I’m so excited today to bring you something very, extremely cool that was—once again—made possible through the magic of Twitter! I shared this recently, an accessory that I’m fairly certain all of my friends absolutely need:
(source)
My friend Tracey Neithercott commented that it would make a great Kindle or book cover, and we commiserated that – to our knowledge – the internet had not yet created this. Enter Erin Bowman, organizer of awesome things and designer extraordinaire, who said, “Challenge accepted!”
After some brainstorming of what other great covers would fit in the “Go Away, I’m Reading” vein, Tracey, Erin, and I had some fantastic ideas. Just days later, Erin had an amazing design that was custom-made for (slightly smaller) YA books.
There are three sets of designs, all of which will allow you to silently warn everyone at the coffee shop that Reading TIme ≠ Social Time.
To get Set #1, go here:
For Set #2, go here:
And you can download Set #3 below!
At Hogwarts // In Narnia // Mt. Doom (LotR) // In the Arena (Hunger Games) // In Forks (Twilight)
Printing Instructions:
These covers will fit the traditionally-sized YA book.* Take the PDFs to your local FedEx or Staples and get them printed on tabloid paper (11x17in). We suggest a matte cardstock (you could print on something glossy, but sometimes that causes light glares at certain angles and you want people to be able to read that Go Away message without incident). Choose a weight between 60-80lb for the paper. Anything lighter and the page will be too thin, anything heavier and folding it around your book will be difficult. You can have the store cut the printer-outs for you (it will cost a little more), or you can handle it on your own when you get home (there are crop marks in the files).
Erin also has a great tutorial up on her blog about how she puts the dust jackets on her books. I have a little different method, so here’s a video where I show an alternative dust jacketing method:
Let us know what you think, and of course we’d love to see pictures of the dust jackets in action!
* There are, of course, exceptions.
“Go Away” Dust Jacket Series by Erin Bowman, Sarah Enni, and Tracey Neithercott is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.embowman.com
{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a fabulous wrapping alternative, Sarah! Reminds me of when I had to cover books in HS. At least this is a lot prettier than brown paper bags ;)
I’m so glad you found that awesome pin and that I ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE. Books nerds ftw! :)
It is definitely the same method we used in high school! But you’re right, these are WAY better! Wouldn’t it be great if some kids brought books to HS covered in these?!
I LOVE these….how cute! Such a great idea!! :)
I’m so glad you like them! Any excuse to make life brighter and funnier, right??
AMAZING! I freaking love these! Well done, ladies!
You know you want the Twilight one.
Obvs. And the Mount Doom one. I also want you to make me one of these in a frameable form. Kthanks!
Gorgeous! I want them all.
They do look mighty fun all sitting together on a shelf!
As a giant HIMYM fan, I greatly approve of the Challenge Accepted gif. That’s exactly what it was like!
Thanks for doing the alternative cover method. It’s like being in school. :)
Yes! I knew my fellow HIMYM fans would appreciate it :)
ACK THESE ARE AMAZING. Erin, Tracey, Sarah, vous êtes fantastique! Loooove the Twilight jab — “send help”, hehehe. :D
Yahong, how did you know I prefer to be complimented en français?! ;) Thank you!!
Wonderful! I am already thinking of how to incorporate these into my life!!
A rainbow set of these on your bookshelf will improve happiness by 73%. That’s just science.
I’m so glad you all had this idea and that Erin offered up her services. They are lovely and adorable and all around awesome! LIKE YOU THREE LADIES. :D Thanks for sharing these with the world!
Aw thank you so much!! And I’m glad Erin jumped on the chance, too!
Bahahaha the Forks one is hilarious. XD
:D I’m glad you like it!!
This is fantastic! Can’t wait to get a little more time on my hands to deck out a few of my books in these!
Oooh, do it! And send pics!
I LOVE your alternative dust jacketing method, Sarah. Dust jackets bother me because they keep slipping, but this? Is genius.
YAY! I’m so glad you like it! I was worried everyone would already know that method :) It makes reading a book with a cover on it 10,000X nicer!
These are so cool! I love that you just came up with this idea and then ACTUALLY MADE THEM. I’m one of those people that always ends up sitting next to the person on the plane who wants to chat with me despite my nose being in a book and headphones on my ears (I’m never listening to anything, I’m just trying to telegraph to people that I don’t want to talk), but maybe this will actually keep people away! I’m totally trying it on my next plane trip and reporting back.
These are WONDERFUL! You ladies came up with such a great idea! (and much needed as well :D)
These are awesome! You should really make some more, perhaps for other famous books like Percy Jackson :)
These are so awesome, beyond words. I love the twilight dig too xD awesome job!!!
Adorable!!!! I might need to download a few…
you should put “NOT YOUR BOOK” on one of them or on the spine of some of the others
Just love these! :D
When I hav the time I will be getting these and covering my book sets ^-^ (and maybe my reading books for english when I figure out what size they are)
you ladies should make one for the Mortal Instruments series ^-^
these. are. so. AWESOME.
I fell in love with this the second i saw it on pinterest!! i always take the dust jackets off my book when i read one so it doesnt get ruined but i also dont like m hardback to get anything on in either so this is great now i just need to print these out!! love the hunger games one im on the 2nd book now so i need to print it out quick!!
thanks sooo much!
