Mega thanks to everyone who promoted my book BROKEN (Part 1)

Card icon designed by Andrew Sloan from The Noun Project collection

After writing, editing, designing, pricing, and finally launching my latest book BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work, my next tasks dealt with promoting it. With a self-published book, every mention counts, whether it’s in person, by email, and especially through the Web. Since the book’s announcement, lots of people helped bring it to the attention of others.

Sharing—by those beyond the maker—is truly caring, and is not a given. The championing must be earned. Whatever the form (especially the virtual), whatever the size, and whatever the scope, the time and energy to share something are not trivial, because it didn’t have to happen. People, who share things you made, could have easily ignored you. When it does happen, the result is a smile, from the inside out.

Marketing a book is an ongoing process. But I want to take this opportunity to give heartfelt thanks to the following people and groups who made the effort to spread the good word about my book. Thank you for caring and making me smile!

Gigantic thanks to these awesome creative practitioners, 
who social-media shared my book BROKEN
(chronological order):

Zealous Bee, Designers,
Producers of “original laser-cut wood and acrylic jewelry”
» Their tweet

Theo Rosendorf, Creative Director,
Author of The Typographic Desk Reference
» His tweet

Sole Sander, Designer, Illustrator
» Her tweet

Joanne Molina, Founding Editor of The Curated Object
» Her tweet

Ryan Evans, Founder of Bitesize PR, Source Sleuth, Lift Marketing, wrote an endorsement of BROKEN
» His tweets: 1, 2

Vook, Publishing platform, produced eBook versions of BROKEN
» Their tweets: 1, 2

Kristen Corpolongo, Consultant, Researcher, Strategist, Writer
» Her tweet

Marcia Conner, Executive Advisor,
Contributor to Fast Company magazine
» Her tweet

Rita Soultanian, Voiceover Artist, Singer
» Her tweet

The Creative Group, Staffing firm
» Their tweet

Mera Mistry, Designer
» Her tweet

Stop Tweeting Boring Shit, book published by Division of Labor
» Their tweet

The Bold Italic, “Online magazine and events hub”
» Their tweet

Stephanie di Biase, Designer,
Co-Author (found through CreativeMornings) of BROKEN
» Her tweet

Eight Hour Day, Graphic Design, Illustration Studio
of Nathan Strandberg and Katie Kirk
» Their tweet

Design Directory, “A comprehensive database of hand-picked design firms, studios, museums, organizations and resources”
» Their tweet

Neftali Morales, New Media Creative
» His tweet

Joe Meersman, Studio Lead at IBM Design
» His tweet

CreativeMornings, “A breakfast lecture series
for the creative community”
» Their tweets: 1, 2

Molly Bramlet, Graphic Designer
» Her tweet

Dan Wagstaff, Founder of The Casual Optimist
» His tweet

Nicole Delger, Brand Advisor, Author of Get Funded
» Her tweet

Jeffrey Yozwiak, Production Coordinator at Vook,
managed the eBook development of BROKEN
» His tweet

Mike Keen, Software Artist
» His tweet

Paul Buck, Founder of Zerofree
» His tweet

Judith Abbate, Book Designer
» Her tweet

John Clifford, Owner of Think Studio, Designer, Author of
Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design
» His tweets: 1, 2

Guillaume Marin, Freelance Video Editor
» His tweet

Lucy Engelman, Illustrator,
made the wonderful drawings throughout BROKEN
» Her tweets: 1, 2

Dave Cuzner, Founding Editor of Grain Edit
» His tweet

Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology
» Their tweets: 1, 2

Laura Helen Winn, Designer and Co-Founder of Hike Conference
» Her tweets: 1, 2

Eleanor Mayrhofer, Founder of e.m.papers,
wrote an endorsement of BROKEN
» Her tweets: 1, 2, 3

Elaine Chen, Designer,
wrote her soon-to-be-published first novel The Good Brother
» Her tweet

RESUSstudio, Design firm
» Their tweet

Loretta May, Freelance Graphic Designer
» Her tweet

Sergio Salgado, Owner of Furnace Creative
» His tweet

Alma Hoffmann, Designer, Educator
» Her tweet

Amy Feezor, Freelance Writer and Creative Director
» Her tweet

Brianna Sylver, Co-Founder and President of Sylver Consulting
» Her tweet

50,000feet, Design firm
» Their tweet

Veronica Corzo-Durchadt, Founder of Winterbureau,
Co-Founder of Podcast Thing
» Her tweet

