Lippylala Publishing is a micro enterprise that I’ve set up to publish a range of beautifully designed non fiction books.

It’s a collaboration between me (who does the writing for the moment) and my brother Marc (who is the designer). We both love writing and beauty in design.

Marc designed the visual branding for Lippylala Publishing (and for my other micro social enterprises – Focused Solutions and Life Dreaming). He gets me and my ideas in a way no other designer could. He translates who I am and what I value into gorgeous design.

The Lippylala Publishing branding may not be to everyone’s tastes (but hey – that’s the fun of being the CEO of your own publishing business). It’s individual, a little baroque, a little Mae West, & very curvy – a lot like me. I think it’s beautiful and it makes me smile every time I see it.

I’m heartily sick and tired of non fiction looking so dull that it’s a chore to read it. How many workbooks have you read that have great content and crap design? Were they easy to read? Nada. Did you look forward to turning the pages? Double nada.

What kind of non fiction books do many of us enjoy? Cookbooks. Partly for the content and mainly because of the interesting design – great photos, layout and playful use of fonts.

So, I set up Lippylala Publishing to provide me with a vehicle to self publish workbooks on topics I know about – or will be learning about.

In 2008 I will be publishing Life Dreaming – a workbook that provides space and questions to decide what’s important in your life right now. It’s already written and Marc has created a truly beautiful design for the workbook.

I’ll be posting wee snippets from the Life Dreaming workbook soon.

I’ll also be researching and writing a workbook/diary on cob building in Ireland. That’ll take until 2009/10 as I still have to build my own cob home. It will be the story of my own building journey as well as other stories from cob builders in Ireland. Mud Woman is the blog I’ve set up to tell the story until I write the workbook.

What else will I be publishing? Who knows? I live in a great part of Ireland and there are so many stories to be shared and told from many people here.

Will I publish other people’s non fiction? Anything is possible and I think I’ll build up some experience publishing my own work before I leap into someone elses unknown.

Wish me luck.

Liz & Marc