Helvetica Hysteria

There was a certain lack of typographical variety in this afternoon's haul of junk mail from triple A and Crate & Barrel. It's common knowledge among designers that Helvetica is a safe and classy choice, but one can be too safe.

Some free campaign advice for John Ellis "JEB!" Bush...

... from Mr. Lippman of Pendant Publishing: "Get rid of the exclamation points. I hate exclamation points."

The Smashwords Independent Author Manifesto

Smashwords founder Mark Coker just published a ten-point "Indie Author Manifesto" on his blog yesterday:

"Where once self publishing was viewed as the option of last resort - the option for failed writers and an option marked by stigma and shame - self publishing is increasingly viewed as the option of first choice for many writers.  Over the next couple years I think we'll reach a point where more first-time writers aspire to indie-publish than traditionally publish.  Indie authors are the cool kids club."

As one of those newly independent novelists, please forgive me for plugging (I mean "marketing") my brand-new addition to the glut (I mean "phenomenon"):

Fire Answers Fire at Amazon  
at Apple iTunes
at Barnes & Noble
at Flipkart (India)
at Scribd.
at Smashwords
The Fire Answers Fire page on Goodreads