Seeking web designer for on-line ski book

As some of you know I've been working for several years on a book about the history of backcountry skiing in Washington. After much reflection, I've decided that publishing a paper book isn't for me and I'm going to publish my book on the web. (Maybe someday I'll publish something in print, but not initially.)

I'm looking for a web designer to help create the "look and feel" of my on-line book. I'd like to find somebody who can help me create a clean, attractive design that is coded for long-term maintainability. The design of the book's initial chapter will be done collaboratively then I'll paste up later chapters on my own using the initial chapter as a template. My design skills are pretty mediocre, so I'd like to find a talented designer to help me. I am of course willing to pay for this help, and we can negotiate compensation before beginning.

If you know someone who could help with this please let me know. You can reach me by PM or email through TAY or send mail directly to lowell.skoog AT alpenglow.org.

Lowell, I'm not going to volunteer for the designer position but I did want to say congratulations on getting to the publishing step of your work! I'm looking forward to seeing the final result, which I'm sure will be very interesting and meticulously done.

I wanted to mention an idea. It's nothing more than that because I don't really know the details, but would it be possible to produce your book so that it could be available through the relatively new "on-demand" printing which is becoming available? Sorry, I don't even know the correct term for this type of printing, but I think it is digital => physical book, once copy at a time, while the customer waits.

It would be so coooool if it looked like a book on the page....like a kindle or i-pad book page. this would give/keep the historical feel rather than a "wild-snow" or "straigh-chuter" page. something about a grainy off white page with your brilliant b&w historical photos would certainly keep the feel traditional. thank you for your service, you are doing an incredible service! chris o'c

Lowell, I'm not going to volunteer for the designer position but I did want to say congratulations on getting to the publishing step of your work! I'm looking forward to seeing the final result, which I'm sure will be very interesting and meticulously done.

I wanted to mention an idea. It's nothing more than that because I don't really know the details, but would it be possible to produce your book so that it could be available through the relatively new "on-demand" printing which is becoming available? Sorry, I don't even know the correct term for this type of printing, but I think it is digital => physical book, once copy at a time, while the customer waits.

I believe Amazon has a pretty neat "books on demand" program for writers. Once you had the book web site well along you might consider having such a program incorporated into the site for the then current version of the book with later updates available at some reduced price.

I wanted to mention an idea. It's nothing more than that because I don't really know the details, but would it be possible to produce your book so that it could be available through the relatively new "on-demand" printing which is becoming available? Sorry, I don't even know the correct term for this type of printing, but I think it is digital => physical book, once copy at a time, while the customer waits.

Thanks Charles. When (and if) I think about printing on paper (not a sure thing) I will consider this approach.

A big part of my reasoning for going digital is that the book is not finished, and it won't be finished for a long time. This is due to the many other things in my life that keep me busy. Before you publish any part of a book on paper, the entire book needs to be finished. I'm afraid this may not happen before I reach retirement age.

With a web book, on the other hand, I can publish the book in pieces. As soon as a chapter is finished to my satisfaction, it can go out. I can also correct mistakes, add new information, publish more pictures, more color, and even multimedia (especially movies). Because of these advantages, I see digital publication as a superset of anything that might go out in print. I like printed books as much as the next person, but I find that my lifestyle and my perfectionist tendencies make print a bad fit for this project.

The Northwest Mountaineering Journal ( www.nwmj.org ) has given me experience with on-line publishing. I'd like to create a design that is clean and attractive like the NWMJ, but I don't want it to look just the same. Plus there are some requirements for the book that are a bit different than a magazine-like publication.

The book will be free and non-commercial. This reduces the fees that I have to pay for the use of photographs. Trying to make the book pay for itself would just complicate my life and be distracting, so I'm not going to bother with it. I'm an engineer, not a professional author.

Thanks for all the work you've put into this (and other community projects like the journal) Lowell. My $.02 is that your web site is great as it is - while I'm sure you could tweak it I wouldn't put too much time or $ into it if you aren't going to get compensated. Hopefully another skier who believes in the project will donate their time/skills. I'd be glad to give you any pictures I have.