Productions Notes: August 17, 2018

The 2018 edition of Best Canadian Stories is well under way. And though I must confess I have not had a chance to read it yet, I am really looking forward to this one. Russell Smith’s selection has me quite intrigued with stories from a number of authors I admire including Lynn Coady, Kathy Page, Bill Gaston, and Liz Harmer (whose excellent debut novel The Amateurs I recently finished reading); and some authors whose work I am really looking forward to checking out: Tom Thor Buchanan, Michael LaPointe, and Stephen Marche.

Trade Paper $19.95
Hardcover $29.95
eBook $9.99

While I was away for a week in the sun in Oscoda, Michigan, a couple new books arrived at Biblioasis. And on my return a couple more did as well.

New Arrivals at the Press:
Catherine Leroux’s Madame Victoria,
Kathy Page’s Dear Evelyn,
C.P. Boyko’s The Children’s War,
and Mike Barnes’ Be With

Our most recent stock

It also looks like I was replaced by a new production manager in my absence. Hope the new guy is up to the challenge.

The Production Manager

Production Notes: July 20, 2018

New arrivals at the press:

Final copies of CNQ 102 and Original Prin arrived from the printer this week. Both turned out really well.

The latest CNQ: The Genre Issue (#102)

Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda

The epitome of production (left) and publicity (right).

We also finished up on transcription of the stories for John Metcalf’s forthcoming Finding Again the World. For some of the reSet books we do not have access to digital files. So in order to get files we need to cut the spines off of out-of-print books that contain the stories, scan the pages, and convert them back into text files. Finally, we need to read them line by line, comparing to the original pages to make sure that the new files still read properly.

Out-of-print books cut and ready for scanning.

Otherwise, production has largely been focused on this year’s edition of the Christmas Ghost Stories. Like CNQ covers, the art for these stories come in the form of hand-drawn images form Seth, which need to be scanned in, cleaned up and placed into the stories. Here is a sneak peek at a few of the images from the 2018 Ghost Stories.

 

 

Productions Notes: June 22, 2018

  • Class Clown by Pino Collucio won the Trilliam last night! No wonder the judges were drawn to this book with such a lovely cover that pairs so well with Pino’s witty poetry, designed by our own Ellie Hastings.
  • I have also been working on typesetting K.D. Miller’s Late Breaking. What is most important when I typeset a book is for my typography to quietly supplement the text.  To make the actual typesetting as unobtrusive as possible to allow the author, not the design to do all the talking. Robert Bringhurst said it best: “typography should be richly and superbly ordinary, so that attention is drawn to the quality of the composition.”
    Another consideration is previous books. I like when the design of books by the same author is similar—as long as the setting suits the tone of each book. So to get going on this one I looked back to the interior design of All Saints. So far it is coming together well.
  • As we have finally settled on a name for Patrick Brode’s new book, I got started on some cover designs. The title is: Dying for a Drink: How A Prohibition Preacher Got Away With MurderHere are a handful of the cover designs I came up with as possible directions for the book.
           

Production Notes: June 15, 2018

  • It is always both exciting and terrifying when boxes arrive from the printer. Opening a box always begins with an apprehensive inspection for errors—from the printer, from us, from the shipper—which is normally followed by a sigh of relief and finally the excitement at just how good the final product looks. Such was the case this week when we got a couple batches of advance copies for Original Prin and Be With. Both ended up looking fantastic!

  • Now available in bookstores near you: Alison Moore’s The Pre-War House! The MUST READ story in this collection is “Sometimes You Think You Are Alone.” This story is super creepy and without giving anything away, maybe not as obvious as I thought it was when I started reading it. The brilliant Zoe Norvell’s grungy cover suits perfectly the tone of this and other stories in the collection.

    Trade Paper $19.95
    eBook $9.99

  • The final installments of door signs (I’m sure we can find more doors, actually) went up this week:

    Biblioasis’ office door, featuring our neighbours.

    The Mail Room

    My Production Assistant

    The Publisher’s Office

Production Notes: June 8, 2018

  • The Children’s War has arrived on my desk finalized and ready to go into production and we are getting an Advance Copy underway. I know I wrote about this book a couple weeks ago but Boyko is a genius and you need to read this as soon as we get it out there!
  • The inexhaustible Ellie, has come up with some new t-shirt designs and they should be available by the end of the month, check ’em out!
  • We are still getting settled at the new office, but we are finally getting some décor up to make it feel more like home:

    The gateway to Biblioasis Production

    The entry to Regional History

     

    Publicity . . .

    . . . and Marketing Central

    Operations Headquarters

Production Notes: June 1, 2018

  • Original Prin cover has landed.  Personally I have to say this one has exceeded my expectations. Michel Vrana really knocked it out of the park. Send along your thoughts in the comments.

Trade Paper $19.95
eBook $9.99

  • Robert Earl Stewart has sent in the final manuscript for The Running-Shaped HoleI’ve started typesetting it for Advance Reading Copies. Sometimes when I am typesetting a book I get drawn into the stories and find myself reading chunks of the book. This is one such book that I am looking forward to bringing home to finish reading.

 

  • Work on the next CNQ is still ongoing. The back cover has come together quite well:

    The back cover of CNQ #102.

Did you know that the cover makes an excellent mask?

Production Notes: May 25, 2018

  • Dear Evelyn has been typeset and is heading to the printer soon. For this one I chose a classic Garamond type with Garamond Premier pro display for the titles, page numbers and headers. This font pairs nicely with the elegant prose of Kathy Page’s tender love story.

    A spread of Kathy Page’s newest book, Dear Evelyn.

She is also working on some other merchandising ideas for the press and shop so keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks.

 

  • Perhaps the best part of my job is working with Seth on the Ghost Stories and CNQ Covers. The new CNQ 102 cover art arrived this week and I have been busy cleaning up and combining all the elements.

Seth’s original drawings.

 

Converted to all black line art.

 

Layered and coloured to Seth’s specifications..

 

Production Notes: May 18, 2018

Happy long weekend everyone! I’m about to head to the Pinery for four days of camping, but here’s what is going on at Biblioasis this week:

  • CNQ 102 is getting well under way. The genre issue is staring to look pretty exciting as I typeset the pieces. A number of writers tell of their first monsters, sitting alongside pieces on Bruce Lee, Indigenous Sci-Fi, and Jay Stevens’ STUNNING comic adaption of an excerpt from Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. You don’t want to miss it.
  • This week I am skipping ahead of announced books to let you know about something coming down the pipeline: Le Plongeur by Stéphane Larue. This is a book about a metalhead artist with a gambling problem who ends up working as a dishwasher. As both a metalhead and ex-kitchen worker, I have to say Larue gets it.
  • Finally, my niece was visiting the office, but left Mickey behind, so naturally we put him to work:

First we took him to the board room for some training and instruction.

 

Then he made galleys…

 

…but of course the printer jammed.

 

So we sent him to storage to get some books.

 

Even imaginary workers get breaks, and they use them to read our own books!

 

Last job for the day: helping catch up on  Against Amazon chapbook binding—with a glass of whisky

 

And at the end of the day, he enjoyed a relaxing drink.

 

MICKEY MOUSE IS WATCHING YOU.

Productions Notes: May 11, 2018

Hey everyone,

  • Welcome to Production Notes, a weekly roundup of what is going on in the Biblioasis production office. Speaking of… check out our space!
     

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