Makeshift Society, Coworking space
» Her tweet

Rena Tom, Founder of Makeshift Society, wrote BROKEN’s Foreword
» Her tweet

Chicago chapter of CreativeMornings
» Their tweet

Amy Lin, Pathologist
» Her Facebook post

Jo D, Musician
» Her tweets: 1, 2, 3, 4

Ethan Bodnar, Dean, School of Design at Skillshare
» His tweet

Paul Oeming, Food Photographer,
Organizer of CreativeMornings’ Milwaukee chapter
» His tweets: 1, 2

Angela Wang, Blogger at American Taitai
» Her tweet

George Starr, Designer, Comic-Book Maker
» His tweet

Colossal thanks to these awesome creative practitioners, who retweeted and/or favorited tweets, related to my book BROKEN (chronological order):

Michael Davis-Burchat, Portfolio Roadmap Manager at Nokia

Cara Narkun, Copywriter, Co-Founder of Zealous Bee

Joanne Molina, Founder and Editor of The Curated Object

Marcia Conner, Executive Advisor,
Contributor to Fast Company magazine

Emily Schaeffer, Designer, Photographer

Hike Conference, Educational design conference

The Creative Group, Staffing firm

Chronicle Books, Publisher

Stop Tweeting Boring Shit, book published by Division of Labor

Kate Koza, Marketing and Student Affairs Coordinator,
Institute of Classical Architecture and Art

Whisk, Design firm

The Bold Italic, “Online magazine and events hub”

James Puckett, Type Designer,
whose typeface Recovery was used for BROKEN’s title

Chicago chapter of AIGA, “the professional association for design”

The Purpose Economy, book by Aaron Hurst

Think Studio of John Clifford, Author of Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design

Kern and Burn, book by Jessica Karle and Timothy Hoover

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Scott Berkun, Author, Speaker

Phil Terry, Founder/CEO of Collaborative Gain,
Co-Author of Customers Included

Nicole Delger, Brand Advisor, Author of Get Funded

Bitesize PR, founded by Ryan Evans, wrote an endorsement of BROKEN

Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology

Dave Goodridge, Singer-Songwriter

Lucy Engelman, Illustrator,
made the wonderful drawings throughout BROKEN

Night Owls Press, Publisher

Rena Tom, Founder of coworking space Makeshift Society

Makeshift Society, Coworking space

Tina Roth Eisenberg, Founder of CreativeMornings, TeuxDeux, Tattly

50,000feet, Design firm

Alma Hoffmann, Designer, Educator

Sergio Salgado, Owner of Furnace Creative

DuaneKing, Creative Director of Huge/KingCoyle,
Founder of Thinking for a Living

Trouvé Magazine, published by Amanda Marko

Stephanie di Biase, Designer, Co-Author (found through CreativeMornings) of BROKEN

Mari Huertas, Technology Consultant,
Manager of Operations at The Manual

Immense thanks to these awesome creative practitioners for featuring my book BROKEN in their respective publication (chronological order):

Joanne Molina, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Curated Object, interviewed me.

Claudia Gerdes, Editor of PAGE magazine,
reached out to me about getting my book featured.

Doug White, Editor of The Creative Group’s blog,
interviewed me—Thanks to John Clifford for the introduction.

Jennifer Maerz, Editor of The Bold Italic, reached out
to me—via Makeshift Society—about featuring my book.

Eight Hour Day, Graphic Design, Illustration Studio of
Nathan Strandberg and Katie Kirk, featured my book on their blog.

Lisa Hazen, edited BROKEN,
interviewed me for BookPromotion.com.

Dave Cuzner, Founder and Editor of Grain Edit,
featured my book on his blog.

• • •

Work can suck—for some, not so much, for others, extensively. BROKEN is a book about making your professional path as productive as possible. Learn more and buy a copy.

Deciding on pricing for BROKEN

Price-Tag icon designed by Atelier Iceberg from The Noun Project collection

How to price a product is so open, yet demands a finite number. Once editing my book was finished, I went back and forth about how to price BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work. Before arriving at the final price, these were my initial approaches:

Price the book high, because a lot of hard work went into it. This encompasses all of the energy and time put into writing, revising, and producing a book. But this price-it-high approach may alienate prospective buyers.

