Free open source Wordpress theme consultation for self publishing writers
Everyone has at least one good book inside them. Or at least that is what the age old adage tells us. Sadly however, many of those books never see the light of day as a result of many writers simply not getting the publicity and attention they deserve.
Blogging is the obvious answer to the publicity and attention question but, in the case of a writer, there is a very important cog in the blogging machine that needs to be oiled particularly well.
The design.
And that leads us into another, just as popular, age old adage. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
But unfortunately, as the book cover designers will gladly confirm, people do judge books by their cover and are very happy to base their decisions about what to read on their initial reaction to a sleeve design.
Put simply, if you want to promote your book with a blog, your blog needs to have a design that can make people want to pay attention to you, your blog and your writing.
I’m working on a Wordpress theme that will allow any self publishing author to get their work out in the open, where it belongs, in front of limitless pairs of eyeballs. Something that will be ready to go straight out of the box, no header image to worry about.
All an author will need is their words, their writing and, if they want to utilize it, a book cover image that will sit prominently on the top right of the page on top of a double fronted second column.
Your words on the left and, if you wish, your cover image on the right.Minimlaist, crisp black text on a clean white background with an optional, ultra subtle gradient. Two typographic choices, an original American Serif and a classic British Sans. Contextual navigation at the top will complete the look.
Now for the free open source consultation. What do you want, as a self publishing author, in a free Wordpress theme? Let me know exactly what you need, or, more than that, what you dream of in a Wordpress theme, and I will do my best to put it in the theme.
And, like all Upstart Blogger Wordpress themes, everything will be open source and completely free.
wow. nice project. if its for a book, maybe an easy pagination/chapters set up. i never did quite figure out how to do that except publish the dates in reverse.
as for my dream theme, i want a widget theme with nothing on main page except the widgets. something like joomla blocks. :)
will be watching for it!
thanks.
I’m interested in this one!
There should be a Table of Contents with options for ascending sort by date or title.
An extract from the latest chapter/story/posting is a good idea.
Many authors prefer a guestbook to comments on each page.
There was an old template for WP 1.2 called Blook that had this option. I hacked it a bit to publish a couple of (other people’s) blooks:
Fiction example: This Blue Ball
Biography example: Quest for God (this one has a guestbook)
Blook came before tagging, but ideally, for non-fiction, tagging should be set up on the template as an Index page
Its probably a good idea to allow for an updates area for non-fiction books, as the author may want to publish updates, without changing the original book
Non-Fiction example: Economics for a Round Earth – a non-fiction book from the 1980s, tags set up as an index, sitemap includes a table of contents, author is publishing regular topical updates.
Why not a place for a pull out quote, from either a critic or reviewer or the book itself. Something with a gray background, or something subtle. Love the idea. Thanks for the great work.
I want something with widgets…and a place to host video of book trailers on the side…love the idea of quotes and need a place for the latest on what people are saying…looked at God Quest mentioned above…way to simple for what I need…want to use my own graphics if I wish in the header..maybe chapter excerpts…just rambling…I have looked high and low and not found one as simple as my front page hubby did with the ability for me to edit
you can see the front page one at http://www.carvingsinhispalm.com
If you can get it into xHTML, I can get it into WordPress. I can do this for you as a favor :)
Widgetized homepage, pagination… all that :)
I’m going to sign up for your blogging course. By the way your site looks a million dollars. I especially like the really bold and clean,but not overpowering, header. Well done – Andrew from Australia