13/05/06

Everyman Production Values

From today’s Guardian, a feature on Everyman Classics
. And on the book as object,

The book as a material artefact is of crucial importance to Campbell’s vision. “I strongly feel,” he says, “that British publishers used to be the best book-makers in the world. You think of the private press books of a century ago, such as those produced by the Nonsuch Press. Nowadays, the average modern hardback in Britain is a fairly unpleasant object. It’s glued, not sewn, its covers are cardboard, not cloth, and British publishers seem to have lost any interest or control over typographic design. Yet these things can cost £25.” Campbell attributes this to “bigger and bigger conglomerations and accountants having more and more power”. There are very few publishers in the UK today who take a hands-on approach to book production, and Campbell prides himself on the fact that, in the early days of Everyman, he used to check up on the printers, and would sometimes ask them to reprint an entire book if he didn’t like the inking.

Today, for reasons of quality and cost, Everymans are printed in Germany and typeset in Pondicherry in India. A small number of poetry books are still typeset in Yeovil, in Somerset, which has a tradition going back to the 18th century. Keeping costs down and quality up has been crucial for Campbell; he knew from the start that “we had to be within spitting distance of paperback prices to succeed”. Though no longer in the flat above Berwick Street market in Soho – the more commodious offices are now in Farringdon – Everyman still runs on a tiny staff and overheads are low.

This lead me to the Random House USA website. Which is OK. Nice brand architecture, nasty javascript and shopping, and still hate the Knopf microsite even if it does have RSS.

Posted by Peter Collingridge in Design, Publishing.

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