Laura Goodsell is the author of Design Better and Build Your Brand in Canva; we got the chance to sit down and find out more about her experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is the name of your book?
Laura: Design Better and Build Your Brand in Canva.
Q: What are your specialist tech areas?
Laura: My specialist area is Canva and design, I also love to teach other small businesses how to use Canva and have a simple easy to understand approach.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Laura: I am often on social media and create lots of training, tutorials, and information posts helping others with Canva, my whole motivation for writing this book was to get the information out there to those who may not have known about it and could potentially need it, I was contacted by Packt to possibly write the book and it was a very exciting moment for me, I love books and Canva so to combine them was a dream come true.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Laura: I have been researching and learning Canva since 2017, it’s a passion of mine, and specifically for this book I looked at what a new business or beginner to the platform would need to know to get started, then what would they need to know going forwards to build their knowledge and business graphics.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Laura: I think one of the biggest challenges was knowing where to stop, I could have added so much more to the book it would have been huge and possibly overwhelming, it was knowing what information to put in would most benefit the reader.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Laura: The main technology discussed is Canva, this is a brilliant platform, that’s just growing and getting better, every new feature is thoroughly planned out and implemented in a proper way, all new features are loved by Canva members and they continue to improve upon them, I don’t see this platform slowing down anytime soon.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Laura: I did a lot of research on other books on Canva on the market today and I couldn’t find one that gave a good amount of information on all aspects of the platform, or one that gave detailed descriptions and tutorials on how to implement things like branding or creating graphics, this book has a huge amount of information to give the reader a really rounded experience on Canva.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Laura: I would love every ready to have a positive experience with the book, for them to come away feeling like they can now create anything on Canva, confidently, that they know where to go to find the basics, can search through elements, know how to edit images and feel excited to dive into this brilliant platform for their business needs.
Q. What advice would you give to readers jumping into this technology? Do you have any top tips?
Laura: I would always advise a new person to Canva to have a really good play once you have the account set up, not to be afraid of it, you can’t get it wrong. Open up a blank template and click all the buttons to get used to where everything is and what each icon can do, do this on a daily basis and you will soon become very familiar with the platform. Once you have the basics down, definitely set up your brand kit, this is so important for small businesses, you will see the value of having this in place while creating your designs, it helps keep you consistent and on brand. Even on the free account, you can still add in your color palette.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Laura: Not at the moment but I am putting together a design-based blog to help small businesses.
Q: Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning? What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Laura: There are lots of Youtube channels all aimed at helping people to use Canva and Canva even has its own design school full of videos.
Q. How would you describe your author’s journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Laura: I have to admit I loved my Packt journey, it was brilliant from start to finish, everyone I was in contact with, was very professional and friendly, they always knew exactly what they needed from me and the whole team really made writing this book so much fun.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Laura: I’m not in any specific tech community groups but I do belong to a lot of Canva-based Facebook groups and pages, if anyone is looking to expand their Canva journey getting involved in a Facebook group is valuable.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Laura: I don’t often read tech journals, but I do keep an eye on any new tech coming out and often read through blogs and posts online, plus I have a big book collection of business-based books myself.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Laura: Can you believe this book started on the back of a piece of wallpaper? I took a roll of wallpaper rolled it out across a table and then wrote down everything I wanted to add to the book, then I planned out the chapters and where each of my previous items should go, this really helps me with planning as I can see the book on one sheet of paper, things then moved around a bit until I had a good structure for the book and everything was in an order that made sense, I then researched and wrote each chapter in turn, I was tempted to write my favorites first but I stayed with the structure and wrote each one in turn, most of them link to each other in some way, so by doing it this way I was able to track the links better as well.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Laura: Definitely do your research and map out the book before you start writing this way you can stick to the structure and you don’t get lost yourself, because if you get lost, your readers definitely will.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
Laura: Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Youtube
You can find Laura’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please Click Here
