It’s been almost a year since I introduced this blog with my first post What is Book Thinking to orient readers to this site. Here’s what I wrote:

… I plan to share what I have learned about how to think about a book project, organize its content [particularly images], design and produce it—and make a profit doing so.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the “making a profit” part. Many of us who love doing creative work are not so keen on the numbers side of things. Yet, it is exactly the lack of profitability that forces many of us to give up work that nourishes us and [not be too grandious, but I’m just sayin’] contributes something of value to the world in ways both large and small.

So I personally have committed to learning what I need to learn and doing what I need to do to have a business that is profitable and sustainable and moves me from a position of scrambling for work into one of executing a thoughtful plan that moves me toward more strategic goals.

And, to give credence to that old saying that we teach what we need to learn, I have put together two series of workshops specifically focused on the business side of things.

Money Matters is a series of four one-hour teleclasses that covers: Calculating Your Hourly Rate, Evaluating Pricing Models, Estimating, and Gold Is In the Details. Although I work primarily with private publishers, this series is relevant to anyone who needs to set their own pricing, create estimates and proposals, and manage projects, client expectations, and subcontractors. You can sign up for individual classes or for the entire series at a significant savings.

Print Production Workflow: In Depth is another series of four one-hour teleclasses that explores in more depth the tasks, variables, and trouble-spots you are likely to encounter throughout the seven phases of book design and production. The series is divided into 1] Book Design & Cover Design Workflow, 2] Photos, Memorabilia, and Other Graphic Elements Workflow, 3] Page Layout Workflow, and 4] Printing & Binding Workflow. Like the Money Matters series, you can sign up for individual teleclasses or for the entire series at a significant savings.

Two additional teleclass series are in the works: Design Thinking which will cover Book Design Thinking, Design Fundamentals, Typography Fundamentals, and Partnering with Professionals. Digital Image Workflow goes even further into topics addressed in Print Production Workflow such as DAM [Digital Asset Management] Fundamentals, Scanning Fundamentals, Problem Pictures, and Image Editing Fundamentals.

I’ll be supplementing these teleclasses with blog posts and resources related to these topics, which, I hope, will create a holistic curriculum for setting up, executing, and profitably completing book design projects. Here’s to all of us doing good—and profitable—work in the world.

Some related posts that might be of interest:

My original post on book thinking

and a link to  upcoming teleclasses