Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, humor, jim downey, Kickstarter, mistakes, predictions, printing, promotion, Science Fiction, serendipity, St. Cybi's Well
I just printed out the following text:
Following the completion of my successful Kickstarter for St. Cybi’s Well in the Fall of 2012, I proceeded to make arrangements for a limited edition print run of Communion of Dreams to be bound by hand. See the Colophon on the dedication page of this book for details.
However, there was an error at the printer’s with the first printing. In spite of having had a correct proof copy, the initial printing was done entirely backwards – laid out as though the book was intended to be read back-to-front, with the spine on the right side, and in which you turn the pages from left to right.
At first I thought the entire print run would need to be recycled. Indeed, once the printer realized their error, that’s what they asked me to do with the printed sheets in order to save them the cost of shipping.
Errors are part of the handmade process. In this case, the error wasn’t mine, but came from the printer. Whoever set up the print run managed to load the pages backwards, and in the process opened an unexpected door. When things like this happen, I’ve learned to roll with it. It’s like a little surprise, something special the universe gives you – serendipitous art.
So I decided to hand-bind a few of these ‘backwards’ books, as curiosities. How many? Just 15 copies – thirteen ‘lettered’ copies (A – M), and two artist’s/author’s proofs. This copy is letter _____.
Add a designated letter, and my signature, and then those sheets will be the ‘paste-down’ sheets for the back cover — er, I mean front cover — of the backwards books. Yup, I’m all done with that little binding project. There are still 7 copies unclaimed, but now that they’re actually made I expect that they’ll find homes fairly soon.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The little photo essay of making these books isn’t fundamentally different than the first set shown, but it’s kind of fun to see the larger volume of the whole process.
Sheets for collating.
Sheets gathered & folded into sections.
Text blocks sewn, lined, stacked to dry.
Making the covers. Note the stack of cut boards, the stack of cut pieces of book cloth.
Boards mounted, turning in the edges & corners to finish the covers.
“Pasting in” – the process of mounting the text blocks to the covers.
Finished books, stacked and drying.
And all done.
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Marketing, New Zealand, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: art, blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, greenstone, jim downey, New Zealand, Pounamu, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, technology
Remember this?
It’s a backwards book!
Well, after wrapping up the big conservation job last week, I promised myself I’d take some time this week after the holiday and do the rest of the edition. Here’s where I’m at as of this afternoon:
Gathered & folded.
Each stack there is one of the 11 sections of the book. That’s actually 16 copies, which is the edition of 15 (remember, one book is already done) plus two spares. I’ll “punch” the spares (poke holes in the section spines for sewing) but then stick them into storage as a reserve in case a copy is damaged before I can get it to the client. Collating and folding is probably the slowest part of the whole binding process.
One additional note — see that thing there in the lower right? It’s this:
Pounamu was highly prized by the Maori for use in making tools and weapons. For generations it was fashioned into chisels, axes, and adzes. While I very much appreciated the beauty of the many pieces of art I had seen created using Pounamu, for me the most memorable souvenir of the trip would be a bookbinding tool called a ‘folder’ made of greenstone. I didn’t expect to find one ready-made, but rather to find a piece of the stone which I could shape to my own use.
And I did. It’s about 5″ long, roughly an inch tall and an inch wide, slightly tapered towards the ends. One side is already highly polished, the others relatively smooth. I’ve already used it as is, and need to spend some more time with it before I decide whether it needs more shaping or not.
I’ve actually decided that the piece is perfect just as is for exactly this purpose: folding thick sections of new paper.
Tomorrow I’ll punch the sections and then start sewing the books.
Just thought I’d share that.
Jim Downey
PS: there are currently only 8 copies of this edition unclaimed. Full info here.
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, tech | Tags: blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, jim downey
I love what I do professionally. Seriously, if I hit the (figurative, since I don’t actually play) lottery tomorrow and never had to work again, I would still spend part of my time doing book conservation work, probably as just donation for various under-funded state & local organization who need such work done.
Nonetheless, there comes a point in any project where you’re just glad to be done with it. A couple hours ago I delivered work to a client, including the 1470 legal text I have written about previously. I thought I’d show the end result.
