Panel Recap: New England Book Show Winners' Circle

This week, we gathered in Emerson College's Charles Beard Room to hear from Cate Barr, senior art director at Cengage, and Angela Dombroski, production manager at Candlewick, about the design and production efforts that went into their winning books from this year's New England Book Show. We also welcomed the class of students from Mass Art who will be designing next year's Book Show catalog, along with some familiar and new Bookbuilders faces.

Book Show Winner: Cengage

First up was Cate, who explained the art and design choices and processes that went into the final version of Cengage's winning humanities textbook, Cultures & Values.

Cate Barr, senior art director at Cengage, on winning textbook Cultures & Values 

Although Cultures & Values is a textbook, it's treated essentially as a fine art book because of the art history subject material: it's full of images of paintings, statues, and other kinds of art that need to look good on the page. Cate explained that paper quality has a significant effect on how good the images look once they're printed, so this particular book used the highest-quality paper. This aspect is actually really important to professors who have several options for textbooks to assign to their courses. Professors often look though potential textbooks to see which one reproduces the art the best before making their selections.

How do you check the reproduction quality of the art before the final books are printed? The answer is scatter proofs: a few of the images are printed together on a sheet, rather than where they actually belong in a book.

For choosing the layout, Cate says, she always looks at the competitors and then aims to be better. This book went through three or four rounds of review with the author! Consistent color palettes are also important. This design uses a lot of neutral, earthy colors to support the vibrant art.

Cate shows off the interior layout of Cultures & Values.

And speaking of color, consistent colors are one of the greatest values print can offer for art books--you can't control how the colors will look on the customer's iPad.

Book Show Winner: Candlewick

Zebra Forest cover design

Second, we welcomed Angela Dombroski, production manager at Candlewick. Angela told us all about—all about—the production process, and a bit about how it affected the design, of Candlewick's two winning YA books, Zebra Forest and Kingdom of Little Wounds.

The jacket design for Zebra Forest is a real standout, and it has a special feature: only the small section with the title is glossy; the rest of the jacket is matte. Angela went into a lot of detail explaining how the press achieves this effect (it involves UV!). There are all kinds of other effects books can have, but they tend to be limited by the budget. To opt for a fancy effect in one area, it's common to have to sacrifice something else, like paper quality.

Because color is so important to Candlewick and because lamination has a huge effect on color, even the proofs are laminated in the same way the final jackets will be. There are many different options for laminations.

One of the keys to laminations and coatings, she said, is the scratch test. This was especially relevant for Candlewick's other Book Show winner, Kingdom of Little Wounds. This book has a matte finish, but matte film can scuff very easily, making new books look used right away. It has lots of other effects on the cover, too, but its most noticeable effect might be its stained edges. That is, the edges of the pages are stained red, a process that's expensive and a little tricky because it's done manually.

To show us the immense range of production options for book covers and jackets, Angela brought a whole bag full of samples for the audience to see and feel. There were different kinds of paper, colors, coatings—a lot of options.

The audience got to check out lots of production samples.

We wrapped up with a few questions about the design process. Why might an initial cover design be rejected? At Candlewick, it's often because it doesn't fit the book's age range. It could also be too similar to other current Candlewick books. "We might just have too many covers with pensive-looking girls on them right now," Angela said. And some of the hardest books to design are those about sensitive issues, like disability. It's important to approach those with a lot of tact and sensitivity.

Next Time

We all learned so much from this panel that it was basically a crash-course in book design and production. For even more, you can catch up on our tweets from the event.

In October, we'll be discussing a big topic in the industry right now: innovations in editorial workflows. We'll announce the details soon.

The Winners' Circle: 57th Annual New England Book Show Is This Wednesday!

Join us for the first workshop of the fall! Attend a lively roundtable discussion with speakers from Cengage and Candlewick, winners at the 2014 New England Book Show. We'll learn about how some of the best-built books from New England publishers were designed and produced.

Wednesday, September 24
6–8 p.m.
At Emerson College
Charles Beard Room (mezzanine level of the Little Building)
80 Boylston Street in Boston

Our workshops are free and open to the public. RSVP here.

If you can't make it to the event, follow @BookbuildersBOS for live tweeting via the #bookbuilders hashtag.

Please note: A valid photo ID is required for building security to check you in to the building.

We hope to see you there!

New Cambridge Venue for Bookbuilders Casual Networking

This past week's casual networking event was held at UpStairs on the Square in Cambridge.

We had a warm welcome and a good turnout. Excellent drink service. And what a cute logo!

There were about 25 people gathered, and -sniff- I think I was the oldest among them. For a fresh perspective, I'll quote from one of our new prospective members, who sent me this after the event:
 

I walked away from the event with a MUCH better sense of what the publishing world is looking for in terms of qualifications, skills, etc. and where I may fit in. I also picked up on some key terms and the language of the industry.