These are absolutely amazing – like many others, saw on Pinterest and fell in love! So glad today is payday as I’ll be straight off to get these printed – and def like the idea of getting a kindle cover with ‘Go away, I’m reading’ too!
Great idea, great execution. Love it!
I wanted to get a twilight one, i think its funny, but do you have one that says brb also?
I’m totally going to have to figure out how to put one of these on my Kindle. Stellar!
I was going to send a few thousand ppl your way from my Twilight blog, but i guess its really a burn on Twilight after all. So i guess not. They looked cool tho. Too bad.
Found you via Pinterest and I LOVE this!!!!!
I’m off to experiment and try to make one for my Kindle :)
Is it ok to link a post to your & this video?
Also, I teach middle school reading and would love to make more of these book specific covers for my kids, any chance you can explain to me how to make those covers {what size did you use?}
I also would love to see more of these. I’m starting to read the Discworld series and the Barsoom series and would love to see those made. I also think a “In Florin, BRB” would go great on my Princess Bride book. And Neverland. And….
There’s just too many books these would go great on!
That is how I did in in middle school and high school but with paper bags to protect my books for class. I always also put a piece of tape on the top and bottom of the dust covers that just held it on a little bit more. .
Awesome idea! Need one for the”Game Of Thrones” books myself.
“In Westeros, BRB”
I love it!!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE! Need one for Game of Thrones for my Kindle…get cracking.
I love the dust jacket, that’s so neat!
Wonderful! Well done! I’d love one that said, “In Ankh-Morpork, BRB”. Or, possibly, “At a ball at Netherfield, BRB”.
Love these covers and can’t wait to stalk your blog.
Peace and happy, uninterrupted reading,
Libby Lu
Those are freaking awesome! Any chance of seeing “In Ankh-Morpork, BRB” or something similar in the next set?
I want one for my Kindle!
Can’t read: I’m TEXTING ! ! !
Now all we need are Kindle covers! ;)
I absolutely adore these, (went ahead and got all three sets of them) and as soon as I can I will have a whole collection of printed dust jackets. I was wondering though, may I edit one of the PDFs for a custom dust jacket to better suit my needs?
I love these. My mom used to cover my school books, but the covers were never as lovely as these. Sharing this on my blog.
Im thinking there needs to be a site to enter where you are and create the one you want.
Love. It.
And, uh, want one for my Kindle. Next challenge?
Fan-freaking-tastic! These are so cool. Thank you so much for making them available to all of us! I’ve downloaded them all and am tweeting the heck out of this. If one of you crafty goddesses decides to do e-reader covers of these on etsy or some-such, let the world know, I would buy at least 4 of these.
Taking a bunch of 12 year old girls to HUNGER GAMES for my daughter’s birthday in couple weeks. TOTALLY gonna print up some of these for party favors! Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful! Please consider designing these as Kindle covers! You would sell a ton of them!
These are so awesome and creative! Plus I’m totally anal when it comes to my dust jackets — now I can put one of yours on when I’m reading a book and taking it everywhere. Great idea. :)
I’m the same way about dust covers! I take them off when I tote my books around so they don’t end up getting beat up.
Brilliant ideas ladies!! I love them! I’m planning on printing a couple of these :)
I love these! Is there any way you would be able to print them without an A3 printer though?
I hate when I’m sitting there reading and people come up to talk, I mean, really can you not tell I’M BUSY?!? I LOVE THE COVERS!!! I’m thinking of covering my books with wrapping paper and putting on alphabet letters to say GO AWAY :) (since I already have the materials)
Excellent idea! love it
Love this! It Legen- wait for it- Dary! I would love to get these for my books but I need help because I have no idea how to print them or anything. I downloaded the pdf’s but after that I have no idea what to do or what the 60-80 weight is about. My I get some help here, please?
This is so clever! I love them.
I am printing a set of these out for Summer Reading prizes at the library where I work (we can even cover them like normal dust jackets so they’ll be quite durable.) I predict they’ll be a big hit with the teens.
And, of course, I require a set for myself. :)
You guys should make ones for the classics, like “In Hell, BRB” (Dante’s Inferno), “Spoiler: Everyone Dies” (Macbeth), stuff like that!
Hi,
I was wondering if you had a copy of the release of copywright for the PDF’s because I went to a fedex copy place to print them and they asked for it because the copywright is obvious on each printout. I’m going to try another print shop in the meantime but if you have it could you email it to me?
Thank you!
I love these. I do have a question though. What size paper would you need to cover a paperback instead of the hardback? I like James’s suggestions for more covers. I also plan to copy them to an iron on fabric and adhere to a kindle cover…couldn’t hurt and they might get the idea. How about : Don’t Bother Me….I BITE!! CAUTION : I’m OFF my medication!
I just love your dust jacket series! I wrote about it on my blog in italian, to let my friends understand ;)
http://sheireenswords.blogspot.it/2012/10/go-away-dust-jacket-series.html
That’s hilarious and beautifully tongue in cheek ; )
As a writer, I approve and as a lover of gorgeous book cover, got to say, nice choice of typography!
OMG. LOVE. You should make a Percy Jackson one! Or maybe I could try…
Tehe.
“BRB, Saving Camp Half-Blood” :D
Do you have a In Fork BRB one? I love twilight and would totally put this on my school books. Thanks
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