Have you got a favourite book? Not necessarily the topic, although that's important too, but the actual physical object. A book that you thought, "Yes, this is exactly how a book should be." Perhaps you even have a small collection of books that are differently perfect. (Please share pictures with me if you are in this lucky situation!)
There were a few books we used as inspiration for the chapbook I'm putting together now.
The first was Notes on Printing and Publishing Literary Books by Andrew Steeves. The second, A Daibo Coffee Manual, was more of an affirmation that we were headed in the right direction. Both have nearly identical dimensions in the hand, nearly identical margins and width for the text block. They differ in their binding and text treatment.
 and yet, a familiarity. |
(Using books as inspiration for making books is nothing new. In fact, Andrew talks about it openly as part journey as a literary publisher.)
Shortly, I will be starting a new series on Instagram about the pollen record of Dartmoor (the topic of our new chapbook!). If you're interested, but you prefer email to getting sucked into doomscrolling, you can subscribe to receive these updates as a special edition to our regular newsletter.