When we last checked in, I said that the book was ready for a cover – one made with fake “cords”. Well, here’s the process of making such a cover:
Prepping the high-density bookboard – using a wood rasp to bevel the edges, which was typical for books of this era.
Goatskin leather. Heavy grain, wonderfully strong and lovely, processed using archival dyes and tanning salts. This skin cost about $200.
Leather cut to size.
I thought I took some pics of the process of mounting the boards and fake cords to the leather, and then the cover to the text block. Guess not. But it is not fundamentally different from the images to be found here.
Here’s the cover, finished and mounted to the text block:
And here it is with the new spine label (calfskin, gold foil) mounted:
Remember, this is how it came to me:
As it came to me. Note the 1960s-era spine added to a 1880-era cover.
Big difference, eh?
Jim Downey
Oh, PS: Forgot to mention it yesterday, but I chatted with the librarian at the institution about this book. To the best of his knowledge, there are only about 100 known copies of this book still in existence. One in good condition is probably worth between $50,000 and $100,000.
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Connections, Jeff Bezos, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, anniversary, art, blogging, bookbinding, Boxing Day, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, Jeff Bezos, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Merry Christmas, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction, self-publishing, technology, writing
Happy Boxing Day! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, filled with love & friendship.
Yesterday was also a “Promotional Day” for the Kindle editions of Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year, and both books saw a decent amount of traffic for a holiday. More on HFY later — right now I want to chat a bit about Communion.
As it happens, yesterday was also the 11 month ‘anniversary’ for the paperback edition of Communion of Dreams — the Kindle edition came out a few days earlier, but January 25th is what I consider to be the ‘launch date’ for the book.
And in 11 months, there have been a grand total of 23,216 downloads of the Kindle edition of the book, sales of 25 paperback copies through Amazon, and something about twice that of paperback sales through me directly (including the Kickstarter copies). Of the total downloads, a bit less than 7% were sales/loans, totaling 1,507. Meaning that I gave away some 21,709 copies of the book.
Selling 1,500 copies of a first novel really isn’t too bad, to be honest, and that would have been about what was expected through a conventional publisher in the past for an unknown writer. And to be quite honest, I’ve earned more from doing this than I would have through a conventional publisher — the ill-fated Publisher Who Shall Not Be Named offered me an advance which was about one-third of what I have made on the book so far. It’s not a lot of money, but it is nice to be rewarded for all our hard work — thanks, one and all.
And “moving” 23,000 copies of the book all-told? That’s downright respectable. In the previous 5 years when I had the earlier .pdf version of the book available on my website, there were a total of about 35,000 downloads. That right there shows you to power of Amazon’s system and Jeff Bezos’ vision.
I will again offer free a “Promotional Day” next month — probably in conjunction with the first anniversary. But don’t let that dissuade you from going ahead and buying a copy of the Kindle edition, the paperback, or even the hand-bound hard-cover — remember, you’re helping to support good independent writing and art!
Again, happy holidays, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation | Tags: 1454, 1470, art, blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, jim downey, Legacy Bookbindery
This is post 1,454 for this blog.
There’s general agreement that the first copies of the Gutenberg Bible were finished in 1454 or 1455.
So I thought I would revisit progress on my conservation work on the 1470/71 text.
Last time, I had finished resewing the book using a ‘conservation chainstitch’. Historically, the book would have been sewn onto cords, but given the way I had to re-join all the pages into sections, I decided to use a sewing structure which is more gentle on the folios. When the time comes to make the leather cover, I’ll position fake cords (the ‘bands’ you see on old leather-bound books).
With the sewing done, first I applied a light coat of adhesive to the spine and then a strip of thin handmade paper. I ‘shaped’ the spine a bit to have a slight curve and allowed it to dry overnight. The next day I put the book into a ‘finishing press’, with the spine sticking up:
In the finishing press.
See how the sides of the press drop away from the book? This allows you to use a ‘backing hammer’ to lightly shape the spine more completely with slight glancing blows, molding the curved shape more completely. This is done to help accommodate the thickness of the sewing thread in each section, and gives the book that very characteristic rounded-spine shape we’re used to on leather-bound books.
