Crash Course Again Hits Target

May 26, 2005, Grosvenor Hotel, South San Francisco.

On topic, all day, all attendees satisfied: That's the aim of every intensive seminar, or ought to be. This year's Bookbuilders West Crash Course in Book Production Basics hit the bull's eye, once again exceeding everyone's expectations.

A filled conference room at South SF's Grosvenor Hotel was the venue, where participants paid rapt attention from start to finish, even as subjects got down to pica-level points. Attendees had come seeking an update on rapidly changing book arts and technologies, and by lunchtime many felt they'd gotten more than their money's worth. Yet everyone gladly continued, with still so much to learn.

The speakers were all experts in their fields and covered everything from editing to composing pages, digital prepress and paper to final printing. Their task was to cover their specialty and its latest wrinkles in less than an hour and answer questions from the sixty or so attendees. These included editors, graphic artists, publishers' reps, and others with broad interests in the field.

First on the program, editor Zipporah ("Zippy") Collins shared tips from more than thirty years' experience. Production editing, she stated, requires great attention to detail, thorough knowledge of all the tasks others will perform in the book-building process, ability to handle stress and build team cohesion, common sense, and, above all, a sense of humor. In addition to these, copyediting requires a keen eye and ear for smooth phrasing and authentic voice, tone, and style, and a gentle approach in suggesting changes. Keeping everything "felicitous" while working together to make a book the best it can be was her fundamental guideline for success.

Leigh McLellan, book designer and illustrator since the days of hot metal, illuminated book design and composition: the art of selecting fonts, allotting space, and shaping text so that it is easy to read and appealing to its market. Consistency and harmony are key to good design, according to Leigh, who considers her job, above all, to "make everything focusable and as if it's been done purposefully." Sharing a sample publisher's design memo, she explained how knowledge of the audience, along with the structural requirements and elements of the text, influence design decisions.

Ken Heraty, sales representative from Anthology, discussed prepress. This aspect of the book production process changes most quickly, owing to continuing improvements in printing software technology. Ken's PowerPoint presentation and handout clarified the complexities of page layout programs, photo file types, color separation and conversion programs, resolution, scaling, ink density, and dot gain. His advice? Make changes as early as possible, because by the time files get to prepress, any change is costly.

Mary Lou Goforth, senior account executive for Banta and former President and longtime volunteer for BBW, shared reams of information about paper, encouraging the audience to always "explore your paper options." The right paper choices can make a great difference in product quality and appearance, readability, and cost. Mary Lou showed samples of paper made by chemical and mechanical pulp processing and described how various paper components such as starch, styrene butadiene, clay, calcium carbonate, and titanium dioxide affect a paper's tactile finish, color, opacity, and brightness.

Bill Ralph, sales representative for Malloy, finished the program with a warp speed tour of a modern lithographic press. Digital advances in the 1980s and recent advances in electronic publishing make book production faster than ever. Many functions, such as collating signatures, for example, are now aided by machines and software that do the sorting and tracking. These advances make publishing faster and easier, but also much more complex.

At day's end, there was a collective "Whew!" as everyone realized how much had been covered. Ramona Beville, President of BBW, presented Casi Kostecki with a beautiful bouquet in appreciation for once again providing outstanding coordination of the program once again. Thanks to Casi's skillful moderating (not an easy task, given the audience's diverse interests and the speakers' depth of expertise), the fast-paced course finished right on schedule. everything from registration to the distribution of certificates of completion rolled as smoothly as coated or calendered stock--both of which, as attendees now know, are very smooth indeed.

Pam Elder (pelder@heuristix.com) is an educational writer and
e-learning consultant