Bit by bit, putting it together
Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art
Every moment makes a contribution
Every little detail plays a part
Having just a vision's no solution
Everything depends on execution
Putting it together
That's what counts
- Stephen Sondheim
Let's delve into auxarczen's (pronounced ozark zen) process of putting a book together. We will use Our latest project as our example because it is fresh in our minds.
We received Matt's manuscript for what would become Western Swing in November. Our first step is always a thorough read through and then let it sit for a bit. Often Michael catches his vision of what the cover will look like about a third of the way into that first read and starts sketching ideas in his big red journal. Jennifer wants to feel the book and researches the era through music and movies. Since Matt's book is set in 1992, we were familiar with what the research would look like but did it anyway. It was a chance to revisit our not so recent history.
The next step with the majority of the manuscripts is editing. Matt has an incredible in-house editor in his wife Janine. We are inspired by their relationship because some of our biggest fights have been about our critiques of the others art. They have taught us to be less precious with our art and be open to each other’s refining of such. When a manuscript does require editing both Michael and Jennifer will work separately and then bring their ideas together and prepare a mock up with notes for the author on the revisions they feel are needed. With the three works we have published of Matt's we have had total creative control of the book including covers. So this is where our creative juices really begin to flow. What is our vision of the authors vision.
Michael wanted a long shot for the wrapped cover with the dividing lines on the spine. Mission accomplished. All the fonts we used in the design are inspired by highway graphics. In fact the page numbers are the actual font used on Utah's highway signs. The biggest challenge for Michael was color combinations, of which there were 20 plus. He wanted to stay with vibrant colors as a tip of the hat to the Route 66 signage that once dominated the landscape. Jennifer oversees the layout and design of the inside of the book. She bought in wholeheartedly to the road theme and wanted the chapter numbers to reflect highway sign numbers.
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When we started the press, we wrote down certain rules about our books, such as, no themed covers. In our hearts, we are rebels, so we break them. Occasionally a book just screams to be thematic and there is not much one can do about it; this is one such book. So, we went overboard with the road inspired theme.
The original idea for the cover was a large speed limit sign that would dominate most of the area, with the title replacing the speed limit text. Jennifer immediately thought of the area to shoot photographs. The road coming out of the gorge from Pilar was the perfect spot. In fact, Jennifer stood in one place and just had to pivot to capture all 7 of the images we used in the book.
One of the most interesting parts of publishing, for us, is seeing each author's process. Each one approaches their art differently, from how often they write, the time of day, the environment to the music that they listen to as they write. We delve into all of these questions in our meetings with the author. One of the topics we cover is how they arrived at their title, if they have. For us, design often springs from the title.
As stated, this is our third project with Matt McGowan, and he has always provided us with a list of possible titles to work with and also says or come up with your own. His list for this one included the following:
Missouri Runner
Outside, It’s America
Farther on Down the Road
Right Down the Line
Undiscovered Continent
All the News is Good
Our first choice was Outside, It's America. It might have been all the ninety’s movies that we had immersed ourselves in, because we pictured Harry Dean Stanton, in a bathrobe with a cup of coffee in his hand exclaiming this title loudly. That is a lovely image to sit with. But then Google screwed us over once we found out that the only person exclaiming anything was Bono, of course. (a bit of background, Michael thinks that Bono shows up in far too many music documentaries and frankly, too many places in life.) This was the title of a tour documentary that U2 had released. So, we ran from this title like it was Sunday Bloody Sunday through streets that had no name because we still hadn’t found what we were looking for.
Michael had started designing the cover. That was disrupted after the Google search. Then Matt and Michael began their favorite game, brainstorming titles or any idea. From this session we added to our list:
Best Western
Western State
Western Motif
Several Clicks West
Front Range
then we sort of settled on Long Way Home for a few days and took a breath.
We jumped back in with:
Map and Atlas
then Jennifer said, By Map and Atlas
getting close
Matt shot back with Western Swing
and our title was born.
Then Matt let us know that Janine Parry had come up with the title and the circle had completed itself.
The reason that it works so well is that it is a story about being on the road and the love that is found there. Western Swing sounds like the name of a motor court on Route 66 and indicates that the road we are on will be filled with all the obstacles that wild west entails. Love of the road, love of the friends you make along the way, and maybe the type of love the poets talk about. Grasping onto those blurry images from the road to investigate more closely.
Let's talk about proofreading...it is a constant. Something that we have discovered is that no matter how many people have proofread the manuscript on computers when you get the first proof you find tons of simple typing mistakes. So all hands are on deck for proofing.
When the author is satisfied with the editing and proofing process and is ready for their book to see the world we choose a publication date and start marketing. For Western Swing we wanted to entice readers with excerpts from the book. Matt divided the book into 7 sections for the seven areas that Ray the protagonist travels through. Jennifer took pictures of road signs that we used to break up the sections so we used those to make social media content.
As you can see, every project is a journey and another story unto itself. Creativity is the fuel, years of experience the oil, and the final product is hopefully a finely tuned engine. The intuition is to endlessly tinker, but at some point we let go and start accumulating mileage.
Now, for the ONLY closing music to this post..."Turn that sh*t up!"
's delve i
