I'd been kicking around this idea of starting a micro press for a little while when I spied this book The exact right book for the exact right moment.
I'd been kicking around this idea of starting a micro press for a little while when I spied this book at the store -- a little stack left for me by fate with this book and The Clothing of Books. I couldn't ignore such a sign so of course I bought them both.
I did worry a bit that I'd made a poor choice. Calasso spends a lot of time name-checking Italian and Austrian authors and publishers, and detailing the scene of publishing in Europe. So many names went by that I was utterly unfamiliar with. But to say it was worth wading through all that would be a colossal understatement.
So many thoughts here about the role of a publisher, as opposed to an editor. About the nature of a series or a collection. About the importance of a publisher's voice. About cover designs and blurbs. About relationships between publishers and authors, publishers and readers. About halfway through I had to go grab a set of pencils and start marking my copy up, something I do very rarely - a book has to make a significant impression on me to overcome my reticence to deface a book.
The whole thing, in combination with Simon & Schuster's Milo debacle, has given me a major attitude about publishing -- and the major houses that "seem to be like formless stockpiles where you can find everything, with a particular emphasis on the worst." Not only has this strengthened my resolve to start my tiny press, but I have also resolved to buy no more books from the big five this year -- to seek out independents, micro presses, university presses, and the like, instead. (This shall also curb my impulse buying, I'm sure.)
I'll close with one more quote from the book:
Today, in fact, more than ever before, one of the prime objectives of publishing could be to shift the line determining what is publishable, and include as feasible a lot of what currently lies outside that line.
On a trip to the bookstore to finish up some Christmas shopping, I found this book and a book on publishing in a tiny stack on a featured table, clearOn a trip to the bookstore to finish up some Christmas shopping, I found this book and a book on publishing in a tiny stack on a featured table, clearly abandoned there. Given how much time I'd spent obsessing over starting my own micro press recently, it felt like fate, so I immediately picked them up to buy them.
This book is adapted from a speech that Lahiri gave in Italy at a festival. It mostly ends up very personal -- about how she feels about the covers of her books, but there were some interesting thoughts here. Particularly what it means for a book to be part of an edited series, and how the covers of such a series communicate that. As an micro press is, essentially, a series, I appreciated her thoughts here.
I do think that I should read more on book design, from the designer's or the publisher's perspective. I'm glad I found this one to start me on my way. ...more