Production Decisions

Finally. My favorite part of the book­mak­ing process. Till now it’s been a ques­tion of soft­ware acqui­si­tion, skills, tech­ni­cal hoo-​​ha. But today, today we talk about paper. And ink. And sta­ples and string and glue and mag­nets… and on. Today we talk about mak­ing your book. And the way there doesn’t start where you’re expect­ing. Or, if you’ve been keep­ing up, it very much does.

1. Themes
What’s cen­tral to your book? Is it classy? Delight­fully trashy? High-​​strung? Grungy? Weird? Tra­di­tional? All this should already be reflected in the design, and will be fur­ther mag­ni­fied by the choices you’re about to make. And let’s be clear: choos­ing at ran­dom from the Kinko’s cat­a­log of medi­oc­rity is still a choice. Don’t be that guy unless you have a defen­si­ble rea­son to be that guy.

2. Find a Paper Sup­plier in Your Area
Do your best to avoid Xpe­dex. While they do deliver to most every­one, they’re the Goliath of paper sup­pli­ers, and you’re not the Goliath of writ­ers. Be the lit­tle one sup­port­ing the lit­tle one. You’d be amazed what a sim­ple google search will turn up. (If you’re in Albu­querque, I emphat­i­cally rec­om­mend San­dia Paper. Their site’s not load­ing this morn­ing, but I promise they’re very much in busi­ness.) They’ll prob­a­bly have papers in both Let­ter and Par­ent Sheet sizes. If Par­ent Sheets, ask how much they charge to trim to what­ever size you designed to.

3. Guts Stock
The inside of the book is often called the “guts.” I typ­i­cally opt for some­thing off-​​white (look for “nat­ural”), at 70# text-​​weight. Lynx and Cougar are good choices, as they’re both cheap and look nice in most con­texts. If you’ve got the bud­get, or aren’t print­ing many copies, you might con­sider these styles: columns (for classy) or feltweave (for texture).

4. Cover Stock
Here’s where a lot of the fun hap­pens. At your paper sup­plier, ask for Swatch­books. Or go right to the paper man­u­fac­turer – many of them have shops ready to serve you directly. One of my favorites, French Paper, has options in styles, col­ors, and tex­tures you can’t imagine.

Another option here is to talk to your printer. Many job shops have a garage full of over­stock they bought for pre­vi­ous jobs. Most will sell it to you as though it were their house stock – just to make room for more paper around the build­ing. Take a tour of the avail­able papers, with your themes in the back of your head. Killer deals await those who do their footwork.

Also, con­sider some alter­na­tive cover means. Whether cut­ting at an angle, mul­ti­ple cov­ers, cut-​​outs (die cuts), or french flaps (in which the cover wraps around like a dust jacket).

5. Col­ors
Print­ers charge you by the color most of the time. Fewer than 200 copies run dig­i­tal (in shops that have said dig­i­tal press); more than 200 run off­set. The more copies you run, the less per-​​copy cost. Tra­di­tional CMYK print­ing involves four colors:

C: Cyan
M: Magenta
Y: Yel­low
K: Black

Try print­ing black on a col­ored stock to get a two-​​color job for the cost of one.

6. Bind­ing
There are whole books on this, so I’ll keep it brief. I love sta­pling. It’s easy, innocu­ous, fast, and cheap. I rec­om­mend a Swing­line Lon­garm Sta­pler and these sta­ples. Seri­ously. It’s worth the $35 com­bined. Micro-​​chiseled ends on the sta­ples pen­e­trate the paper eas­ily, every time. Take it from a guy who’s seen more than 50 (count ‘em) sta­ples go into one book before they got through all the pages. Seriously.

Note: If you do go with flaps, a new world opens in options for hold­ing the book together. You can glue them down with sticky (non-​​destructive) glue, attach a mag­net, a clasp, or any­thing else you can imag­ine. String-​​and-​​button ties are lovely, too. Unlatch your imag­i­na­tion, stay true to the book, and you’re golden.