Price the book low, because this will encourage the path of least resistance to potentially purchasing the book. It may stimulate sales. But this price-it-low approach also feels cheap.

Provide an array of prices, from low to high, because different prices may suit different people, who may only perceive a book’s true value at $4, while others prefer $7, or for the higher-price minded, a price of $12. But more than one price, offered to get the same book, is convoluted (by complicating people’s minds in the process) .

What galvanized my thinking about pricing BROKEN was a talk (by way of Skype) with Ryan Evans, who founded Bitesize PR, Source Sleuth, and Lift Marketing. His tenacity, when it comes to launching a business, compelled me to interview him as part of my series about people who love making things. A past conversation we had about pricing turned into a side project, resulting in a one-sheet about factors to consider in pricing something. He gave two thoughtful pieces of advice that I applied to pricing BROKEN:

Price all formats the same. I once thought that I would price the PDF differently from the eBook, then have a different price for the combined PDF-and-eBook bundle. Keeping the price the same, no matter what version, simplifies impressions.

Price the book in respect to its peers. By envisioning what books BROKEN would be adjacent to in its category, then finding out how those books were priced, helps inform, even validate, what the price should be. Browsing kindred book titles on Amazon was essential here.

These approaches proved very practical in ending my back-and-forth decision-making on the price. I gladly—and confidently—decided to sell BROKEN at $9.99.

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Typographic detail: Considering type size and line spacing for BROKEN

After selecting the fonts for my latest book BROKEN—Recovery for headers, Harriet for body copy—one of the next typographic steps was to determine their sizes and line spacing, or leading(1). There was the temptation to rely on how paragraphs looked on screen, since the book was planned to be only made available as a digital publication (PDF, eBook). But not applying fonts and line spacing to prose, on a printed page, would be dismissive.

From his seminal book The Elements of Typographic Style, in a section called “Vertical Motion,” Robert Bringhurst advised, “Choose a basic leading that suits the typeface, text and measure [line length].” With this guidance in mind, a portion of text was taken from the manuscript and inserted into an InDesign document. Variations of type sizes and line spacing were arranged and printed:

• 13-point type size on 18-point line spacing
• 12-point type size on 17-point line spacing
• 11.5-point type size on 15.5-point line spacing
• 11-point type size on 14-point line spacing

Each variation of font size and leading was evaluated. I asked others to do the same and give their impressions about which one was preferred reading. What may be viewed as minuscule adjustments in type size and line spacing, are not trivial. I needed to be comfortable with the arrangement of type size and line spacing, and how it embraced the prose. I decided to present the body copy at 11.5-point type size on 16-point line spacing. Right amount of scale and breathing room, to me, for words primarily set in the font of Harriet. My co-writer Stephanie, a graphic designer, commented that the selected type size and vertical spacing felt “readable.”



To physically see the relationship of type size and line spacing, even for a book only offered digitally, is another opportunity to be sensitive toward how your book looks. It’s also a way to be sensitive toward curious readers of your book, because the aspiring relationship with a potential audience is never to be dismissed.

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(1) From Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style: “Lead [rhymes with red] 1) A strip of soft metal used for vertical spacing between lines of type, or its digital equivalent. 2) To space type vertically by inserting leads or their digital equivalent.” / “Leading [rhymes with sledding] In digital typography, this usually means the total vertical increment, baseline to baseline, in a block of text. Ten-point type leaded 2 pt is set to 10/12. We now usually say the leading is 12 pt, not 2 pt.”

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Mandatory editing: Working and reworking BROKEN into shape

Redaction icon designed by Dan Hetteix from The Noun Project collection

If BROKEN hadn’t been edited, it would never have been published. Editing takes writing and makes it more cohesive.

In an earlier post in this series about how this book was made, note-taking and clustering were used to identify the chapter names. These methods were also used to generate content for the book, using material written and collected at various times, over time.

Together with my co-writer, I worked to arrange and re-arrange the parts into a coherent sequence. This was done through writing—the glue that bonds material accumulated over time. If this process constituted the final writing of BROKEN, it would be absent of a fresh mind, with a fresh pair of eyes, in the form of an editor.

