David Esslemont

Inside the Book

With over thirty years experience in making books Esslemont writes with authority, enthusiasm and a passion that aims to inspire and help you develop your idea into a finished book ready for publication.

Contents

Publishing checklist, The decision to publish, Author's questionnaire, Cast off, Costing, Pricing

Acquiring the text, Copy-editing, Proof-reading, Illustrations

Calligraphy, Printmaking, Letterpress, Letterpress from photopolymer plates, Digital

The computer, Scanners, Desktop printers, Software, Printing presses, Photopolymer plate-making machines

Choosing a paper, Identifying grain direction, Size, Weight, Colour, Texture, Printing process, Inkjet papers, Testing, Ink

Choosing a typeface, Hot metal, Digital, Online type stores

Readability, The whole book, Format

Typesetting, Style sheets, Kerning pairs, Line spacing, Hanging punctuation, Widows and orphans, Prelims and end matter, The title-page, Contents page, Chapter openings, Decoration, Page numbers

Sample pages

Layout, Imposition, Film making, The photopolymer process, Processing

The work space, Setting up the press, Imposition, Impression, The print run, Printing in colour

Sorting, folding and collating, DIY or commission a binder?, Boxes and slip cases

A marketing plan, Direct mail, The book fair, Reviews, The Internet, ISBN, The bookseller, Copyright libraries, Packing

Further reading & Internet resources

Illustrations

Pen and ink drawings, woodcuts from the Augsburg Calendar and Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, displayed type, pages from notebooks, colour printing and calligraphy.

Additional material is tipped-in and includes a Thomas Bewick wood engraving, a page showing comparative type widths and samples of an inkjet print and paste paper, and a facsimile of an envelope with ideas for Inside the Book.

Trial settings of title pages, chapter openings and text pages from Desmond Levista's biblio novel The Missing Pages, are used to demonstrate how the choice of typeface, and layout affect the appearance of the page. These exclusive extracts are contiguous and make entertaining reading.

Edition details
Written, designed and printed by David Esslemont.
Created using a G4 Mac and printed letterpress on a hand-fed Wharfedale cylinder press from photopolymer plates. Printed on acid-free mould-made Zerkall ENE IV 150gsm special making. Edition: 250 copies.

135pp, 255 x 170 mm (10 x 6 7/8 inches).

Binding
230 copies in full oatmeal Recordleinen cloth, with calligraphic title in black on the spine and front cover, with a cloth-covered slipcase. Bound by Esslemont and, The Fine Bindery. £200/$300

**Only half the edition was bound as planned and unbound sets of sheets are still available. Price: $160.**

10 copies in a special binding by David Esslemont: hand-sewn on linen tapes with hand-sewn headbands, leather jointed endpapers, and bound in full white alum-tawed goatskin with a design in colour created with acrylic inks, gold tooling. Housed in a felt-lined cloth-covered drop-back box. – Out of print

10 copies unbound in sheets. – Out of print.

Published in 2002

Inside the Book ordinary binding

Inside the Book ordinary binding
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book pp 4-5

Inside the Book pp 4-5
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book pp 12-3

Inside the Book pp 12-3
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book pp 24-5

Inside the Book pp 24-5
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book pp 28-9

Inside the Book pp 28-9
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book pp 72-3

Inside the Book pp 72–3
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book pp 118-9

Inside the Book pp 118-9
255 x 170 mm (10 x 6.75 inches)

Inside the Book special binding

Inside the Book special binding
Hand-sewn on linen tapes with hand-sewn headbands, leather jointed endpapers, and bound in full white alum-tawed goatskin with a design in colour created with acrylic inks, gold tooling. Housed in a felt-lined cloth-covered drop-back box.