I love books! I like the feel of them, the paper, the heft, artful layouts and fonts...
And I've liked making them, too, since I was quite young. There's something so satisfying about it, even when I'm not trying to be fancy. I have a row of handwritten cookbooks, starting with one dated 1976--standard blank notebooks filled with recipes I've made and liked, a few pictures pasted in here and there (I used rubber cement in this one, which is discoloring in a very artistic way!). Leafing through this is as evocative as an artful scrapbook--here's the recipe for Carrot Cake from a restaurant in Seattle that my friend Fred coaxed from the owner as a birthday present for me. Here's the scone recipe I made throughout high school (the best! from an article in Woman's Day magazine). Here's Dave & Barb's Excellent Ragu Bolognese, a memory of shared meals with friends. And a slew of recipes highly influenced by A Diet for a Small Planet coupled with the needs of a poor graduate student.
So the part of self-publishing that I felt most confident about was choosing the physical shape and feel for The Joy of Color. To start with, I went to the cookbook section of my local book store--I intended The Joy of Color to be an inspirational workbook, and cookbook design is among the most innovative and modern out there. I picked up book after book, asking myself how I felt about the binding, how the book opened (and stayed open, or not), how the pages reflected color, how the cover behaved--and more importantly how my hands enjoyed touching the cover.
I landed upon Eating Up the West Coast and had the immediate sense that This Is It! The book felt FUN and accessible--the size of the pages, the give--and yet sturdiness--of the cover, the brightness of the images. When I contacted Asia Pacific Offset for a quote, the representative knew what I was talking about. She sent me 6 different books that they published, with full specifications for each one so I could see how each decision worked out.
Ultimately I stuck quite closely to the book I was drawn to, changing the width slightly to fit standard mailing envelopes (so many things to keep in mind!). The cover is paper, but reinforced; I chose a Flexibinding--this is a sewn binding and is attached to a flexible support, so the pages can be opened fully without breaking the spine or falling out (you will love this!). Most of my choices are more expensive than standard, glued, perfect-bound paperbacks, but I think it is worth it for a book that I hope you will return to over and over again. The printer worked up a blank book for me that used all my specifications so I could hold it in my hands, get a feel for the weight of it, see how the pages fell open--wondrous.
*************************************************************************
AND--I just learned that I will have my shipment of The Joy of Color and be able to mail them out by September 15th!!! I can hardly wait....
Recent Comments