Joel Friedlander

Book Construction Blueprint - an essential reference book for self-published authors

Whenever I search the internet trying to find some information to resolve a self-publishing issue invariably an article written by Joel Friedlander comes up.

I've read a number of them and found them professional, helpful and, most importantly, understandable.

When I was offered all this knowledge free in his book Book Construction Blueprint by Joel Friedlander - Expert Advice for Creating Industry-Standard Print Books it was a no-brainer.

Book Construction Blueprint is a comprehensive guide and includes preparing your manuscript, interior book design, cover design, printing and working with professionals.

A good deal of it wasn't relevant for my needs but some was invaluable including the section Cleaning Up Your Word Files. Pretty much all the problems you're confronted with when you upload your original manuscript to a self-publishing platform can be attributed to formatting glitches in your Word file. Friedlander has some nifty tips, accompanied by screen shots, that saved me countless hours of hair-pulling frustration. They're now incorporated into my pre-upload check-list.

Ever wonder about the order of your book's front matter? What goes on the Copyright Page and does the Dedication Page come before Acknowledgements? It's all spelled out in Friedlander's book.

He also has some great suggestions on what components make an eye-catching cover, designing running heads and font choices.

I try to review a lot of new indie authors and it's very distracting and unprofessional to read poorly or incorrectly formatted books. I know what a challenge it is and mine still aren't perfect, but they'll be a lot better now that I have Book Construction Blueprint by Joel Friedlander - Expert Advice for Creating Industry-Standard Print Books to refer to.

I downloaded this book free from the BookBaby Blog
https://www.bookbaby.com/free-publishing-guides?utm_campaign=BB1748&utm_sour...… (more)

It looks like I got a free review copy of this book, because I found it on my Kindle without its official cover.

This is a great resource and far more comprehensive than other self-publishing guides I read, and pointed to some services and websites which I haven't stumbled across elsewhere. I would not recommend it for beginners, as the volume of information in it is a bit overwhelming. It's also limited by the fact that its focus is on providing links to other services and websites, and it will inevitably go out-of-date before long. Also, some of the sections were better than others. I have not read them all, but I found myself shaking my head at the "Best Books on Writing" section, which included none of my favorites and a few which are very popular but which I personally found unhelpful.

Still, the publishing and promotions sections were very informative, and included more in-depth and traditional-publishing-style advice than you'll find in the average "How to Self-Publish" guide.… (more)