Overall that places it at #1284 (UK) and #2392 (USA) in All Books which, out of over 6.5 million books available on those sites, is even more cool. In the top 0.1% in fact.

I’ve no idea what that translates into in terms of real numbers (and won’t for some time until I get a report from the publishers at the end of the quarter) but, it’s probably not more than a thousand or so.

Still, no small beans considering, as I was told last year, that over 98% of books that are published go on to sell less than 250 copies. Which is a pretty preposterous statistic…

Either way, I reconciled with myself early on that this wasn’t going to be something to retire on, rather that now I just get to be ‘The Guy That Wrote That Book’. My dream of buying a townhouse in the West Village with all the other successful authors will have to wait for a little while.

I thought it might be worth noting my experiences down lest anyone else is in the position where they want to publish something so, below are some observations – I’m hesitant to say advice – on the process as a whole.

1. Publishing is slow and unpredictable.

I mean, really slow. Compared to how I’m used to working I mean. Aside from this, my project was beset with delays that were, to be fair, out of everyone’s hands. Actar are based in Barcelona where, during October and November of last year, they were faced with the country engaging in a series of austerity strikes which saw everything grind to a halt.

Delayed art to the printers meant delayed pages to the binders which meant delayed books tot he shippers… it went on. The original release date was late November but it was early January when copies finally emerged from the warehouses. This kind of thing you just can’t plan for but, it’s something to bear in mind in much the same way as the printer will always break down the night before a pitch.

That led, ultimately, to Amazon cancelling hundreds of pre-orders and me receiving a lot of embarrassing emails, tweets and Facebook posts. I’m not sure whether J.K Rowling gets the same emails when one of her books is delayed but, it was pretty humbling and I did my best to respond to as many people as I could and to control the damage.

Trying to get people to order in the first place was one thing, trying to get them to RE-ORDER a second time was, well, difficult let’s say.

2. Price point matters.

When I originally specced out the book, being a dickhead designer I wanted it hard back, perfect bound, 7 inks, 5 paper stocks… you name it. When I was informed that, while that was all perfectly achievable the publishers would have to sell over 5000 copies before they could begin to pay me a dime (and only 3% at that), I decided to reign things in a little.

The book, however, was never meant to be a giant, $75 coffee table ornament. It’s aimed primarily at students and recent grads and is meant to be dipped in and out of. Like a Gary Larson compendium you find in people’s bathrooms. In addition, just 2 of my illustrations required colour so, again, costs were trimmed. I did still want the designer contributes section to stand out so we kept a different paper stock for that and, in the end, I was able to negotiate something a little more reasonable in terms of compensation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about doing things for the love of it but, for a project that I worked on, somewhat swervingly, for a year, I did want to get some sort of a cheque at the end of it all.

3. Make lots of noise.

Do you know how hard it is to get people to buy something?

I mean, it’s hard enough getting people to click on a link anyway, but to get them to actually part with money, even if it is only £10, is a Herculean task. I contacted design blogs with a combined Twitter following / readership of over 1 million. I posted it on my Behance page and, right now it has had some 30,000+ views and 2000 appreciations on that site alone. If I search for it on Twitter, reams of posts and reposts come up. Literally hundreds. And yet, I’ve still realistically only sold a thousand or so copies.

Obviously, this was never going to be the next Harry Potter / Twilight / 50 Shades of Grey, but what this says about online coverage is up for debate. You really can’t expect to put something out there and people just know about it.

In addition, expect to do EVERYTHING yourself in terms of marketing. Your publishers will take it to book fairs, post it on their site and suchlike but, in terms of actual promotion, you really need to be ready to drive around not he back of a lorry with a megaphone if you want to get word out and convert ‘Likes’, Tweets and Appreciations into actual sales.

4. Adjust expectations.

As I’ve said, this was never going to be a retirement plan but in this sense I mean adjust your expectations of everything. I’m a first time author who managed to convince a small publisher to print a few copies of a book. Actar are not Lawrence King, Phaidon or similar and, as such, don’t have the same scale of distribution. They were, however, helpful, keen to work with me and overlook my ignorance of the process, which was invaluable.

