I call myself an editorial consultant and when asked what
that means, I reply: “A variety of things.” For example, I’m a freelance writer
and photographer; I’m a journalism expert in defamation cases; I used to be an
online instructor; I restore old photographs; I manage my wife’s Etsy site; I’m a writing coach.
One thing I do for myself—but want to do for others as a
business—is design books. I’ve designed a friend’s memoirs and a deceased
editor’s story of his life, but I haven’t gained any traction with paying
customers.
I’m glad to report that the dry spell has ended with the
publication of Living and Loving, a
collection of poems by Kathleen M. Quinn-Farber. I’ve designed longer books,
but what made Kathleen’s challenging was that it’s poetry and text does not
flow from page to page the way it does in a memoir. Rather, each page is an
island unto itself. It’s requires more diligence.
After reading Kathleen’s poems, I suggested that the cover
contain nothing more than the title and a long-stem rose. She concurred. I was
about to buy one and photograph it when I asked my wife if she could paint one.
Well, it didn’t take Paulette long to produce one on her
iPad. Yes, her iPad. While she does paint on the usual surfaces from time to
time, she now creates most of her work on her iPad. In fact, she uses her iPad
so much that when the new ones came out, she thought she’d get my old one and I’d
get a new one. But I figured that the better definition in the new one was
worthy of her, not me.
So we seem to be in business. We have something to show and
now we’re just waiting for new clients.
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