Case Study

An illustrated novel, from a Word file to Amazon

Davide Filippini October 28, 2026 2 min read
An illustrated novel, from a Word file to Amazon

I prepared everything it needed to come out: cover, 294 pages, Kindle, A+ page and a website in two languages.

Where it started

Sarah Tagliapietra had written a novel for young readers and illustrated it by hand: 294 pages and 8 full-colour plates.

She needed a book to sell on Amazon, in print and on Kindle. And a place to send anyone who hears about it.

Full cover of A Desert Story: back, spine and front

What I did

The cover. Front, spine and back built around her illustrations, with the blurb on the back.

The interior. I laid out all 294 pages with full-page plates. Airy lines and chapters you can find at a glance, because the reader is ten years old.

Interior spreads of A Desert Story with colour plates

The Kindle ebook. A separate version, rebuilt so the text adapts to any screen.

A Desert Story on Kindle, on tablet and phone

The A+ page for Amazon. I prepared it to sit under the book listing: plates, characters and the first trials of the journey. I checked every sentence against the book, without giving away the ending.

Preview of the A+ page for Amazon for A Desert Story

The website adesertstory.com. In Italian and English: the story, the seven trials, the characters, the author and a sample you can leaf through. Every button leads to Amazon.

The adesertstory.com website on desktop, tablet and phone
The full adesertstory.com website, top to bottom, on desktop, tablet and phone

Why all of it together

People meet a book in several places: on Amazon, on the website, then in their hands. If each place has different colours and fonts, the book looks rushed.

Here the burgundy and gold of the cover, the fonts and the plates are the same everywhere. From the website to the printed page, the reader always recognises the same book.

Results

The book has just come out. I will add the sales figures here once there are some.

Writing a book for your business?

I work on covers and interiors with the same method, at a fixed price.

See how I work on books →

Leggi questo caso studio in italiano: versione italiana →

Video: the 13 design mistakes

Want to see what makes a piece actually sell?

I break it down in my video on the 13 most common design mistakes. You can watch the first part right now, for free.

Watch the video