The Classroom Set

The Classroom Set is a perfect use for short-run publishing. Say you have created your own annotated version of Frankenstein as it relates to modern-day genetic research, or an original textbook of an esoteric or obscure subject that wouldn’t justify a large print run. There’s no need to run down to Kinko’s (sorry, FedEx) and create a bunch of amateurish comb-bound slabs of paper that look like the book of raisin recipes your Aunt Matilda put together for her entire extended family.

Bind these babies properly. Create an eye-catching cover. Make something you can be proud of. Your work will be taken more seriously and maybe you can even shop copies around to other like-minded individuals. You can keep the prices reasonable (as opposed to most textbooks), and still keep a substantially larger piece of the economic pie for yourself.

The One-Legged Scoring Tool

I have made a change to the SimpleBind scoring tool that looks slightly ridiculous, but works quite well. I can’t help but think of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. The scoring tool fits along the upper clamp like the previous version, but the handle makes it easier to use. See the pictures below, or download the SimpleBind manual for a better description.

   

Bookbinding of Yore

A few weeks ago a friend sent me this link. It’s a fascinating look at typesetting and bookbinding. After watching this you’ll never complain about a slow printer or crashy computer again. Enjoy the walk down memory lane here. (I would embed the link, but WordPress wants $60 per year for the upgrade to allow this.)

Novella Series Launch

Atomic Publishing is proud to announce the launch of the Monster Novella series. Okay, it’s just one book so far (plus my novella ‘On a Darker Mission’ which really doesn’t count as part of the series), but I’m excited nonetheless. It’s up for sale on the website www.atomicpublishing.net for $5.99 + $2.00 shipping. I am hard at work on a few other titles, so the series will actually be a series soon. I was going to announce the launch on April 1st, but that seemed like a bad omen.

I have some other SimpleBind news coming soon, but I just wanted to make the book launch announcement first.

First Novella in New Line

The Atomic Publishing site is in the process of being redesigned. Soon, it will be the publishing site of the company and the SimpleBind units will be sold primarily through the website http://www.simplebind.com. The first line of books from Atomic will be a series of monster/creature novellas 12,000-21,000 words (90-160 pages). And the first of these is Tentacles From Below, a rip-roaring tale of treacherous octopi threatening the men of the NX-1, the most advanced submarine in the sea.

All of the novellas will measure 3.5″ by 5″, small enough to fit in a breast pocket. It’s a really cool size that invites you to take it in your hands and read it. I have passed quite a few around as advance reader copies, and everyone gets this dreamy smile on his/her face as they hold the little books for the first time. I hope to put out six titles per year.  We’ll see if this is overambitious for a one-man operation. This first book should be out in April. It is laid out and the covers should be arriving from the printer in a few days.

Each will be bound with the SimpleBind, of course. This is as much a demonstration of the SimpleBind’s capabilities as a publishing venture—I want others to see that in this Age of Kindle it’s still possible for a small press to get off the ground, keep inventories low, and still offer a respectable number of titles.

Below is an image of the first cover.

Cutter Results

Sometimes I feel like I’m writing an entry for Fail Blog. Only not as hilarious. The paper cutter I’ve been working on cuts very well…it just doesn’t cut very straight due to blade flex (the downside to cheap, disposable blades). I have a few ideas for potential fixes that I will be working on throughout the next few weeks. Below is a picture to illustrate the crooked cut. I will continue my work.

Lying Press and Plough

No, this isn’t a posting about deceitful farm reporting. It’s about cutting paper, baby! Not the most exciting topic I know, but it is often a problem with the home bookbinders. You’ve laid out your interior pages, the cover is a work of art, the book is bound and now…

Now you have to trim the pages. So what to do? You can take a stack of your books to your local printer or Office Depot and ask them to cut it for you, typically for $1 or $2 dollars per lift. Often as not, their blade is dull or nicked and the results make you want to throttle the apathetic clerk who has done the hatchet job on your beautiful work. I speak from experience.