Lisa Hazen(1) edited BROKEN. She freshened the book’s manuscript by doing the following:

1. Challenging what didn’t make sense and pose questions or recommendations
2. Sharpening the clarity of the prose and making adjustments
3. Spotting misspellings and grammar mistakes—correcting them (on the spot)

Nothing was dismissed to help make the manuscript better in wording, in construction, in tone. Lisa reviewed each successive revision of the book’s manuscript for three rounds of total editing.

Receiving each edited version of the manuscript brought relief. At the same time, it brought anxiety, but feeling anxious to find out what Lisa filtered, coupled with the eagerness to get the book done, turned into a feeling of satisfaction. This was the kind of satisfaction that only an editor could give: the proof of writing improved!

• • •

Thank you so much, Lisa, for editing BROKEN!

• • •

“To write is human, to edit is divine.”
—Stephen King, Author

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(1) I met Lisa via her husband Shawn, who makes typographic illustrations for my series Creative Roles.

• • •

This is the eighth post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up: Spending time making BROKEN.

• • •

BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work is available as both an eBook and PDF.

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If you liked this lovingly-made write-up, show your appreciation by helping to support my labor of love—Design Feast, which proudly includes this blog. Learn more.

Spending time making BROKEN

Clock icon designed by Andy Fuchs from The Noun Project collection

In the first post about how my book BROKEN was made, the importance of time was emphasized—specifically, that it took four years to make the book available. During that time, I needed to find a new co-writer—a search fulfilled by going to the gatherings of CreativeMornings. It took time to write and re-write, edit and re-edit, design and redesign, launch and promote, and promote again. Time was essential to all of these activities, but it contributed specifically to these two aspects of time:

Start doing what you feel must be made
My project of BROKEN had a number of starts: the initial ideas for the concept of the book, discussions, and note-taking. But the true start of the book was on September 28, 2010, when the first word was written—“tools.” It was also the title of the first chapter that was worked on. Compared to the other versions of starts related to thinking, talking, and documenting, writing the first word was the book’s true beginning, because it connected with the book in the most visible way. Yes, it was only one word, but it was the first actual building block.

Spend—don’t make—the time
Rather than committing to making the time, commit to spend the time. The time is already there, so spend it. Use your time to craft its substance and style. Over time, your efforts will result in something substantial. This is gratification of getting work done. At the same time, it’s gratification that briskly dissipates, until it’s achieved again, for a few more minutes to a few more years. Time is an inheritance. It can’t be saved nor stored. Its ease is to spend it.

Start your book and spend the time to get it real

When you envision the complete iteration of your book, it’s an intimidating thought. A motivating aspiration, but a lot to behold.

Starting has versions and can materialize in different forms. The beauty of start is that it has no standard method to make the act of starting a valid one. Pick and start from there.

Once begun—whatever part of the book project is approached—time is spent. The more time spent, the more the project advances toward completion. Time well-spent, on your book.

• • •

This is the seventh post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up: Talked about BROKEN at the Institute of Design, IIT, in Chicago.

• • •

BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work is available in ePub formats and PDF.

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Public-speaking notes: Talked about BROKEN at the Institute of Design, IIT

Presentation icon designed by Daniel Flp from The Noun Project collection

I had my first opportunity to discuss BROKEN: Navigating the Ups and Downs of the Circus called Work with a small group at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago. This was my first time publicly presenting my new book.

I’ve been reflecting here and there on my public-speaking experiences, because public speaking is a good skill to have. It’s one that I try to excel at, if only on a basic level. Here are some things that stuck with me concerning presentation skills, and that you may corroborate with, in making your presentations.

Courtesy

Most attendees at my talk were busy graduate students, with packed schedules. So it was great when one of them told me prior to my talk not to be offended when she and her work group slipped out early during my presentation. Proactive courtesy feels good.

Presenter tip: Be courteous throughout your appearance.

Nerves

My nervousness gradually faded around the time I started speaking. When my nervousness abated, my comfort level rose. What particularly helped to manage the nervousness was physically not keeping still. I wandered away from the podium and treated the floor like a mini-stage.

Presenter tip: Acknowledge the fact that once you dive into your presentation, you’ll float and swim (in my case, a steady doggy paddle). Stay afloat by finding a technique to calm your nerves.

Script

I had a script, written per slide, but rarely used it. This isn’t to say that the script wasn’t handy, it’s a great safeguard, especially for a scatterbrain like me.

