I’ve been a creative services provider working with writers and authors, podcasters, actors, artists, musicians, and non-profits for over two decades. Sometimes the gig is a one-shot; some folks have been clients for a decade or more. The work serves my larger mission to add to the culture.
Once in a while, I get to help someone achieve a life-long dream.
Here’s how it happened with a legendary creative who has certainly done their part to “add to the culture.”
The Thing About Social Media is, It’s Social
While I’m barely present there in 2025, I had been a very active Facebook user since June of 2007. Some time ago, I became Facebook “friends” with Danny Fingeroth.
I followed him having recognized his name from his stint editing the Spider-Man titles at Marvel Comics in the eighties, and his work with TwoMorrows Press.
The thing I noticed about Danny on Facebook: for years, without fail, this guy who didn’t know me from Adam never failed to wish me a happy birthday.
That’s a small example of Doing Social Networking Right, and something that might have taken very little time, thought, or effort, but if he did that for everyone, that represented a not-insignificant investment of all three.
In late 2023, Danny posted about needing to update his website on the occasion of the release of his non-fiction book Jack Ruby. Thanks to that thin but resilient parasocial connection we had… a strand not unlike, you might say, something perhaps made with a double tap of a palm trigger and a thwip… I barely hesitated to comment that I might be able to help him out.
That led to my re-creating his outdated website using current software and best practices (even if he did insist on mostly keeping with the late 1990s design).
We spent a few long video conference sessions jawing about the site, publishing, self-publishing, comics, and similar topics. I introduced him to some folks – clients and colleagues – I thought might be sympatico with his interests.
As the website project drew to a close, Danny mentioned that I might be able to help his friend Larry self-publish his first novel.
What Dreams May Comic Book Legends Have Yet to Come?
Apologies to the memory of Richard Matheson for bastardizing one of his titles for the sake of that sub-heading…
Anyway:
Danny’s friend Larry is Lawrence Lieber, a bona-fide legend who co-created comic book characters Ant Man, Thor, Iron Man, and Groot, having scripted their first appearances (and, indeed, gave each of them the names of their civilian alter-egos).
Larry was also the scribe and / or artist on hundreds of The Amazing Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk newspaper strips, not to mention seventy-five issues of the long-running Western comic The Rawhide Kid.
History may have dedicated more monuments to his brother, master pitchman Stan Lee, but pop culture (and the stock price of Disney and fortunes of Robert Downey Jr., Paul Rudd, Chris Hemsworth, and James Gunn) owes a debt of gratitude to Larry Lieber.
Still, across more than seventy-five years of creative work, the one thing Larry hadn’t seen published was his sole byline on creative work wholly his own.
And so: Chirps, an original prose novel featuring a singular, talking, budgerigar (parakeet) with human intelligence, and his adventures in New York City and across the globe.
How I Helped Bring Chirps to Fruition and to Market
After a delightful conference call with Larry and Danny in late 2023, I sent Larry a proposal to create the e-book, paperback, and hardcover editions of Chirps and act as consultant and coach in all things self-publishing. Since Larry, 92 years old at the time, was not very active online, Danny would serve as point person for the project.
Not long after, Danny let me know Larry had a few lines in the water regarding Chirps being picked up by a publisher. Knowing the process of querying, submission, and review can take some time, I put any expectation of my involvement in the “wait and see” box, grateful to have had a chance to get to know Larry a little bit during our call.
Tear almost a year of pages off the calendar, and the project comes back to me. The contract is signed, start-of-work payment paid, and we’re off to the races.
Creating the Cover
My first task was to take Larry’s pencil sketch book cover concept and bring it to digital life.
Now, I’m no artist, but I am well-versed with digital graphic design applications. Since Larry had a very simple and abstract “four color”-style cover in mind, I was able to create a faithful reproduction of Larry’s concept.
Part of my approach with clients is to be honest with them, even critical, when it’s in their best interest. Larry’s cover design featured the silhouette of a bird that looked more like a raptor than a parakeet.
So, I presented a variation more in keeping with the book’s protagonist.
After a few tweaks and revisions, the cover was approved.
However!
Not long after, Larry brought in illustrator Jesus Garcia, whose reimagining of Larry’s design, I readily admit, is far superior to both the original concept and my near-faithful rendering of that concept.
Which makes me happy, because the job of the book cover is to sell the book, and Jesus’ illustration serves that purpose to the nines.
With the cover illustration and basic typography in place, I could continue with the actual design of the full print covers: the back cover and spine, and, in the case of the hardcover, the dust jacket and laminated, faux cloth, cover of the book itself.
To create the covers, I primarily used Affinity Designer for the vector-art layout, supplemented with Affinity Photo.