Next, I made some endbands (head & tail bands), using a bit of maroon goatskin shaped over a heavy cord. Sewing on nice head & tail bands would most likely been done historically, but it is a bit time-consuming, and again puts stress on the folios of the book. This sort of added-on endband is common now, and they’re just applied with adhesive so they can be easily removed without damage to the folios if/when the book needs conservation treatment in the future.
Endband
The endbands serve a couple of different purposes. One, they provide support for the part of the leather cover which spans the spine from front to rear board. This helps to stop that portion of the leather cover from either being mushed down or stressed too much from people using it to pull a book off a shelf. But it also gives a nice ‘finish’ to the sections, in case there were any slight irregularities in positioning during the sewing.
Endband, detail.
Once the endbands are positioned, I apply a section of light, fairly open-weave cloth which will function as a hinge to help mount the text block to the covers. Then another strip of slightly thicker paper goes on the whole spine, from endband to endband, making a sandwich which will help support everything.
Ready to cover.
And poof – the book is now ready for a cover.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, NYT, Predictions, Preparedness, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: 1470, blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, jim downey, Science Fiction, Silas House, technology, writing
There is truth in this:
The No. 1 question I get at readings is: “How many hours a day do you write?” I used to stumble on this question. I don’t write every day, but when I first started going on book tours I was afraid I’d be revealed as a true fraud if I admitted that. Sometimes I write for 20 minutes. Other times I don’t stop writing for six hours, falling over at the end like an emotional, wrung-out mess, simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated. Sometimes I go months without putting a word on the page.
One night, however, I was asked that question and the right answer just popped out, unknown to me before it found solidity on the air: “I write every waking minute,” I said. I meant, of course, that I am always writing in my head.
I’m lucky.
OK, actually I’m very lucky, because I am lucky in many ways. But what I am thinking of right now is that my chosen profession allows me time to think — to write in my head, as it were.
To write in my head as I preserve the words of others. The written words. Specifically, the *printed* words.
Like this:
Joined sheets.
That’s the next step from my last report on the 1470 text. I got all the individual sheets attached, creating “sections” of the book. Or, I should say, re-creating the sections which once were.
Sections “punched” to create sewing stations – where the sewing thread will join them one to the other. And the start of that sewing process.
Then moving on, linking not just words, not just pages, but whole passages, whole section, one to the other:
Linking, one to the next.
What you see there is called a “chain stitch”. A curious term, implying not just links, but connections, even slavery.
Can words be enslaved?
Clean edges. Clean definitions.
And this shows — proves — that my technique works. All the sections line up properly. Almost perfectly.
And so the pages are transformed, from individual pages, into a book.
Like writing.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Book Conservation, Music, U of Iowa Ctr for the Book, YouTube | Tags: blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, jim downey, Kozo, music, Reemay, The Beatles
Just a quick follow-up to my post about the incunable legal text.
After spending most of last week cleaning up the edges of the sheets, I’ve been working on re-joining the folios. The trick with this is to make sure all the pages wind up being the same size when they’re folded and ready to be sewn — because I don’t want to trim the text block to get a clean fore-edge.
The solution is to make up a simple jig on my workbench:
Lines drawn on the benchtop, some bookboard mounted to the edge. This will help me keep everything the right size and aligned correctly.
Down the center is some Reemay polyester fabric, which will not adhere to the Kozo repair strips.
The book originally had sections of four folios (folded sheets) per section. I can tell this because of the printing conventions of the time, which had a small counter at the bottom of each page indicating where it went in the book. Very handy. For my work, I only need to rejoin the innermost pair of sheets from each section — then the other sheets will be attached to that new center folio. This will keep everything positioned correctly, and make for a strong sewing structure.
Here’s a pic showing the positioning of a pair of sheets:
Notice the gap in the center.
And here’s one with a shot of the Kozo repair strip applied. It’s a heavyweight Kozo (Japanese ‘mulberry’ paper), with a strong wheatpaste applied. Makes a great repair, but is completely reversible with a little water if anyone needs to re-do my repairs later. See:
The next step is to iron the strip down with a small tacking iron on moderate heat. This is done with another layer of Reemay between the iron and the Kozo. This gives a clean, flat edge to mount the other sheets.