Presenter tip: Write out everything you want to say, but give yourself permission to go off script. Off script is risky, but you’ll act less robotic.

Feedback

Specific and constructive feedback is useful. One such piece of feedback, I received, addressed a gap in my presentation, while another praised my plainspoken tone as “refreshing.” Still another comment highlighted how an aspect of my presentation gave a necessary nudge that proved, as the attendee put it, “inspiring.”

With its hardwired reflexes, my brain quickly attached to the criticism about the gap—what my presentation primarily lacked. It was one of those darn-I-wished-I-had-fully-satisfied-this-need reactions I kept echoing, to myself. What helped minimize this echo was acting on this feedback. It motivated me to adjust the content of my presentation. On the following morning, I took the collective feedback and responded to it with a revised version of my presentation (for presentations are highly subject to iteration as they should be).

Presenter tip: When it comes to feedback, you can either dwell on it or put it to productive use.

Phrasing

After I left the talk, I realized a number of things—certain phrases, different expressions—that I wished I said to add emphasis and color to what I was telling. Ultimately, something always gets left out.

Presenter tip: It’s ideal if you can say everything you wanted to say in the way you set yourself to say it. If not, accept how you presented and try to learn from it. It’s annoying to not connect what you originally had in mind to elegantly say. This feels sharply unforgiving, but it paves the way for turning that could-have-done-better-then to doing-it-better-now.

• • •

Big thanks to Rachel Dean and Raina Russ at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Chicago, for giving my first opportunity to talk about my latest book BROKEN!

• • •

This is the sixth post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up: Choosing the right fonts for BROKEN.

• • •

Learn more about the eBook → BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work.

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Choosing the right typefaces for BROKEN

Text icon designed by Sergey Krivoy from The Noun Project collection

Selecting a typeface for a book’s design is not a trivial matter.(1) When the manuscript of BROKEN was close to completion, I took a portion of the copy and typeset it. All along, I assumed I would use a couple from my staple group of fonts that includes Adobe Garamond, Caslon, Helvetica Neue, and Univers. Nothing wrong with these typefaces—they are beautiful and reliable. But for this book, I wanted to try something different, considering the many options available.

This was the criteria used to find a set of new fonts:

• Achieved contrast between bold headings and paragraphs
• Independently made
• Aligned to the manner of the book in some way

The last point is totally subjective. A font must feel right.

One way to motivate yourself to finish your book is to visualize your prose in a typeface that looks and feels not only appropriate, but essential. I browsed and dwelled upon a number of typographic portfolios by type designers and font foundries. Here are some whose work in type design I admire:

• Avondale Type Co. (Chicago, Illinois)
• Bold Monday (The Hague, Netherlands)
• Commercial Type (New York/London)
• Darden Studio (Brooklyn, New York)
• Dave Foster (Sydney, Australia)
• Grilli Type (Zürich, Switzerland)
• HvD Fonts (Germany)
• Just Another Foundry (Munich, Germany)
• Klim Type Foundry (New Zealand)
• Laura Meseguer (Barcelona, Spain)
• MVB Fonts (San Francisco Bay Area)
• OurType (Belgium)
• Retype (The Hague, Netherlands)
• Type Supply (Baltimore, Maryland)

When selecting a font for titles—especially my book’s title—envisioning it on the front cover was helpful. For this usage, the font had to have emphasis. It had to have weight. I’m partial to thick, ultra-bold, slab sans-serif fonts, like Massive designed by Shawn Hazen. I use Massive a lot, for product naming and pulled quotes in blog posts. But as I said earlier, I wanted to try a different typeface. This is one of the opportunities that a new project promotes.

When I discovered Recovery designed by James Puckett of Dunwich Type Founders, it grabbed me. What sealed the decision was its name. (A fine font name is a good thing.) One of the emotions that motivated the making of BROKEN, and is one of its major themes, is recovery. Having it set in Puckett’s typeface design Recovery felt absolutely right.