There probably won’t be a world book tour for this. Unless a university or similar specifically wants to fly me over to give a talk and do a signing, I can’t justify spending thousands of dollars on flights and accommodation to sell a few hundred more copies.

However, when that first royalty cheque does come through, for however small an amount, I’ll be more than a little tempted to just keep it for posterity. The first cheque for the first edition of my first book.

Thanks all again for the support.

C x

Popular Lies About Graphic Design is available from Amazon in most territories along with selected retailers. Please contact info@actar.com for stockists in your area.

The lock up design was one of several we tried. The brief was something that had to be grown up and lend itself to multiple media with the eventual final usage being on television. Here is some of the development process. Once we locked in on a design that everyone agreed on I threw it into Cinema 4D to see how it would look in three dimensions…

ITV design development from Craig Ward on Vimeo.

I had the type laser cut from two layers of wood which, with the assistance of Niral, I painted white and affixed to a board that was 8ft x 5.5ft – the approximate dimensions of a 16:9 HD screen. The construction side of the project took a couple of days and took place in my Brooklyn studio.

I had my buddy Bill Wadman and camera operator Claude Bauschinger come by and help shoot the final vignettes which were shot, very simply, on a Canon 5D with a dolly. Really pleased with the end result. A lot of work for sure but definitely something to be proud of. _ C

The opening sentence of my very first book!

I’d always wanted to write a book. So, I wrote one. The alternative being to not write one, which would have been very lazy. The result, 160 pages later, is ‘Popular Lies About Graphic Design’ and it will be available, happily, just in time for Christmas. In fact, it’s now available for pre-order here on Amazon for those in the USA. Rest of the world, patience please.

Drawing on my ten years experience, it tackles lighter subjects such as design fetishists, Helvetica’s neutrality and ‘urgent’ briefs, alongside discussions on more worthy topics such as the validity of design education, the supposed death of print, client relationships and pitch planning. In addition, I approached a variety of established practitioners such as Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Christoph Niemann, Paul Sahre, James Victoré, Michael C. Place and many others for contributions on their own insights and experiences and to whom I owe a debt of thanks for validating the project in my mind.

It doesn’t pull any punches and is extremely candid in parts making it, hopefully, a worthwhile read for everyone from students and recent graduates up to those more seasoned designers and art directors who will no doubt have come across many of these fibs first hand. Format wise, it’s compact: 120 x 170mm and is a perfect bound soft cover, printed on two paper stocks – one of which being a cool fluorescent paper which I can’t show here, obviously. It will be published by Actar, a New York and Barcelona based publishing house whose previous publications have included Marc Valli & Richard Brereton’s excellent ‘RGB: Reviewing Graphics in Britain’ as well as ‘Neuland’ and several of IdN’s publications.

It goes without saying that I’m really excited about it. I’ll be hosting some kind of a launch in early December here in New York so look out for that and I’d really appreciate your support in the meantime! I’ll also be giving away signed copies via Twitter closer to the time for those who live elsewhere. I wanted it to be accessible to everyone so it will have a very affordable price tag (£/$/€ variable dependant on your location of course) and, there’s really nothing more to say other than tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell your tutors and put it on your Christmas lists! C x

The result was this boxed set, entitled Ten Pictures of Words, produced in an edition of 50. The box itself is a little over 12 x 12 inches (like the old vinyl record boxed sets you used to get) and was produced for me by a company out in California. The type is debased on the front and inside are ten (obviously…) 12 x 12 inch photographic prints of ten of my favorite pieces. I went all fancy and had a ribbon put in there so you don’t have to touch the prints to remove them.

I’ve given out a couple and I’m currently putting together a list of other recipients from all walks of life. It’s likely that I won’t get to 50 so I’m thinking of a way to give a few away on Twitter or whatever. They cost me a small fortune to produce so if anyone has any thoughts on a nice, democratic, non-riggable way of giving a few away then let me know.

_ C