Course curriculum

    1. Download Workbook #1: Creating a Book that Readers Love

    2. Lesson 1: Course Overview

    3. Lesson 2: You Can Do This

    4. Lesson 3: Surprises from the world of self-publishing

    1. Lesson 4: Defining Success, Part 1

    2. Lesson 5: Defining Success, Part 2

    1. Lesson 6: The Book Development Process

    2. Lesson 7: Your Writing Process

    3. Lesson 8: Baking (A Writing Metaphor)

    4. Lesson 9: Your Ingredients and Recipe

    5. Lesson 10: Your Book Creation Timeline

    6. Lesson 11: Writing a Successful Book Blurb

    1. Lesson 12: Building a House (An Editing Metaphor)

    2. Lesson 13: Choosing a Stellar Editor

    3. Lesson 14: Editing Costs & Budgeting for it

    4. Lesson 15: Timing and the Editing Process

    5. Lesson 16: Contacting and Querying Editors

    6. Lesson 17: Beta Readers and Why You Need Them

    1. Lesson 18: Best Practices for Working With Interviewees

    2. Lesson 19: Connecting with Readers

    3. Lesson 20: NDAs vs. 📣

    1. Lesson 21: Creative Direction, Differentiation, and Cover Design

    2. Lesson 22: Tips for Book Layout in InDesign

    3. Lesson 23: Cover Styles and Title Choices

Course Info

  • $499.00
  • 41 lessons
  • 4.5 hours of video content

Let's get your book out.

✨ In this course, Kat Vellos teaches you everything she knows so you can release a successful book and use it to chart your path forward. Her approach is informed by her extensive background as a facilitator, researcher, her work as a Senior UX and Product Designer, and the four years she spent as the Editorial Art Director of a weekly magazine. She knows design. She knows publishing. She helps designers publish incredible books.

Enroll today

Part 1: Creating a book that readers will love

  • Draft an outline for your book’s structure and organization

  • Streamline your research and writing process, so you feel prepared and clear instead of overwhelmed

  • Get behind-the-scenes guidance on finding, choosing, and hiring an editor to make sure that your words sparkle on every page

  • Learn the best steps for getting pre-release reader feedback to ensure your book will resonate with future readers

  • Learn best practices for book titles and book covers

  • Get the best shortcut to finding fabulous book designers if you don’t want to DIY your own layout and cover design

Part 2: Launch with a Splash and Make an Impact

  • Learn about the only printer and distributor you want to use to save a ton of time, aggravation, and money (Hint: it's not Amazon/KDP.)

  • Get your book worldwide distribution to the planet’s 7 billion people without taking a single visit to the post office

  • Get excited about easy, low-stress marketing ideas that won’t freak you out and that actually feel fun

  • Learn how to build an audience of eager readers ahead of time so that your launch is joyful and profitable

  • Plan a successful book launch that gives your hard work the attention and accolades it deserves

  • Learn how your book can diversify your income streams and expand your career opportunities for the future

Testimonials

“I would absolutely recommend Designer-to-Author. It clarifies a lot of the steps and also helps structure the execution process of the book in a way that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else.”

Student in the 2020 Designer-to-Author course

“This course was one of *the* best learning opportunities for overcoming some of the fear-of-the-unknown when it comes to writing and self-publishing a book. I learned so much from Kat about the process and how to remain steady while working through the many details. The combination of self-paced, recorded content allowed me to digest everything at my own pace and when I had time to focus more intently on it.”

Student in the 2021 Designer-to-Author course

“If you are thinking about writing a book and don’t know where to start, take this course. And if you are a designer thinking about writing a book — or simply curious about the book writing and publishing process — you absolutely should take this course.”

Student in the 2021 Designer-to-Author course

“This course pays for itself in spades, it will give you so much inspiration and knowledge and save you so much time. It’s a masterclass in self-publishing.”

Student in the 2020 Designer-to-Author course

“This is a super fun and engaging class with actionable suggestions and constructive frameworks. A true end-to-end experience! People in design, research, or any product-related background can especially resonate with how Kat frames the insights and suggestions.”

Student in the 2022 Designer-to-Author course

Your Instructor: Kat Vellos

Kat V

Kat Vellos is the author of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships and her background is in User Experience Design. She created this course to help design professionals create and release successful nonfiction books.

Evidence

Using the exact same content used in this course, your instructor:

  • Built an epic community of readers

    Sold more than 10,000 copies (Fun fact: According to Publishers Weekly, the average book in America only sells about 500 copies. To get on the NY Times bestseller list, you have to sell between 5k-10k copies in one week.)

  • Became a go-to thought leader

    Kat has been interviewed in over 60 media outlets including The New York Times, The Good Life Project, Hurry Slowly, NPR/WBEZ Chicago, The Wall Street Journal, Good Makers, Shondaland, Masters of Community, The Beautiful Thinkers, and more.

  • Became a sought-after speaker

    Kat has spoken at TEDx, Creative Mornings, The Atlantic's Pursuit of Happiness Conference, Lesbians Who Tech, Rosenfeld Media's DesignOps Summit, Creative Mornings, San Francisco Design Week, California College of the Arts, VivaTech, and many more.

Who This Course Is For

UX, UI, and product designers, researchers, product managers, design managers, and engineers will all feel at home here. The frameworks presented in this course will help you create an impeccable, high-quality book that's indistinguishable from any book produced at big traditional publishers. Non-designers have also successfully completed the course saying that they appreciated picking up a mini education about design and product development along the way. Check out a few of our alumni successes below.

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  • Image shows a new alumni from the Designer to Author course along with their completed books and huge book deal offers from major publishers.

You have something to say. Let's make sure the world hears it.

Enroll today

FAQs

  • What are the dates? How flexible is the course?

    This course allows you to move at your own pace. It's all self-study so you can start and stop whenever you like. If you want one on one help, you can purchase additional one-on-one coaching blocks to work directly with Kat.

  • Do I have to be a professional designer to take this course?

    While the course was created with the intention of speaking to an audience of designers, you do not have to be a professional working designer to take this course. We've had multiple students who are not designers, such as those who were working in the nonprofit field, researchers, teachers, coaches, marketing professionals, design managers, and more. It's totally fine if you don't know anything about design. You'll pick up a small free design education along the way during this course.

  • Is it ok if I just have an idea for a book? And on the flip side, is it ok if I've already written several thousand words of my manuscript already?

    Absolutely. The first half of the course is about ensuring you create a book that your readers will love — everything that happens behind the scenes to create a stunning high-quality book. The second half of the course is all about marketing, promotion, and distribution to ensure that when your book is released, it is a wonderful success! Whether you're just the idea stage, or whether you've already started writing, you will learn a ton in this course, and it will all contribute to your future success as an author.

  • Will I get to talk to Kat one on one?

    Yep! Your enrollment includes a 1-on-1 coaching and consulting call with me. You can schedule this either during or after course completion. I recommend scheduling it after you complete the course, so you don't eat up our meeting time asking about things that I've already answered in the course material. ;)

The difference between an author and someone with a great book idea is ACTION.

Let's make it happen

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