A couple of months after discovering Recovery, I happened upon Harriet designed by Jackson Cavanaugh of Okay Type. At the same time, I was considering Elena designed by Nicole Dotin of Process Type. I would stare at the alphabet of Elena and then do the same with Harriet. I asked my co-writer, Stephanie Di Biase, for her vote. She picked Harriet.(2)



I also leaned toward choosing Harriet, because it had an extended family of ligatures, one of my typographic fetishes. Harriet possessed an expected set of ligatures (standard) and an above-and-beyond set of ligatures (discretionary). Another factor that helped me select Harriet for BROKEN’s body copy was the design of its typographic specimen sheet online. This would make for a terrific poster. Another persuasive factor—and this was strong one—was that Harriet was made in Chicago, and thus, had home-court advantage. Using a locally harvested font is a comforting fact.

Recovery and Harriet constituted a solid pair of fonts for headers and body that persisted from BROKEN’s covers to its interior (detail below).



Choosing a typeface can conform to habit (my go-to staple group of regularly-used fonts), or it can be a snap judgment. Or it can be the meandering fickle process that took time for my book project of BROKEN. All are fine ways to pick a typeface. The benefits of the font-choosing process for BROKEN were a co-author’s opinion and time.

However a font is chosen, arriving at a rationale, a story, in its choosing is important, because the effect could prove to be a wardrobe malfunction, typographically speaking.

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(1) Based on chats about careers, “Why did you choose that font?” is a valid question to be asked in interviews for design-related jobs.

(2) Why Stephanie voted for using Harriet is still to be known.

• • •

This is the fifth post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up: Defining BROKEN’s Structure.

• • •

Learn more about BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work.

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If you liked this lovingly-made write-up, show your appreciation by helping to support my labor of love—Design Feast, which proudly includes this blog. Learn more.

Defining BROKEN’s Structure

Two methods were used when writing BROKEN: Navigating the Ups and Downs of the Circus Called Work, and they are tried and true standbys: note-taking and clustering.

For note-taking, the Web-based tool Backpack (defunct but remains available to current customers) by Basecamp (formerly called 37signals) was used. It’s a really simple way to virtually store and organize information. Over seven months, thoughts and findings were entered into what is called a Writeboard in Backpack. What started as a short list evolved into a long one. From my interview with Book Promotion about BROKEN: The origin of a book is a list.

With clustering (above photo), the notes were copied and pasted into a document made in Microsoft Word (but could be any other word processor or page layout program), set to a large font size, printed, cut, then rearranged.

The process of organizing the notes helped with discovering the book’s chapters. This also gave a to-do list, because each chapter, with its underlying notes, also acted as a way of further reflecting on the information, making connections, elaborate, and compose the individual chapters.

What made these two methods effective was the gradual accumulation of content over time. In a way, Backpack was used as a sort of savings account for deposits of notes. There was never any judgment about whether a note was useful or not, and no formatting. There was only a commitment to save whenever a thought was reached or finding discovered.

Collecting notes of subjects, with potential, for a book’s content, combined with the process of sorting those notes—and seeing where clusters of information formed—allowed the book to eventually take shape.

• • •

This is the fourth post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up: Discovered books that motivated the making of new book BROKEN.

• • •

Learn more about BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work.

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Discovered books that motivated the making of new book BROKEN

Books icon designed by Sergey Krivoy from The Noun Project collection

Besides the rewarding struggle to write, another major source of motivation to complete BROKEN were works—mostly self-made and published—discovered along the way. Each discovery of an announced book was a boost to bring the making of BROKEN to launch. Here’s a wholehearted acknowledgement to the people who took the book out of them, put it out there, and energized me to finish my new book:

Get Funded: A kick-ass plan for running a successful crowdfunding campaign
by Nicole Delger
Read her Interview

Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design
by John Clifford
Read his Interview

It Will Be Exhilarating: Indie Capitalism and Design Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century
by Studio Neat
Discovered via Swissmiss

Insites: The Book
by Keir Whitaker and Elliot Jay Stocks of Viewport Industries
Discovered via Swissmiss

Without Their Permission
by Alexis Ohanian

Clients From Hell: A collection of anonymously-contributed client horror stories from designers
by Channel V Books

Breakthrough
by Alex Cornell
Discovered via Swissmiss

Execute
by Drew Wilson and Josh Long

The Art of Explanation
by Lee LeFever of Common Craft

Enough
by Patrick Rhone

Clutter Free
by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

Starting + Sustaining: A Book to Help Plan, Launch, Run, and Support Your Own Web Application
by Garrett Dimon of Sifter app

Content Chemistry: An Illustrated Guide to Content Marketing
by Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios

Step by Step UI Design
by Sacha Greif

The Art of Being Unreasonable
by Eli Broad

Scaling PHP
by Steve Corona

Frictionless Freelancing
by Aaron Mahnke

Don’t Go Back to School
by Kio Stark
Discovered via Swissmiss

Entrepreneurship Guides & eBooks
by Less Accounting

The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and The Future of Work
by Scott Berkun

Breaking the Time Barrier
by FreshBooks

Stop Tweeting Boring Sh*t: The New Rules of Work
by Division of Labor

Blockbusters
by Anita Elberse

Obsessively Thorough Software Design
by Clark Valberg of Epicenter

Content Marketing
by Copyblogger

For Better or For Work: A Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families
by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg

These Days: A Novel
by Jack Cheng, an art director turned full-time writer

The Food Traveler’s Handbook
by Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads
Read her Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)

Customers Included
by Mark Hurst and Phil Terry of Creative Good

Above The Fold
by Brian Miller

Practical Typography
by Matthew Butterick, who wrote Typography for Lawyers

Experience Design
by Patrick Newbery and Kevin Farnham

Purpose Economy
by Aaron Hurst of Imperative

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This is the third post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up: Gathering for potential: CreativeMornings’ role in making my book BROKEN.

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Here’s to working better → My new book BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work

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Please consider supporting Design Feast
If you liked this lovingly-made write-up, show your appreciation by helping to support my labor of love—Design Feast, which proudly includes this blog. Learn more.

Gathering for potential: CreativeMornings’ role in making my book BROKEN

Chat icon designed by Wilson Joseph from The Noun Project collection

Organized gatherings—whether they’re flavored as conferences (including “unconferences”), summits, camps, or meet-ups—are infused with the possibilities of inspiration and knowledge. One such gathering is CreativeMornings, which I’ve consistently endorsed as my kind of design conference. Held monthly, it is a regular invitation to evoke vision and build knowledge. Bolstered by local pride and neighborly attendance, CreativeMornings also inspires reconnecting.

During the reception of the fourth CreativeMornings/Chicago at Threadless’ workspace, I noticed a former co-worker. While this is not always a guarantee of a pleasant chance encounter, in this case, it was sweet serendipity. I reunited with Stephanie Di Biase, a creative director. We chatted about our current work, since leaving the employer we shared. We had both happened to sign up to see the CreativeMornings/Chicago Talk by Jake Nickell, who co-founded Threadless. This was a welcome coincidence.

One of Jake Nickell’s proclamations, during his presentation, was: “Make with friends.” Friendship was a definite part of Threadless’ inception and gradual success.

Five months later, Stephanie and I reunited. This time, it was at my request, to talk about collaborating on a personal project of mine. After close to two years, the result is a completed book called BROKEN: Navigating the Ups and Downs of the Circus called Work.

Reflecting back, reconnecting with Stephanie at CreativeMornings, where we listened to Jake’s nudge to create with friends, in our shared city of Chicago, constituted an influential series of of circumstances that ultimately resulted in our book.



CreativeMornings says it provides “an open space to connect with like-minded individuals.” Open space. Connection. Like-mindedness. This social algorithm remarkably served my musings about what to do next—what creative project to consider getting real. Aspiring to meet a would-be collaborator at a gathering is a romantic idea, but it isn’t a flat intention. A gathering, like CreativeMornings, can play a supporting role in the unfolding rush to imagine the making of something, something wonderful in the worlds of like-minds, and beyond.

If a gathering’s tasks of giving inspiration and knowledge are fulfilled, a good gathering becomes a life event. It can be a preview of possibility, explored and realized.

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Tap into, what Seth Godin called in his CreativeMornings/New York Talk, “convening power” with this list of gatherings related to art, business, craft, storytelling, technology, and more.

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This is the second post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing. Read the previous write-up The Evolution of BROKEN.

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Here’s to working better → BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work. Buy the book now!

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Please consider supporting Design Feast
If you liked this lovingly-made write-up, show your appreciation by helping to support my labor of love—Design Feast, which proudly includes this blog. Learn more.

The Evolution of BROKEN

Calendar icon designed by Phil Goodwin from The Noun Project collection

Shortly after the launch of my book BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work, my co-writer Stephanie Di Biase tweeted, “it’s been a long time in the making :)”. As I mentioned in the book’s announcement, while the idea for the book was noted on June 30, 2010, the actual writing didn’t start until November 21, 2010. The gap between committing to the idea and actually beginning to write it will be a subject for a separate post.

