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This newsletter is a result of Impact's collective years of experience in publication services helping corporate clients develop effective, creative communication tools. Please feel free to forward this email to others within your organization. Getting Published, Issue 1How is a Book Put Together, Anyway? -Book Binding By Dave Gillaspie President, Impact Productions 847/530-3214 • http://www.impact.ws You’ve spent countless hours pouring your heart into it. You feel as though you’ve given birth. Indeed, it has a life of its own – life that you have breathed into it. It’s fragile in its infant state. You want to do what’s best for it to bring it to full maturity. It’s your manuscript. It could be that novel you’ve spent every weekend working on for the past ten years or it might be something more mundane, like a user manual for the software your company produces. Whether it was a labor of love or duty… … it is now your job to get it published. The first step is to find a good production typesetter. (I’d be glad to make a recommendation if you don’t know one.) My years in production typesetting (which pre-date the desktop computer) have taught me things that will make your manuscript flow through the typesetting process quickly and efficiently. These tips will save production time which translates into cost savings for you. Before we get into the publishing process, it will be helpful to have a basic understanding of how books are put together. “Why can’t I add one page?” I’ve heard that question several times. You have to understand that a “page” is one side of a sheet of paper. So, by adding one page you are adding two pages at the very least. Even adding only two pages isn’t always practical either. It all depends on the way your book is put together – how it is bound. There are several ways to bind a book. Understanding how your book is to be bound will help you know how to set it up. Spiral Binding The simplest form of binding is spiral binding. Spiral binding is normally used when you need to produce small quantities. Most insti-printers can do it while you wait. However, it can be used on larger publications as well. For spiral binding, a series of holes is punched along the edge of the pages and a piece of spiral plastic is laced through the holes to hold the pages together. There are several styles of hole punches and plastic binders, but they all work on the same principle. The main advantage of spiral binding is that your book lays flat when it is open, making it ideal for workbooks or sales presentations. Saddle Stitching The binding process of folding a group of paper in half and stapling it together in the fold is called saddle stitching. Saddle stitching is a good choice for publications with page counts of 8 – 248 (depending on the thickness of the paper). It is commonly used for small booklets and pamphlets. It is an economical solution that delivers professional looking results. The fact that it can’t handle large page counts is its greatest limitation. Perfect Binding You’ve heard books referred to as “paperback.” This usually means the book is perfect bound. Perfect binding starts out as a collection of smaller groups of pages folded together in a method similar to saddle stitching. These groups of pages are called “signatures.” The number of pages in a signature is determined by the printing press being used to print your book. Signatures can be any multiple of 4. Typical signature page counts are 8, 16, 24, 32, and 64. These signatures are collected together, then the binding edge is ground off and glued to the cover. This is where adding a single page gets messy. If the press you are using produces 8 page signatures and your finished typeset book has only 36 pages, your page count is perfect (8x4=36). However, if you want to add one more page, the printer will need to add 8 pages! A good publication typesetter can help you hit the right page count to optimize the signature pages in your book. Case binding Case binding is commonly called “hard cover.” It starts out very similar to perfect binding by using signatures. In case binding the signatures are typically sewn together with thread and glued to another sheet of material that is also glued to the cover boards. The greatest advantage of case binding is its durability and elegant appearance. It is the Cadillac of binding processes. Case binding can take more time to produce, and is typically more costly than other binding processes but nothing says quality like case binding. Next Issue With the advent of word processors and desktop publishing there are things you can do while typing your manuscript that will streamline the typesetting process, thereby saving you time and money. In the next issue we will look at some of those tips. What can we do to help you? Just email me at dave@impact.ws or call 847/530-3214. Topics Privacy Reprint
Permission Impact
Productions Want
to look good? Dave Gillaspie |
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