bookpublishing

Endpapers are a big topic today. If you don’t know what endpapers are, they’re exactly what they sound like–usually a thicker stock paper that appears usually in hardcover books at the front and back. Often they’re very simple, a solid color or pattern. Sometimes, though, designers get really creative to make them match the cover design or interior design.

Today I was reviewing a football book designed by a packager that has a very simple but gorgeous cover design and a more intricate interior design. Then I saw the endpapers and they were an ugly beige-taupe color with no design at all. After speaking with our publisher here about his lackluster response to the endpapers, I requested a more interesting look–even if it only made them look more textured and less bland.

I don’t feel that endpapers are a big deal. I think plain is fine. But when you have the time and the means, which we do in this case, to make a statement, why not? Obviously, you don’t want to overdo it and make the endpapers look more interesting than the rest of the book! But you do want a consistent design that draws the reader in on every page you possibly can.

Alison Morris has a children’s booksellers blog (called Shelftalker) on the Publishers Weekly site and she discussed endpapers today too. Of course, with children’s books, the endpaper design makes a much bigger statement and can have a much bigger effect. It may even be more worth the time and effort to design them as they are more likely to be noticed by a child who is actively taking in all the information than a typical adult reader of a football book who is much more eager to get to the real meat of the book. She includes some examples of nice-looking endpapers. Now, I defer to her taste when it comes to endpapers in children’s books, because I certainly can’t imagine a book I publish that I’d want endpapers like the ones she shows off. However, she does include a link to another site that has some truly stunning images. Here are a few of my favorites:

Garth Williams - Fairies by David G. Klein

The Wonderland of Knowledge by Nancy Stahl

Misty of Chincoteague by Heidi Shmidt

House of Pomegranates by Heidi Shmidt

Susan’s Neighbors by Lou Brooks

Last one… clearly NOT for a children’s book:

Dutch Treat Club 1940 by Stephen Kroninger

There are many more to drool over here.

It’s Monday morning after the Twilight movie premiered and it’s all anyone is talking about today. People have been getting revved up for weeks. I know two colleagues who saw it over the weekend–one who enjoyed it, and the other who liked it but admitted it could have benefited from the kind of budget the Harry Potter films got. Did you see it? How did you like it? Did you read the book?

Of course, this brings up the age-old question: Do I read the book first or just see the movie? Personally, I’ve decided to read the book. In fact, I was able to solve the problem I had choosing an audio book for my drive to DC by picking up the Twilight audio book and I think it is a perfect choice for a long drive (and exactly the right length). I’m told it is an exciting series that keeps you interested, although the writing isn’t anything stellar. So who knows? Maybe it’s the made-for-movie type.

It is also being compared to the Harry Potter series–dangerous, I know–but I think in one way, the comparison has merit: the Twilight series is getting more and more people to read, especially young people. And with Christmas right around the corner (in fact, I’ve already finished decorating! That’s how close it is.), it’s one of millions of examples of books that make excellent gifts. Give books for Christmas, even if you can’t afford to buy stacks of them at an independent bookstore. Grab the discounts at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or even a used bookstore or book swap. Keep the joy of reading alive this season and keep the industry alive while you’re at it!

I’m telling you: a very sizable chunk of the work I do on a book is on the front matter (everything that occurs before the first page of the first chapter). Most of my work today dealt with the front matter on one book. I feel like I spend a whole lot more attention on the front matter than even a very curious reader would when reading the book. Consider a few crucial things to work out in the front matter when editing a book:

-Deciding if it is going to have a half title page and a blank to begin the book (sometimes for aesthetic reasons, other times to make form).
-Making sure the title page has the correct title, subtitle, author(s) name(s), illustrator/photographer(s) name(s), name of other writers (writer of the foreword, for instance), the correct imprint, logo, location.
-All the junk on the copyright page really stresses people out. Who even reads the copyright page? Oh yeah, lawyers do. You need the correct copyright year and owner, all rights reserved, photo credits, text copyright credits, text design credits, layout credits, editing credits, map credits, trademarks, logos, and imprint information. Then there’s the ISBN and Library of Congress Data, location of printing, and printing line. And probably a dozen other doodads.
-The TOC (table of contents): Where does it start? How many pages is it?
-Dedication. Acknowledgments. Preface. Foreword. Introduction. Sometimes a mix of those.
-Another title page? or part opener? What about photos?

Of course it’s also important that the front matter is paged with roman numerals. That makes it easy to change, move, delete, and reorder material in the front matter without causing reflow in the text. (”Reflow” means moving main body text to a new page or changing page numbers in the main text.)

It all has to be planned so it’s the right number of pages and that everything falls on the page it should. Then the book is designed and you find out you’re six pages over form. So you change the front matter all around again. What a waste of time!

John Hodgman cracks me up. You may know him as the “PC guy” on the popular Mac commercials. I’ve always thought of him as a funny dude, but then I heard him on the radio a week or 2 ago and he was a riot. The DJs couldn’t even stop laughing–everything he said was just so off-the-cuff ridiculous. He’s also got his second book coming out, called More Information Than You Require, which is basically a compilation of fake facts and I imagine there are a lot of gems in there. It’s a follow-up to his first book, The Areas of My Expertise, which from what I understand, was a similar idea only his new book is 300 pages longer.

Check out his interview on CNN.com in which he describes the Electoral College as “a beautiful college in upstate New York. A lot of people have visited its campus. The town of Electoral is not much to speak of, I have to say.” He also explains how “[Woodrow] Wilson was incapacitated after he had a stroke, so they had to put him in a special ’stroke box,’ and from that time on, his wife really acted as the de facto president”, which is why Wilson was later given the nickname “”The President Who Is Secretly a Lady.”

Sounds like a fantastic book–bound to be a good money-maker and great gift. Let me know if you read it and how you like it!

You may remember this post about standard proofreading marks, including all the essential notations for anyone in an editing field. Apparently, there are some others worth learning and I’d argue some of them are even more useful than the standard ones!

Heh. A little publishing humor for ya… We are such dorks. I know that “remove permanently from your lexicon” and “pls paraphrase—obviously stolen from Web” are marks I would be using a lot. But if I were to use “Pls don’t eat Pringles while you work,” I’d have to mark it on way too many pages!

Anyway, that came from Geist—check out the original and forward to your friends. Better yet, send them to my blog!