When the ideation of BROKEN started, I documented my time. From November 21, 2010, through December 3, 2012, I completed my preliminary version of the manuscript—seven chapters. The Introduction, Credits, Colophon, and other sections, were written afterwards. Over the course of three years, I did not write every day, or even every week. At some points, I skipped a month or more. After that, there was a year of not visiting the project at all.

My timeline for writing the book can be broken (pun intended) into parts: minimal at the start (November 21, 2010–March 2, 2012), then aggressive (April 29, 2012–December 1, 2012). The minimal phase was partially affected by my original co-writer leaving the project for parenthood. The aggressive phase was energized by the discovery of, pitching to, then joining by new co-writer Stephanie.

Since BROKEN began as a joint writing project, I didn’t want to break this arrangement, especially after my original co-writer left. Working with another person not only makes the time go faster, it also makes the process feel more productive.

To Stephanie’s point, it took quite a while to complete BROKEN. Evaluating a project’s duration as long can mean that the project was drawn out. It can also mean that the effort was slow. In this project’s case, it was both: drawn out and slow. I’m not complaining—that’s just how the process unfolded. There were residual feelings of impatience and anxiety. In looking back, these feelings were relatively tamed by sticking to the vision that this book will ultimately result in a completed state. What made this sticking-to-it lasting, was, again in retrospect, faith. Time will tell if a project will ever finish. In BROKEN’s case, faith helped to see it through to launch.

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Speaking of time, it took me three hours to write this post.

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This is the first post, after the launch of BROKEN, that reflects on how this book was made. More to come in this series about aspects related to writing and self-publishing.

• • •

Originally published at Acme Pride, Design Feast’s former blog dedicated to striving and writing.

• • •

Now available – BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work! Buy now.

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Please consider supporting Design Feast
If you liked this lovingly-made write-up, show your appreciation by helping to support my labor of love—Design Feast, which proudly includes this blog. Learn more.

BROKEN, the book, is now available!

Dedicated to hard workers everywhere

BROKEN: Navigating the Ups and Downs of the Circus Called Work—my new book co-written with Stephanie Di Biase—is now available to download.

The rough idea for this book was written down on June 30, 2010. One of the first things written, to help start thinking about this book, was: Controlled Chaos. Sounds like an oxymoron. It was my feeling at the time and is a constant, albeit one way to look at work. It’s a residual perception and reality.

I wanted to make a book to help everyone deal well, even better, with the challenges of work, and these are not new challenges. They are recurring ones, like ineffective communication, workplaces with unhealthy cultural climates, the irritable actions of co-workers, and tough clients. BROKEN has ways to take on these challenges and others.

No doubt, work is a huge part of life. BROKEN was written for the person, working hard, and who desires to work on aspects of how she or he works and try to practice being better: better at communicating, better at treating co-workers, better at contributing to a good-work environment—better at working well. BROKEN is part guide, part therapist, and all-parts steadfast partner focused on making your work circumstances as productive and meaningful as possible.

Dedicated to hard workers everywhere, BROKEN is filled with practical methods and sharp stories. It also displays wonderful illustrations drawn by Lucy Engelman. It was absolutely fun writing this book with my collaborator Stephanie Di Biase, and a lot of effort went into making it for you.

Help with the book launch of BROKEN

Get your copy! As a PDF, eBook, or both.

I would also greatly appreciate your help in letting people know about BROKEN. Here are a few easy ways for you to spread the word:

1. Email your friends, colleagues, coworkers about the book.
2. Post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and your other social-media networks with this link: http://www.designfeast.com/broken-the-book/
3. Repeatedly mention and share throughout the day and week can only help.

When finished with reading BROKEN, I welcome your review. Please send to me.

More BROKEN-related posts in the works

I hope to share more about how the book was created and get nerdy about the intensive process of writing and self-publishing. In the meantime, here were previous blog articles leading up to BROKEN’s launch:

• Book cover design for BROKEN
• Scrappy, not crappy, first draft
• Write what you know

Thank you for your interest and consideration, 
and here’s to working better!

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Originally published at Acme Pride, Design Feast’s blog dedicated to striving and writing.