Introducing the Personal Edition

Okay, the economy sucks right now. This is not a news flash to anyone living on the planet earth. While I can’t bring back the Dow or make Bernie Madoff’s clients whole again, I can do my small part to get things rolling again. We at Atomic Publishing will soon be offering an even lower cost perfect binding machine–The Personal Edition.

How is that possible, you ask? Thanks for asking. The Personal Edition is slightly smaller than The Original, but can still bind spines up to 11″. It also lacks the swiveling table of its big brother. But through a miracle of modern engineering (well, maybe not a miracle), you will still be able to jog your pages and create the same perfect bound books as The Original.

In order to save manufacturing and shipping costs, The Personal Edition will not ship with heavy C clamps or a scoring tool. We will assume that you have clamps lying around the house and something to score your book covers (a butter knife or dull pocket knife works well). And the best news of all–the cost will be a recession-crunching $59, a full $40 less that The Original. Sure, the process is a bit more cumbersome that the more expensive model (clamping and unclamping of the binding machine between books), but it’s still quite effective.

And one helluva deal.

These should be hitting soon at http://www.atomicpublishing.net

The Public Domain is Your Friend

Not every person who wants to bind their own books is a writer. Being a graphic artist myself, I understand the desire to create a cool piece of portable art without worrying about all of those damned words. Why not grab a story that is out of copyright and format it to suit your needs? There is plenty of material out there, even a lot of classic stories that will give your art some gravitas (I learned that word from Meet the Press).

The works of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, Ambrose Bierce and about a zillion other authors you’ve never heard of are available out there. Free to use. Perfectly legal. My main source of public domain material is Project Gutenberg. They have a ridiculous amount of material on their site. It might take some digging to find what you’re looking for, but it’s worth the effort.

And there is a load of old art that you can whip into shape with Photoshop. I am currently working on a cover with Nazi zombies based on old WWII photos. So I’m combining two of my favorite pastimes–fine art (zombies) and education (zombie history). Many of the old defunct pulp publishers and artists never bothered to copyright their work. But be aware–this can be a legal landmine. If you’re not sure about the status of a story or piece of work, leave it alone. Below are some covers I have created for out-of-copyright works. Sorry, no zombie covers quite yet.

Self Publish Your Way to the Big Time

I love stories of the little guy hitting it big, especially in the publishing world. Granted, most self-published books are lousy. I would use harsher language, but this is a family show. I don’t buy the notion that everybody has a story to tell. Some people do, some don’t. It’s just the way of the world. I’d like to be able to throw a 95 mph fast ball or run a 4.4 forty, but I don’t have the skills. Writing is the same way. I don’t mean to discourage anyone from writing. If nothing else, it’s good exercise for the brain. So what if you’re not Hemingway?

But every once in a while a self-published book deserves a larger audience. I am a big horror fan, so that is the genre I know best. Three recent examples of self-published novels hitting it big come to mind. I am currently reading ‘Shadows in the Mist’ by Brian Moreland. It is a story about crazed Nazi super soldiers that kill everything that moves and a band of Americans who must face them down. What’s not to like? David Wellington also made a nice little splash with ‘Monster Island’. This was originally published online and did so well that a publisher picked it up. He has gone on to write several other novels that have sold quite well. A novel called ‘Hater’ by David Moody was also self published, then picked up by Thomas Dunne Books. I’ve been hearing all kinds of good stuff about this one. It’s on my must-read list.

It’s nice to know that sometimes agents and editors misjudge talent, that some enterprising writers push their work into the light with pure grit and determination (and a good bit of talent as well). To all of you undiscovered geniuses out there–keep up the fight. Your time will come.

Micro Publishing for Your Business or Organization

I am overly fiction-centric here at The Binding Blog, but I don’t want you non-fiction readers and self-publishers to feel left out. Ultra short-run binding is perfect for certain businesses, groups or organizations. If your shop sells books about the local area and you don’t want to order a thousand copies that may take years to sell, try binding copies yourself with The Atomic Binding Machine (plug). If you own a comic book shop and would like to sell work from local artists, you can bind a few samples and take orders. Then just bind what you need. My cousin runs a private school and she uses the machine to bind her students’ homework into a single volume at the end of the year. The possibilities are endless. And fun too.

Book Design

Book design is an under appreciated art. There’s just something about a well designed book–the way it looks, the way it feels in your hand. And the satisfaction of putting together the entire package rivals the thrill of designing movie posters. Sure it’s not as sexy as movie work, but it can be more enduring.

And by book design, I don’t just mean covers. I’m also talking about the page layout. Are the margins along the spine wide enough? Some publishers will cheat the margins to save a couple of pages. There are several publishers guilty of this spine-breaking sin, but I won’t mention them here (Zebra, Pinnacle, Dorchester). Is the text too small or too large? Both are equally irritating in my book (hey, that’s sort of a play on words). If the text is too small, it’s a strain to read. And if it’s too large, you feel as if you are being tricked by the publisher into paying an extra couple of bucks for a thicker book. Plus, overly large text or inappropriate fonts look amateurish.

