Hardcover books: No Jacket Required
August 24th, 2009 by Nick Ciske
The New York Observer reports:
September will see the publication of three unusual-looking books: Farrar, Straus and Giroux’s No Impact Man by Colin Beavan, Viking’s Bicycle Diaries by former Talking Head David Byrne, and Graywolf’s The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliott. What makes these books so unusual-looking is that, even though they’re hardcovers, their cover art is not printed on dust jackets but instead stamped directly onto the boards that hug their pages. The result is a handsome, eye-catching look that reflects a heightened awareness on the part of publishers that books these days cannot be counted on to simply sell themselves.
…
Part of the reason for that blandness, intuitively, is the cost associated with doing anything fancier. “You’d be surprised how few options there are, unless you’ve got oodles of money to spend on color and texture for the paper that covers most of our books,” said FSG designer Charlotte Strick, who created the design for Mr. Beavan’s No Impact Man. “The manufacturers just don’t have a huge range of these things.”
The wager with jacketless books like the ones coming out this September is that the extra money spent will attract attention they might not get otherwise by enticing booksellers to display them prominently in their stores and causing readers to notice them when they’re browsing.
The New Thing: Books Without Jackets
Tip: The book jacket can be wrapped around and glued to the book itself (called a case wrap hardcover). This gives you the fidelity of a full color cover, and the convenience of never losing, damaging, or discarding the jacket. It’s also a lot cheaper than the cost of stamping directly on the boards. A creative cover designer should be able to create a case wrapped book that looks like it’s stamped onto the boards, if desired.
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Nick Ciske is the co-founder of Believers Press and has been developing web sites in various capacities for over ten years. After a five year stint at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association he ended up at Bethany Press International. Now a book geek, he helps Christians publish their books by creating new publishing solutions and partnerships.
If you’re going to be a religious novelist (and I’m not urging anybody) you’ve got to be honest not just about the times that glimmer with God’s presence but also about the times that are dark with His absence because, needless to say, you’ve had your dark times just like everybody else.
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