5 Secrets to a Successful Collaboration with a Designer

5 Secrets to a Successful Collaboration with a Designer 5 Secrets to a Successful Collaboration with a Designer Kathy Strahs is the award-winning author of The Lemonade Stand Cookbook, and the founder of Burnt Cheese Press. Her work has been featured on Oprah.com, TODAY.com, and numerous national publications. She lives with her husband and their two children in Silicon Valley. In this article, she shares  the five top reasons why her recent collaboration with a book designer went  above and beyond her expectations in getting her book just right.Even before they peruse the content itself, people first notice and compliment how The Lemonade Stand Cookbook looks. It’s bright, bold, and engaging throughout - everything I hoped it would be when I first embarked on the project. My goal for this book   - the third I’ve written, and the second I’ve published under Burnt Cheese Press - was to inspire and empower kids to start cooking, get crafty, and become entrepreneurs. I knew that the cover and interior design were the most important means of conveying these themes to readers, and it would take a designer with a special skill set to get them just right. "The cover is the most important means of conveying the theme of my book to readers." @KathyStrahs I feel extremely fortunate to have found Paula Riley through Reedsy, not only for her enviable talent but also for her initiative, commitment, work ethic, and overall personability. Paula and I were very successful in our collaboration on The Lemonade Stand Cookbook, and now that the project is complete I’ve had a chance to reflect on what I believe made it work so well. Arguably, Paula’s most significant above-and-beyond initiative was her recommendation to hire an illustrator. I’d initially considered taking step-by-step photos for each of the 44 lemonade stand recipes and crafts in the book, but time constraints simply weren’t going to allow it (I also wear the photographer hat for my books, and I was completely out of bandwidth). Hiring an illustrator would take our recipe and craft pages to the next level, but it also would add a layer of complexity for Paula’s role, in terms of art direction, coordination, and layout. Like I said before, she was committed to giving her best to this project. Meshing perfectly with Paula’s colorful, graphical style, Carol Yoshizumi’s beautiful step-by-step illustrations became a unique, core feature of The Lemonade Stand Cookbook of which I’m immensely proud. When you collaborate  with someone who goes above and beyond, you yield extraordinary results. Publishers Weekly praised our â€Å"polished design† in a recent review of The Lemonade Stand Cookbook, which was much-appreciated validation for this independently-published endeavor. Paula’s skills and expertise were a perfect match for this project from the start, and our collaborative approach, open communication, and shared commitment to excellence led us to success.The Lemonade Stand Cookbook  is available on Amazon.Please  share your thoughts, experiences, or any questions for Kathy and Paula, in the comments below!