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Cool tools really work.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
This is an elegantly designed guide to managing independent magazines (the one with the largest circulation is probably Monocle). So You Want to Publish a Magazine? showcases the creativity of small publishers through interviews and plenty of images. It also provides practical tips on aspects like distribution, layout, and how to build a strong base of writers. (The most common piece of advice seems to be some version of “Prepare to lose money and sleep, so only do this if you’re completely committed.”)
It’s interesting and inspiring to gain access to this community of people who believe passionately that print’s not dead.
– Christine Ro
A SMART, VISUALLY-ENGAGING CRASH COURSE IN MAKING AND SELLING WHAT YOU MAKE
The Total Inventors Manual: Transform Your Idea into a Top-Selling Product by Sean Michael Ragan Weldon Owen 2017, 248 pages, 7.5 x 1.0 x 9.5 inches, Paperback
In my time in the trenches of the maker movement, I’ve gotten a chance to work with some truly extraordinary people. One of these is Sean Michael Ragan, author of this latest in Popular Science’s series of books targeted at maker/tinkerer-types. Sean’s writing on the maker movement and his numerous online tech projects have always revealed a unique and bright thinker– part scientist, part engineer, part artist — who isn’t afraid to think and create outside the box.
The Total Inventors Manual collects a lot of the diverse thoughts and ah-has inside of Sean’s brain and expands upon them. What you end up with is a surprisingly immersive course in designing, prototyping, manufacturing, and selling your next big idea. In under-250-pages, Sean manages to cram in an impressive, and impressively useful, amount of information and food for thought. The book is extremely chewy, beautifully and heavily illustrated, with lots of sidebars, inventor profiles, charts, exercises, and Q&As. It’s a great book for grazing, one that rewards poking your snoot into at just about any point.
Declaring anything “total” is setting oneself up for comments of wanting, but The Total Inventors Manual is at least impressively thorough when it comes to covering the top-level need-to-know for each discipline needed for going “maker pro” (designing, prototyping, arranging manufacture, basic business skills, fulfillment, shipping). The basics of all of these are covered, along with some useful specifics (e.g. how to laser-cut parts, manage a warehouse space, and create a product instruction manual).
As we all know, lots of deep education, free and on-demand, can be found on the Internet. What The Total Inventors Manual does a great job of is introducing you to what you need to know and why, in a smart, engaging, and digestible way. From there, you can begin getting your hands dirty quickly, educating yourself as you go by chasing deeper knowledge online as you need it.
