Do you have literary heroes? Most writers do.
I was thinking about some of my own literary heroes recently, and the books that had made such a big impresssion on me—and millions of other readers. That’s when I realized that I had a unique way to pay these authors and their books a kind of homage.
One that would also please a lot of authors, too.
That’s how my new series of interior design templates was born. Based on authors who have inspired millions of readers and writers over the last 100 years, each brings a unique design to today’s authors.
Even better, many of the books I used in my research were produced during the “golden age” of letterpress book printing.
Letterpress, in which the type or printing form makes direct contact with the book paper, gives a texture to the book page that doesn’t exist in offset-printed books. Offset accounts for the vast majority of books printed today.
But before the 1960s, before offset printing became widespread, books were printed by letterpress as a matter of course. This type of printing didn’t allow for the kinds of design and artistic expression we now take for granted. But letterpress printing was the direct inheritor of 500 years of book printing technology, traditions, and customs going all the way back to Gutenberg.
Not every book printed in the early part of the twentieth century stuck to a high standard. Like today, there were many publishers pursuing different commercial goals, and the books of the time reflect that reality.
But to a large degree, the books from some our best authors have secured a place in the popular imagination simply because they’ve been read by so many people.
Author Series Templates on Sale This Thursday
These templates will go on sale on Thursday this week, June 8th. We’ll reduce the prices for the launch promotion, so if the idea of publishing books in the style of these authors intrigues you, go have a look at them on Thursday. Here’s the link: Book Design Templates.
Here are the authors included in this new template collection. In each case, I’ve tried to create a book interior that pays homage to the books of the author, while updating the structure of the designs to please modern tastes, and also to acknowledge the way our template customers use these templates—largely to create print on demand paperbacks and ebooks.
And for authors who like to write right inside the templates, maybe you’ll be able to absorb some of the writer’s “juice” from the spirit of the author. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Authors
- Ernest Hemingway
- Anais Nin
- William Faulkner
- Virginia Woolf
- Isaac Asimov
- Toni Morrison
- Ralph Ellison
- Jorge Luis Borges
Some of these templates do not conform to the way we usually construct our templates. For one thing, each is available only in one trim size.
In addition, some have no formal chapter opening page, since the beginning of each chapter flows onto the same page as the end of the last chapter.
The best way to see these templates—and to get inspired to create your own masterpieces—is to visit the Template Gallery and check out the downloadable, full-size samples of each one.
Just to give you a taste, here’s a sample of the Isaac Asimov template:
About Isaac Asimov
Science fiction legend Isaac Asimov was at first a biochemistry professor at Boston University. His books and stories, including the Foundation Series, I, Robot, The Stars Like Dust, and Nightfall, have had a profound influence on both American literature and robotics.
Asimov Template
This design makes use of the Alegreya font for the text. It’s highly readable and the sturdy nature of the design harks back to the letterpress fonts used for fine commercial production. Heads are set in Engravers MT. As with all our templates, the fonts you need to get this exact look are included in the template download package, and their license permits this type of distribution.
Here’s a sample of the title and chapter opening pages:
Here’s the text page spread:
This was one of the most fun projects I’ve done in recent years, and I can’t wait for you to see them.
If you have suggestions for other authors you’d like to see in this series, please let me know in the comments.
And do go over to Book Design Templates on Thursday to see the entire lineup, and let me know what you think!
Isaac Asimov illustration by Richard Sheppard