The Affinity suite (rounded out with Affinity Publisher, as we’ll see) are professional grade alternatives to Adobe products Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, respectively. I prefer to use them over their Adobe counterparts because, unlike Adobe, there’s no subscription model at play with Affinity products. Each is available for an affordable one-time fee that includes all minor updates and a discount on the next full-number update. Highly recommended if you’d rather not be stuck in the Adobe ecosystem!
The E-Book
I created the e-book to be fully compliant with current EPUB-3 standards to ensure that it would be fully compatible with all e-book marketplaces across the planet.
Rather than a brute-force “meatgrinder” converter or e-book creation application like Atticus or Vellum, which are, by design, limited in their options, I use the open-source e-book development environment Sigil.
Sigil creates lean, standards-compliant EPUB-2 and EPUB-3 files. The application is far from a “what you see is what you get” editor or one-click converter, which is exactly the point: it allows me full creative and developmental control and flexibility.
As a project, creating the EPUB file for Chirps was relatively straightforward, as the manuscript doesn’t include illustrations, charts, or other extra features other than a couple of endnotes.
When a client hands over their manuscript for me to create an e-book, the expectation is that the manuscript is “locked” (no further editorial changes will be made). While I offer a round of revisions / corrections to catch and fix technical issues related to the actual creation of the e-book, it’s assumed that editorial changes will require an additional charge.
All the same, many clients, reading through the e-book draft, decide they do want to make a few little changes here and there, and Larry was no different.
So, we adjusted a sentence or two, double-checked that all the formatting was as intended, and the e-book was complete!
The Print Editions
While Larry and Danny changed the timing when it comes to releasing each edition of Chirps, the intention was always to bring both trade paperback and hardcover print editions to market.
Both editions have a six by nine inch trim size (the width, spine to edge of the page, and height, top to bottom). This meant that I could create one layout for the interior of both print editions.
Detail Devils
There’s both a craft and an art to designing and laying out the pages of a printed book.
With an e-book, the reading experience is largely left up to the reader. They control the font size and typography, whether the text is justified (flush with the right-hand margin) or not, width of the margins, line spacing, and so on.
With print, of course, those decisions are made by the book designer. The goal, above all other considerations, must be readability. The text, and the space around and between the text, must be laid out in a way that optimizes the reading experience.
Many tiny adjustments are required, and often, their effect cascades, meaning a change on page 15 might require incremental adjustments on page 16 and 17, too, sometimes all the way to the end of that particular chapter.
When done well, the reader never notices the innumerable small differences in line spacing, kerning, letter spacing, and even font sizing from page to page, because the overall reading experience is, itself, a consistent one.
In other words, the job of a book designer is to make the very act of reading effortless; their work, invisible.
Because of the required attention to detail, the application of expertise, and the time involved, in order to keep to the project’s schedule, I ask that the client defer to my design choices (influenced and directed by their vision, of course) when it comes to the print interior. As with e-book creation, I offer the client a round of revisions to catch technical issues.
During that technical review, the client requested a number of style and layout changes that were outside of the scope of the project. I was happy to accommodate, with the understanding that the requested adjustments, being outside the scope of the project, would add time and cost.
Distribution Assistance and Sundry Tasks
Danny, and by necessity and desire, Larry, wanted to hand off as much of the nuts-and-bolts tasks associated with bringing an independently published book to market.
As part of the scope of work, I set up a dedicated Google / Gmail account for the book, and the Bowker (for the ISBN / Books in Print database entry), Amazon KDP (for the Kindle e-book), Draft2Digital (for all other global e-book marketplaces, subscription services, and US public libraries), and IngramSpark (for the print editions) accounts.
I created a very simple logo for Larry’s publishing company, Concourse Publishing.
I also handled everything to do with entering the book data to Bowker / Books-in-Print, and uploading the book files to Amazon KDP, Draft2Digital (including setting up a Books2Read “links page” providing a one-stop location for all global marketplaces), and IngramSpark.
Working with IngramSpark means dealing with their often… finicky… automated quality control systems, so I handled the tiny adjustments necessary for approval there, in keeping with my guarantee that the files I create would be compatible and compliant with all marketplaces.
I consulted with Danny on the issue of print book return policies, and helped Danny and Larry settle on retail prices for the e-book, hardcover, and quality paperback editions. We struck a balance between net royalty percentages, making sure the book wasn’t “priced out” of the market compared to other books (both self- and traditionally published) in similar niches, and serving Larry’s highest priority: getting the book into the hands of as many readers as possible.
Some things outside of the project scope I was happy to help with and, when applicable, invoiced separately:
- A consulting call with an associate of Danny’s brought in for marketing help whose experience was extensive when it came to traditional publishing, but less so regarding independent publishing.
- The design of a simple bookplate Larry will use for book signings (more convenient for Larry, both physically and logistically, than signing stacks of actual books).
