Give HN: My latest book on entrepreneurship

http://personalopz.com/books/execution_and_other_lessons.html

by wj • 13 years ago

25 13 13 years ago

personalopz.com

frakkingcylons2• 13 years ago

You might want to think about redesigning the cover, the title isn't legible.

Looks interesting though, I'll be reading it later this week. Congrats on writing a book.

dhaivatpandya• 13 years ago

I would also suggest a cover redesign. I can't even read the title or the caption.

wj3• 13 years ago

This is only my second time trying to do a cover completely on my own. I agree with your comment on the smaller size. It is a bit better in the PDF version where it is larger.

frakkingcylons2• 13 years ago

It has less to do with the size, and more to do with the color of the background and foreground text.

yogo• 13 years ago

I see what you are trying to do with the red and "execution" but here is a case where you want to keep it simple: nice thick/slab, contrasting font. The bloody font isn't necessary IMO.

nationcrafting• 13 years ago

Congratulations on finishing the book.

I would definitely redesign the cover if I were you. It's not just that it's illegible, it also looks like blood splattered on a wall.

Now, I know this is how you meant it to be, because of the word "execution", etc. but it is the design equivalent of a pun. Puns aren't necessarily bad by definition, they just usually are because they apply intelligence to the wrong problem.

The other point to make is that, funnily enough, the pun's idea is itself badly executed. It really does look like you did the cover yourself in MacPaint. If you're still keen on using this pun, there are other ways to execute the same idea. For example, you could just have the word Execution in blood on the wall, but the other lines on a non-patterned background, in a more legible typeface.

bhudman• 13 years ago

I can imagine what the author feels - "I did all this work and people are complaining about the colors!" :)

The comments about the colors are valid.

I once worked on a fairly complicated hardware (video encoder) that took over a year to develop, and during an important demo, the most comments I got was something about color of one of the LEDs. It was annoying to hear those comments back then, but it has made me wiser about looks being an important aspect of a product. Aesthetics are important (at least for others :)).

wj3• 13 years ago

I agree the comments are valid. They are all constructive criticism rather than plain criticism and I appreciate people taking the time to make them.

I hope people do look past the cover (which I will work on improving) and read a few of the chapters. And ultimately even listen to the lectures which I have found to be a very inspirational resource. Thanks again to Stanford for providing it.

seferphier• 13 years ago

Merry Christmas and thank you for the book.

:) Great attitude towards feedback. Work on the colors!

donutdan4114• 13 years ago

The book looks like it has a lot of good content!

As others have said the cover is pretty bad. It is hard to read. It looks childish. Have a professional design your covers and you'll probably see more sales.

Regardless, if it's good and gets good reviews it probably won't matter :) But for those early adopters, it matters.

peacemaker• 13 years ago

Thanks for the free book, looking forward to reading it! If you want to get the cover fixed cheap you can always check out Fiverr. I've had a few book covers done on there and they come out quite professional most of the time. Good luck with it!

mandeepj• 13 years ago

I like to appreciate you on your work and giving this for free to community. I think people are right with their complaints about cover. The way paint is shown getting dropped from text on the front cover - it reminds me about beginning of a horror movie. A simple black color font on white cover could have also done the job.

Give HN: My latest book on entrepreneurship

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