Knife Children goes print-on-demand
The fruit of several months of work with my Spectrum book wrangler -- wow do I ever have more respect for book designers and design now. So many fiddly decisions, so many maddening weird glitches in formatting programs, so many compromises between perfect and good. (As in, "The perfect is the enemy of the good." One could equally substitute "finished" for "good".)
Now available to order through your favorite bricks & mortar bookstore from Ingram's book distribution with this ISBN number: ISBN 978-1-62578-161-1
Also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPGCBQN8
Many thanks to artist Ryan Pancoast for the reuse of his very painterly wrap cover image. https://www.ryanpancoast.com/
Among the many puzzles and decisions was print size, which turns out to be very hard to judge from a file on a computer screen, even a pdf. I wanted something just a bit larger than the Subterranean collector's edition (now sold out), because my eyes. Choices in the formatting program gave bracketing options. After much back-and-forthing, I decided to go with the larger option, reasoning that folks who could read small print could also read large, but not vice versa.
Another decision was whether to go with whole words only, or hyphenated line breaks. The first gave a number of weird stretched-out lines, distracting to the eye, the second gave a more pleasing spacing but cost a few weird syllable breaks that could not be hand-corrected. As with so much of this, it was a personal coin toss.
Anyway. For all who wanted a reasonably priced paper version of this story, or missed their chance with SubPress, here ya go. (And just in time for the holidays, I must observe.)
As always, if you order through Uncle Hugo's or Dreamhaven, you can also get your copies signed.
Enjoy!
L.
Now available to order through your favorite bricks & mortar bookstore from Ingram's book distribution with this ISBN number: ISBN 978-1-62578-161-1
Also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPGCBQN8
Many thanks to artist Ryan Pancoast for the reuse of his very painterly wrap cover image. https://www.ryanpancoast.com/
Among the many puzzles and decisions was print size, which turns out to be very hard to judge from a file on a computer screen, even a pdf. I wanted something just a bit larger than the Subterranean collector's edition (now sold out), because my eyes. Choices in the formatting program gave bracketing options. After much back-and-forthing, I decided to go with the larger option, reasoning that folks who could read small print could also read large, but not vice versa.
Another decision was whether to go with whole words only, or hyphenated line breaks. The first gave a number of weird stretched-out lines, distracting to the eye, the second gave a more pleasing spacing but cost a few weird syllable breaks that could not be hand-corrected. As with so much of this, it was a personal coin toss.
Anyway. For all who wanted a reasonably priced paper version of this story, or missed their chance with SubPress, here ya go. (And just in time for the holidays, I must observe.)
As always, if you order through Uncle Hugo's or Dreamhaven, you can also get your copies signed.
Enjoy!
L.
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message 1:
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Jerri
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Dec 10, 2022 04:43AM
Many thanks for your efforts to make this happen.
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As a long-time fan around your age, I applaud your reasoning about the font size!The reasoning is what I have always used (as a now-retired professional librarian), too.
I'm so glad it's still got Pancoast's cover, what a beautiful painting.
Jerri wrote: "My copy has been shipped!"Do let us know how it looks/feels, when it arrives.
Ta, L.
Lois said: Do let us know how it looks/feels, when it arrives.*I will do so, delivery estimate says it should get here by the 21st of December.
But holiday package load might impact this.
It arrived earlier than they predicted! And I must say, it is a pretty looking book. I like the print size, easy to read. And the inside margin is large enough that I can read it without breaking the spine (some books, and not only print on demand ones, have such small inside margins that to be able to see the words printed close to the spine one has to open the book so widely that it damages the spine and this tends to shorten the life of the book.) I obviously haven't had time to read the entire book through to look for typos or glitches in printing, but I am delighted with it so far. Probably the major potential issue is will the entity that does the cataloging for the tiny public library where I work be willing to catalog this book. They can be fussy about books published outside the normal US publisher system. I buy the ebooks and audiobooks for myself and then "dead tree" books to donate to the library to allow others to discover the joys of your works. The fact that I have had to replace several of them because someone who checked them out didn't return them is a testimony to their popularity. Thank you for arranging for the publication of this affordable and lovely book.
Jerri wrote: "It arrived earlier than they predicted! And I must say, it is a pretty looking book. I like the print size, easy to read. And the inside margin is large enough that I can read it without breaking t..."Ah thanks, a very reassuring report! My own test copy is supposed to arrive tomorrow, snow permitting.
Doubtful libraries can probably be directed to the Subterranean Press edition for supporting reviews, etc. It had a couple of good high-end ones, as I recall.
Ta, L.
I agree with you about the small inside margins! I've broken more spines than I care to remember trying to read al the words.
FYI - my library system did agree to catalog the print on demand edition of Knife Children and it is currently on display with the new books. I am glad to let library users have access to this enjoyable and thought provoking continuation to the Sharing Knife series.