So then you go on Ebay and buy some Chinese knock-off paper cutter which works okay for a few weeks, then the cheap blade dulls and the mediocre table slips out of alignment. Throw that piece of junk away. Again, I speak from experience.

Finally, after many wasted hours (and dollars), I broke down and bought an expensive cutter that does a very nice job (a Triumph 3905). I lucked out and found a used one locally for what was still quite a bit of money. But I know a lot of you don’t want to drop that kind of cash for something you may not use all that often. (I bind a lot of books, so it made sense for me).

Enter the Lying Press and Plough. Bookbinders used these before there were any fancy stack cutters. It is basically a clamp to hold the pages in place (the lying press), while the plough with its exposed blade is run back and forth along the surface of the press, cutting the pages after a number of passes. A good press and plough can cost as much as a quality paper cutter, and the replacement blades can run into the hundreds of dollars. So this isn’t really a cost-saving option either.

That’s where I hope to change the game. I am working on a press and plough that uses readily available blades that cost about ten bucks apiece. I have some specialized tools on order so I can build a few versions of these and test them out. The configuration I have in mind will allow you to cut a book an inch thick. This is a compromise to allow for the use of the cheaper blade. The super-duper expensive ones will cut books substantially thicker than this. For most people, though, an inch will probably suffice. And, as always, I hope to do this at a price far more reasonable than anything currently available. Big talk, I know. Let’s see if I can actually pull it off.

I will keep you all posted.

Paper Thickness

I have mentioned before the importance of paper weight in cover design (at least I think I have). If not, it’s important. I am putting together a new novella called ‘Tentacles from Below’. It is the first in a line of monster novellas that will soon be available from Atomic Publishing. The cover is nearly completed (images soon to come), and the book is laid out. I know the page count and must now determine what type of paper to use for the production.

I am considering three types—a 70-lb Durotone Newsprint White (not as thick as the 70-lb would seem to imply), plain old 24-lb laser paper, and art pad paper of indeterminate weight that i cut to size. They are shown in the photo below. The art pad on top, laser paper in the middle and Durotone on the bottom. You can see how important it is to know what sort of paper you are using before finalizing your cover. Even a 1/8″ miscalculation can make a professionally designed book look amateurish.

I am a big fan of the art paper, but it may make for a novella that is too thick. It’s not too thick to bind, but I am thinking of the book’s proportions—I don’t want it to look like a miniature phone book. I will most likely try all three, but I am leaning to the too-expensive Durotone. Just a glimpse into a part of the design process that is often overlooked.

New Scoring Tool

I have been working on a new scoring method for the SimpleBind, and I think I may have stumbled across something that will work quite well. The scoring has always required the most finesse in the process.

This simple new gizmo may make it easier and more consistent without a lot of practice. It is designed to slide along the upper clamp and score the cover with the pages in place (prior to binding). It can also be used as a standalone tool to score the cover before it is inserted in the SimpleBind.

I will use it for a while with my own binding, just to make sure it works as it should.

Here is a lousy photo. Click on it for an even larger lousy photo.

Borders Stumbles

February 16, 2011
Borders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Borders is my favorite bookseller chain, or at least it was. I’m afraid the writing is on the wall—they won’t be around much longer. The location nearest me is on the chopping block, one of 200 closures. And more are sure to follow. The retail fracturing continues. B. Dalton’s (my former employer) closed its doors for good in January, 2010. Crown Books (another former employer) is down to a handful of stores. Luckily for Borders I never worked for them, making their demise slower.

This trend will continue. Within a few years there will only be two major players. Barnes & Noble will be your brick and mortar option, and Amazon your online choice. I’m not a sentimental guy, but something about bookstores closing just makes me sad. We had a great bookstore here in Colorado called Little Bookshop of Horrors that shuttered its doors some time ago. I still think about it every time I drive past the city of Arvada.

All of these closings and failures make the small publishers even more important, particularly those who sell their books online. Subterranean Press is a great example of a small press success story. They print their own books and sell them on their site as well. This may be the small press model that succeeds in the end. Time will tell.