 

I made a couple of good contacts ... and look forward to connecting and continuing my exploration.

 

We also have an unrelated DEAL to share in this post. Last week I received an email advertisement of a course being held by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) in New York. The event caught my attention because of the title: Book Metadata & ONIX: Practical Guidance and Best Practice. Since working for a book wholesaler and attending subsquent conferences, I came to feel that the importance of metadata has been understated in the Boston publishing community. The topic may have a different impact on textbooks, which have their own means of discoverability, but on the whole, metadata is critical for sales.

 

I am pleased to say that BISG will extend its member discount to all Bookbuilders members for this course (members: $449; nonmembers: $799). Please request a coupon code from info@bisg.org for this offer, and be sure to mention your membership in Bookbuilders of Boston. The original March 4 date is sold out, but there are still seats available for March 5. The course takes place at Random House in New York. Check it out--your career will thank you.

Bookbuilders of Boston continued its 2011 Fall Workshops on Wednesday evening at Pearson Education’s offices.

Cate Barr, Senior Art Director at Cengage Learning, shared that she enjoys in her role the opportunity to become actively involved with editors and authors. During a question and answer session, she offered suggestions on what a designer needs to show when interviewing. It is important to show not just a strong portfolio but also that one can be actively involved in problem solving, take direction well, and be a team member.

Erin Hasley, Senior Designer at MIT Press, expressed that pride can sometimes be an issue. As a designer, one has to learn to accept criticism that can sometimes be unabashed and unrelenting. Erin offered that sometimes if a design is just not working, she takes a break from it, and then comes back to it at a later time. This can help one to rejuvenate and refresh.

George Restrepo, of Rest-Design, offered his insights for working as a freelancer. He shared the importance of nurturing successful client-based relations. If a designer values those relations, things will progress from there. He explained one of the challenges of being a designer is how to weed out different types of feedback. He told the group that a lot of people do not know what they want until they see it. One solution is to show a few variations on a particular design and see where the feedback goes.

Questions involved whether or not one should create portfolios geared toward print or digital design. All of the designers agreed that there is no magic answer to putting together a portfolio, but it is important when putting one together to focus on showing the fundamentals.

EBooks and XML typesetting were discussed as well. EBooks are generally pdf files of the printed book, so there are usually no extra elements involved. The speakers agreed that designing across platforms would technically become easier in the future.

Thank you to Lehigh Phoenix for sponsoring this workshop.

October 2011 Events

October is always a busy month for Bookbuilders. Our monthly casual networking event takes place this coming Wednesday (October 12) at OM Restaurant in Harvard Square. Also, we have a full slate of Back to Basics workshops beginning this Thursday.

The first workshop (10/13)  focuses on editorial, rights, and acquisitions processes. Speakers are Jennifer Urban-Brown, editor at Shambhala Publications; Becky Hemperly, Vice President of Contracts, Rights, and Royalties at Candlewick Press; and Joanne Wyckoff, a literary agent with the Carol Mann Agency. For complete speaker details and to register, see the Bookbuilders website. The sponsor for this workshop is the Maple-Vail book manufacturing group.

  

Next in the workshop series is Design, scheduled for Wednesday, October 19. Speakers are Erin Hasley, Senior Designer, The MIT Press; George Restrepo, Designer, Rest Design; and Cate Rickard Barr, Senior Art Director, Cengage Learning. Erin designs books and book covers, George is on the board of directors at AIGA Boston, and Cate has designed for academic, college, and professional lists. Lehigh Phoenix sponsors this workshop.

All workshops are held at Pearson, 501 Boylston Street, Boston (9th Floor Cafeteria). The time for all workshops is from 6:00 - 8:00, and refreshments are often provided.

Note that the workshops are free, but registration on the Bookbuilders website is required. There is security at the venue, and attendees names must appear on the reservation list. Photo ID is also required.

Networking on the Common

Now THIS was a good idea. A free networking event on Boston Common, on the evening of a Shakespeare on the Common performance. And the weather was amazing.

For years I went to school in Boston and never took the time to enjoy the Common. It's a wonderful site, and I didn't want to leave this event. I chatted with some newcomers to the industry, munched on some corn & bean salad, and got to know one of my fellow board members.

I was reminded of what a struggle it is to get into publishing, and also how exciting it is to get that first job and discover that it was worth it -- you love this gig! The economy is still making things rougher than they need to be, however. More often than I recall in years past, entry-level jobs are temporary. And it's increasingly difficuly to score even an unpaid internship.

Bookbuilders of Boston does its best to help in all circumstances, and invariably the new folks tell us that they benefit from these events. Sometimes I wish I had better advice to offer, but you never know what will lead to someone's "big break." The two recent graduates I spoke with were unaware of nSight, an agency that found work for me when I needed it.

There are ALWAYS well-known professionals at these events along with the up-and-coming. Don't hesitate to come out and enjoy a low-key and friendly evening with Bookbuilders.