I just picked up Bruce Campbell’s “Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way”. I really do love the guy, but I hated the way the book looked. Something as seemingly minor as a font can distract me from the story and lessen my enjoyment. Maybe this is just the hypersensitive nature of the graphic artist, but I don’t think so. Pick up a copy and you’ll see what I mean.

If you want to see a publisher who understands how to put a book together, check out the ‘Hard Case Crime’ series. Not only are they good stories (for the most part). They are miniature works of art. Charles Ardai knows how these things should be done. Some of the larger publishing houses could learn a thing or two from this guy.

Dime Novels

Back in the 80s there was a series of books called Dime Novels. They measured 3" wide by 4.5" tall and were about 90 pages long. Calling them a ‘series’ is a stretch. As far as I know, you are looking at the only 5 that were ever printed. (The book at the far right is one I created with the Atomic Binding Machine to approximate the look and feel of the Dime Novels).

These books were a great idea poorly executed. Truth be told, I think they were a scam to sucker aspiring writers into purchasing a ‘Writer’s Packet’ that included the first 5 of a proposed monthly series of books. If memory serves, the packet was about $30.00 and included these books. I, of course, fell for this promotion.

Scam or not, I think these are cool little things and would love to see a similar series put into production. Who knows? Maybe we will produce a series through Atomic Publishing one of these days. Let me know what you think. And if you know of any other Dime Novels other than the ones listed above, please shoot me an e-mail.

The Library Binding

Collectors and purists may cringe at this notion, but I really like hardbound paperbacks found in libraries. The paperback cover is removed and the interiors are placed between hardcover boards and rebound. I have a cool little copy of Catcher in the Rye that I picked up at a library sale some years ago. I cherish this book, though it has no real value other than sentimental (and the story it contains, of course). Sometimes I take it off the shelf just to hold it. There’s just something really cool about small hardcovers.

I am currently working on a system to quickly bind hardcovers in this fashion, though my technique will not involve tearing apart existing books. I intend to use the Atomic Binding Machine to assemble the interiors and insert these into a hardcover shell. I have hit several sticking points with this method, but I will figure it out. Eventually.

If you have any suggestions how I might accomplish this, I welcome your input.

            

The Soft Hardcover

This is sort of a loose label. A lot of Bibles or car manuals might have a flexible leatherette cover that isn’t really a hardcover or a paperback, but it tough and will put up with a lot of abuse. You will sometimes see this described as a soft hardcover. Well, this isn’t what I’m talking about.

My notion of the Soft Hardcover is a paperback book with a dust Jacket. This style of book seems to be more popular overseas—some manga titles are designed this way. The covers themselves may be relatively free of artwork, maybe just the author’s name, the title and the publisher. All the pretty pictures are on the dust jacket. And the covers themselves tend to be lighter weight than a standard paperback.

The soft hardcover is a nice way to class-up your book. Your audience will see it as a fine edition and may even be willing to spend a few more bucks to obtain one. You can even switch up your covers. Make a limited edition, or four collectible covers. This is a nice way to make your book stand out from the crowd. Here are a few classic examples.

The Novella – a Lost Art

I don’t know about any of you, but I really love the novella. I’m not talking about really long short stories buried in a hardcover collection. I mean an honest-to-goodness novella, a 120 page punch in the gut printed and bound all by itself. Western publishers used to put these out in droves, as did some of the old mystery publishers, and science fiction publishers too. So what happened?

Here’s my theory—publishers think that readers want to buy books by the pound. Why would anyone pay $5.99 for a novella when they could purchase a 900-page tome for $8.99? I guess I can see the twisted corporate logic in this, but I think the suits are missing the point. Do you always want to sit down to a four-course meal? Sometimes don’t you just want to grab a burger?

That’s not to say that the novella is a throwaway form. It can be truly powerful. Some of my favorite stories are novellas—I Am Legend, The Mist, Who Goes There? And there are plenty of great ones out there that I haven’t even read yet. I just picked up Torpor’s The Tenant and Zelazny’s Damnation Alley, and am looking forward to both of them.

In this age of diminishing attention spans, the novella seems like the perfect lure to pull more readers into the fold. Books that can be read in an hour or two. No long-term commitments, just a quick one-night stand. What’s not to love about that?

Will the Kindle Kill the Printed Word?

No. This will have its place in our modern world, but it will never replace the printed word. I know they are called ‘Kindle’, but could you really have a good old-fashioned book burning with a mountain of these? Seriously, though, if you drop a paperback book on a tile floor does it make you want to cry? I think I’ll just wait for the version coated with Flubber®.