Walter Simson has spent his professional career helping turn businesses in crisis into businesses making profit. Now he’s written a book to share his tried and trusted framework to other businesses in need.
This book gave Walter a challenge of his own. He needed to present his successful business turnaround strategy with a sales-ready book cover to catch the eye of the readers who need it most, and a quality typeset interior, including custom figures, to make information clear and concise.
The research Bookery performed made it clear that business books favored clean covers, distinct type, and simple visuals. Together Bookery and Walter determined that a cover that had an intellectual and classic feel would appeal best to his audience and needed to reflect the types of publications they're already reading. The tugboat imagery was something he used extensively in his own branding and we wanted to pull that in, so we decided a hand-drawn, sketchy image a tugboat with the leading business hub of the USA in the background would set the right tone, like illustration you'd see in the Economist or other larger publications.
Walter made it clear that he is a meticulous writer and would treat this design project with the same sort of eye for detail. We were excited to hear that; Bookery's focus is on detail and getting design right, especially on projects like this, where Walter presented us with diverse types of content; chapters with subtitles, multi-level sub headers (some with their own subtitles), and a collection of figures that included tables and bar graphs that needed to not just be easy to understand, but to also match the style of the rest of the book. Everything was created or recreated from scratch to make sure all fonts and other design styles were consistent with the cover, keeping the reader immersed and learning.
The task for the ebook was clear: maintain structure and keep the figures clear without losing the ability for ereader users to customize it to their own needs. We did that by keeping the text reflowable, the font, margins, and line spacing adjustable, and the image files minimized to keep the file size as small as possible.
Upload went smoothly and with minimal fixes on the print proof. With the book now in print, ebook, and audio versions, more business owners can be their own tugboats and pull their businesses back on the right path and read their favorite format while doing it.
That’s enough from us, though. Here are the kind words Walter had to say once we were done:
The amount of detail required is mind-boggling. Luckily, I chose to work with an agency whose competence and drive to get a good result surpassed all expectations. Very highly recommended! – Walter Simson
