The Big Bad Book Blog

Going to press is exciting. Lots of hard work is behind you, and the finished book is close to becoming a reality. But as you print your books, you should be aware of potential complications. Consider the printing of your book as a custom project. The jacket, covers, and text are unique–written, designed, and printed specifically for you as opposed to being interchangeable commodities to be pulled from a shelf. continue reading

I recently ran across this post on one of Amazon’s Customer Discussions forums:

DemonsDanceAlone writes: “Both my mother and I received [Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris] as a Christmas gift, and I was quite disappointed to find that the edge of the book was not smooth, but an uneven zigzag shape. When I went to return it, hoping for a better copy, I found that all the books at my local Target and Barnes and Noble had the same uneven edges. Is this a flaw in the book’s production, is it just a bad batch, or is this a new style that this publisher is using for some stupid reason?”

This post brought two questions to my mind: One, who in the heck gives Hannibal Rising as a Christmas gift?! (Cannibalism and candy canes—hmmm.) And two, what is up with those cool irregular edges? continue reading

Rushing a book to market without understanding all the consequences of your decision is about as bright as marrying someone you meet in Las Vegas after a fifteen-hour drinking binge. Even if the reasons behind the rush seem legitimate, beware of the beer-goggle effect—your book won’t look nearly as attractive when it comes off the press as it does in your head when you’re deciding to skip vital steps in the publication process. There are three areas where rushing will come back to haunt you with particular vengeance: continue reading

Images can add a lot to a book, or any printed material. But if you want to jazz up your pages with graphics (figures, drawings, cartoons, illustrations, etc.) and you’re printing professionally, you’ll need these tips: continue reading

Remember the Y2K scare? What if a similar digital dilemma threatened the book industry? As the pros know, January 1, 2007, isn’t just another day of college bowl games and crushing hangovers. It’s the date of the official, indelible, unavoidable introduction of the ISBN-13 system. The ISBN-13 system is a 3-digit expansion of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN)—that little number that holds the publishing industry together.

Luckily, the ISBN-13 transition doesn’t quite inspire the panic (and endless news coverage) associated with the Y2K scare. There are still six months of prep time, but there are good reasons to understand and care about ISBN-13 now. Here’s what to focus on: continue reading