Which will be my next step.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, humor, jim downey, Kickstarter, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction
A couple weeks ago, I wrote this:
If I wanted to, I could actually bind the book so as to read ‘backwards’ like a Hebrew Bible, though the page numbers are all in the wrong location for that.
I must admit, I’m tempted, just for giggles.
And as I posted yesterday, I gave in to the temptation. Yup, I made a ‘backwards book’, one which has the spine on the right side, and in which you turn the pages from left to right. And I’m going to make a few more.
Why? Well, for the fun of it, mostly. But also because when things like this happen, I’ve learned to roll with it. It’s like a little surprise, something special the universe gives you — serendipitous art.
And for some people, such things are quite collectible. Think of philately or numismatics, where errors of one sort or another make for highly-valued stamps and coins.
Errors are part of the handmade process. In this case, the error wasn’t mine, but came from the printer. Whoever set up the print run managed to load the pages backwards, and in the process opened an unexpected door.
Now, this isn’t something that appeals to a lot of people. So I’m only going to make 15 of these books — thirteen ‘lettered’ copies (A – M), and two artist’s/author’s proofs, all covered in book cloth as shown. Those who have opted to get one of the “archive” sets will have it included in the set at no additional charge as long as the copies last. Others may opt to buy a single copy for $150.00. But there are only 13 copies, and of those four are already reserved. Meaning that there are only nine remaining, and are first-come, first served.
So, there ya go.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What follows is a little photo-essay showing the process by which I bound the first book (and will bind the rest). This will also be the same process for binding the ‘normal’ hardcover cloth edition.
Sheets gathered into sections, then folded.
Sections punched for sewing.
Starting the sewing onto linen tapes.
Sewing complete.
Text block trimmed, ready for adhesive & spine liners.
Gluing up the text block.
Checking fit of the boards.
Making the cloth-bound case (hardcover).
Case done, checking fit with text block.
Cover sheet next to case.
Me cutting the cover sheet to size.
Cutting the cover sheet – this is how it would normally be laid out for a conventional book.
Re-arranging the cover for this ‘backwards’ book.
Cover completed.
It’s a backwards book!
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Science Fiction
Remember how I said that I was “Tempted”?
Well, have a sneak peek at what I just finished:
It’s a backwards book!
I’ll have a full post, along with a lot of images of making the book, up later today or tomorrow.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction
First and foremost, allow me to extend best wishes to one and all for a great Thanksgiving (if you’re here in the US. Otherwise, have a great Thursday just ’cause.)
For long-time readers, you know the many twists & turns in my life over the last 5+ years, particularly those related to the ostensible reason this blog was started: to document and explore the process of getting Communion of Dreams published. And I want to tell you, and all the others who have joined us along this trek: thank-you for sticking with me. Communion of Dreams was downloaded something like 35,000 times in the earlier .pdf incarnation, and has been downloaded or purchased in paperback about 20,000 times this year in the current version. And I am grateful to everyone who contributed to make that a reality.
Last week I documented the latest amusing bit of the saga, how we wound up with printed sheets for a “backwards” book, which should have been the sheets for the limited edition handbound hardcover version.
Well, yesterday we got the corrected sheets. Here’s a shot:
Yay!
From initial checking, everything looks good to do the limited edition. And I want to mention that the printer did everything I could reasonably ask or expect to make right the initial mistake — which shouldn’t be unusual, but is all too often these days. So, thanks to the folks at PrintLynx for not only correcting the error, but doing so quickly and with zero hassle. I’ve used them for a decade or longer, and have every reason to continue to use them for the foreseeable future.
I have another big conservation job to focus on in the short term, but soon I hope to have some initial samples of what the handbound hardcover edition of Communion of Dreams will look like. And as for being ‘tempted‘, well, let’s just say that soon I also hope to have an interesting announcement to make. When life gives you lemons …
But for now, I want to again wish you and yours a great Thanksgiving. And to say that I am thankful for all my friends and fans, who have conspired to make this a wonderful year.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 