Last week in the studio (CW44-26)

A momentous week in the studio. I announced my new book, finished Moonwalk Audio’s website, added WebMentions to my blog, and restarted my newsletter ahead of November’s book launch.

Last week was fairly momentous. After months of writing, designing, and occasionally wondering what I’d got myself into, I finally announced my new book, Standout Designs for the Web. It’ll be published on November 20th, which also happens to be my birthday.

Along with the book, I wrote a 35-page Hardboiled Client Interview Guide, my practical guide to interviewing clients. Anyone who pre-orders Standout Designs for the Web from November 12th will get the guide free.

Adding book product panels and pages

Launching the book meant making some changes to my website. I added a product page for the new book and updated the shop pages to include it. I also made promotional panels which appear in the sidebars of my blog articles.

Implementing WebMentions

Speaking of my blog, Andy Bell joined Rich and me on the Unfinished Business podcast to discuss how people in the web industry would benefit from sharing and supporting publications like CSS Tricks. Our conversation turned to blog comments and how to implement something similar (better) today.

That reminded me I’d been meaning to implement WebMentions on my blog for ages. Well, they’re here now, at the bottom of every blog article, like this one I published at the weekend about how I designed the pages of Standout Designs for the Web in InDesign.

Adding Moonwalk Audio to my portfolio

Last week, I handed over the completed Moonwalk Audio website to their team, so while I was updating my site, I added their project to my portfolio. Moonwalk Audio has been a dream to work with over the past few weeks, and I’m really looking forward to hearing how Moonwalk Audio’s clients react to the new website.

Restarting my newsletter

I want to let as many people as possible know about Standout Designs for the Web, and one way I planned to do that was by restarting my email newsletter.

When I started the newsletter, I used ConvertKit, but because my publishing schedule is semi-irregular, it cost too much. This time, I’m using MailerLite to publish the newsletter, which costs less and still gives me everything I need from a delivery service.

There’s plenty for subscribers to look forward to, and you can sign up for my newsletter on the book page.

To help spread the word, I also signed up for Fedica to make scheduling posts across social channels less time-consuming. So, you’ll probably see a little more of me over the next few weeks.

I plan to spend the next couple of weeks getting the Standout Designs for the Web EPUB and PDF files ready for readers and looking for a high-quality print-on-demand service for people who want to hold a copy in their hands.

Looking for new projects

I’ll split my time between promoting the book and finding new design projects. So if you’re a developer and you’d like a design partner for a new project, talk to me. I’d be happy to hear from you.