- The creation of a very basic single-page “placeholder” website for the book; a placeholder, for now.
Challenges and Lessons Learned Creating Chirps by Larry Lieber
Every big project has its own challenges, and, if one pays attention, lessons to carry forward to future projects with the same client and others.
This project, from initial proposal to book release, took eighteen months and seventeen days, one of the longest I’ve been involved with.
So, as they say, what have we learned?
The Challenge of Indirect Client Involvement
This project was perhaps the second or third time in twenty-plus years I didn’t work directly with the client when it came to day-to-day communication, feedback, and spur-of-the-moment issues and decision making.
Given Larry’s available day-to-day energy and his limited experience and comfort with the digital world, it made sense for his long-time colleague and friend Danny, who lives not far from Larry, to generously step up as point person.
Since I’d worked with Danny on his own website project and other minor things, it was the best solution. We’re familiar, and have a good working relationship.
Even so, any additional links in the chain of communication add time and complexity to a project, exacerbated by one of those links depending primarily on telephone and face-to-face communication.
The lesson for me was to adjust expectations when it came to turn-around times on feedback or receiving assets or instruction.
In one sense, delays outside of my control had little personal / professional impact, because my contracts always stipulate invoices (start of work / mid-point, and closing) have “no later than” due dates.
I would be paid when expected, regardless of whether or not there were delays for which I wasn’t responsible.
In another sense, though, the extended response times meant dedicating time and energy to the project long after the planned completion date. I needed to be flexible with how, and on what, I spent my time in order to complete this project while still respecting my obligations to other clients. On a personal note, I also needed to resist my inclination to just do things, large and small, outside of the scope without billing for the time.
Working with Larry and Danny on Chirps, I’ve improved my ability to gauge a project’s time, effort, and cost, especially in the rare case where the point of contact and the client are different people.
Managing Client Expectations
The first step in managing client expectations is during the discovery call held before a proposal is written or contract signed.
Next, I write a very detailed proposal explaining not only what will be done to meet the client’s needs, but also how I’ll do it, and why I’ll do it in that way / with those particular tools. A highly detailed proposal heads off questions and sets the stage for the Scope of Work detailed in the actual contract.
The Scope of Work section of the contract is the “official” expectation-setter. It should be concise and clear, and it’s very important it sets expectations for the client and the contractor.
There were moments across months of the project – indeed, possibly because the project lasted much longer than anyone expected – that my point of contact’s expectations didn’t match what was in the scope.
I admit experiencing some frustration and consternation when this occurred… and it’s fair to guess that Danny felt something similar!
I’d have been within my rights to say, “Sorry, that’s just not in the scope of work we both agreed to; I can’t do it without billing you for the time spent.”
Indeed, for things that were very obviously outside of the scope, it was understood and even encouraged that I bill extra.
For other things? I had to be honest with myself: was the expectation as clear as it could have been, considering the context of the client’s experience? Also, was this Danny’s (the point of contact) expectation, or Larry’s (the client)?
In this project, when it came to mis-matched expectations, I considered the following:
- Is it a reasonable request?
- Can it be accomplished quickly / easily?
- How will I feel if I do this for free?
- Is it necessary to achieve the primary objective to the client’s
satisfaction?
When loading those variables into the equation resulted in too many “no” answers, I respectfully informed the client I’d have to bill them. In every case, they were agreeable.
I like to think this is because I communicated as clearly as possible at every step.
What I’ve learned from this, though, is that there are always opportunities for greater clarity, and, especially when it’s a long or very involved project with many moving parts, it’s a good idea to periodically re-affirm mutual expectations.
The Result!
I think this picture of a beaming Larry Lieber holding an advance copy of the hardcover edition of Chirps really says it all.
Chirps is available to pre-order in e-book and hardcover editions wherever you buy books online until April 8, 2025, at which point it will be officially released. If you pre-order the e-book edition, before April 8, 2025, it will automatically show up in your Kindle or other e-book reading device or app when you sync it up that morning… so go ahead and pre-order!
Once the April 8 release date arrives, the hardcover edition of Chirps can also be special ordered from any physical bookstore that orders from Ingram (which is pretty much all of them in the United States), or directly from the distributor.
How Can I Help You?
I bring creative endeavors to fruition, to market, and to an audience: a-to-z, soup-to-nuts coaching, consulting, and development. Most of my clients are authors, podcasters, and, not surprisingly, authors who podcast. I bring a quarter century of deep and wide expertise and experience to the table… and since I’m also an author, podcaster, and creator, I bring a dual perspective of both marketer and maker.
Lawrence (Larry) Lieber’s Chirps is the latest creative work I’ve helped move from dream to distribution, but it’s far from the last. I’m available to help you, too.
Reach out via the contact form on my Services page, or jump the queue and book a free discovery call. Let’s see if we’re a good fit!
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