com/products/digital/don/

Great Design in Digital:

Photo Credits: Lamar Outdoor Advertising

Translating a design from print to web is often a daunting task for designers. It's the age old question. Which came first: The chicken or the egg? Similarly, chances are your web design will be running behind a print design or pre-established branding. Interestingly enough often this can prove baffling to new designers.

Logos. Unfortunately some things will translate better than others. Lets think logos online. We already know that simplicity in logo design is fundamental. Now we will see why. Think for a minute about sites you see all the time. In most cases, the logo will be at the top left corner. Because "above the fold" issues are a big concern with many web designs a horizontal logo will often work better than a vertical logo that might actually take-up to much space.

Got ideas for a clever 3-Dimensional design? Want to create something that will cause your customers or clients to do a double take at your piece rather than just tossing it in the trash? Afraid these ideas are going to empty your pocket book? They don’t have to.

Thanks to the remarkable design software we have available today and the sheer limits of  imagination there is very little you can’t accomplish with a simple postcard design. If you have a great idea, don’t write it off simply because it would cost too much money. Instead look for alternative design tricks to accomplish the same thing. Let’s look at my favorite 3 approaches for ‘faking’ an expensive die-cut or 3-D design:

Each day it seems technology changes. For the professional designer these changes must be embraced or your profession will soon move on without you. Lets think for a moment about the eight track tape. Depending on your age you may not even know what I'm talking about. and let me assure you they were before my lifetime as well.

Chances are you've at least heard of the over-sized cassette tapes. Cassette tapes? Oh yeah. That was next and finally in my lifetime. I remember as an elementary student when those flat Frisbee looking discs came out for music looking proudly at my cassette collection and thinking happily, "No, those things will never catch on. I'll be fine."

Rarely do I use this blog to air my own personal opinions. But today a truly disturbing email came through my inbox. While I will refrain from naming any names this particular company has now decided to jump on the stock logo bandwagon that was recently stirring the design community thanks to iStockPhoto's attempts to open a logo branch of their royalty free images and graphics.

Unfortunately, today's company took it a step farther telling me that "The best part is you can sell the same logo many times over, so a single design could earn you income for years to come!" I was already disgusted by their email but when I got to that point I knew they had NO concept of what a LOGO even was, to think that a designer would  think it's OK to resell a logo to multiple companies by simply changing the name.

Ok, the title may throw you a bit, but as a participant in the annual "Blog Action Day", I am bound to break out of the norms of our topics here on ISOD and explore something a little more 'political' and a little more 'environmentally friendly'.

At first, honestly, I was at a loss as to HOW to connect this year's topic: "Climate Change" back to design. But as I researched and read other articles on the topic I realized that this past year's GREEN movement has really affected the way most companies look at their waste management and the products they are buying.

Recently while mulling over a new design for a magazine layout, I once again found myself going through stacks and stacks of periodicals. I was looking at the current trends, what works and what doesn't. What I discovered was a growing popularity with split column design.

This new trend actually features columns set it different widths. Let's face it, symmetry is BORING. By creating a two column layout of varying widths, you can add visual interest to otherwise stuffy content.

Look at these examples below:

[caption id="attachment_217" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Equal Column Layout"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_218" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Split Columns"][/caption]