This post is in response to the Backwords Books call for entries for blog posts about self publishing. I encourage anyone interested in this topic to read the other entries, a diverse set of people looking at the same moment in time from completely different perspectives.—Joel
As a new blogger on book design and self-publishing, but [...]
From the monthly archives:
September 2009
The history of book printing goes back to the first bibles pulled sheet by sheet off Johannes Gutenburg’s presses in Mainz, German in the late fifteenth century. The first books were attempts to replicate the handwritten books of the time, which varied widely. Over the centuries publishers have gradually established conventions about the way books [...]
Did you ever see the movie “Deception” that came out in 2008? No? It starred Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams. The cast alone should have made it a hit, but it bombed, critics hated it and audiences ignored it in spectacular numbers.
Despite Hollywood’s addiction to stars and hype over content, the dirty little [...]
As the technology we use to manufacture books changes, designers responsible for creating those books adapt. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes reluctantly. But they adapt, because the new technology will eventually supplant the old technology.
Today most books are still printed by offset lithography, and any print run over about 1,000 units will benefit from the more [...]
I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife and infant son in 1993. We were glad to escape the winters in New York, and had many friends in the area. But leaving home can be hard in other ways.
Growing up in the Bronx and, later, lower Westchester, we were accustomed to delicacies [...]
For offset printing, 2-color covers can be much more economical than 4-color covers, particularly for short-run books.
I discussed two 2-color covers for self-published books in a previous article and explained why these covers are often preferred by publishers. Here I look at two covers done for trade publishers.
This first cover was designed for a [...]
A lot of the trepidation authors feel when thinking about self-publishing their book seems to come from the retail bookselling community. Trying to pitch your book—from your one-book publishing company—to a chain bookstore buyer is an exercise in futility. And that’s assuming you can actually get to talk to a buyer, which is no easy [...]
Years ago I used to buy books at a famous bookstore in downtown New York City, in the old book selling district. This bookstore was famous for the range of subjects it carried, its steady inflow of new books, and the lively and sometimes erudite people you could meet browsing the narrow aisles looking for [...]
Before the advent of digital printing and print-on-demand production, publishers had no choice but to print on offset presses, and most books today continue to be printed by offset.
Book presses are large, noisy, oily pieces of heavy machinery. There are separate parts of the press for each color that will be printed, with separate sets [...]
