Books That Beg for Attention

Competition in the book market is often fierce, and many book designers opt for foil, metallic, UV coating, or new or unusual substrates to set their titles apart and attract consumers. The challenges in committing to such innovative techniques are often difficulty, cost and production deadlines—using alternative materials can be more expensive, more complex to produce and more time-consuming.

What it often comes down to is: Will the potential added time and expense translate into additional sales for this specific title?

Some considerations publishers have to weigh before adding extras are the prestige of the author or project, the quality of the project and whether the treatment is worth the added cost. In order to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the production processes of books created using unusual and attention-getting tactics, BookTech Magazine selected two particularly innovative (and effective) examples—one of which won an award for its cover design in the 2004 Annual Gold Ink Awards (BookTech Magazine September/October 2004).

Following a Pattern

Title: "The Hand That Paints the Sky"

Publisher: New Leaf Press

Designed by: Left Coast Design

A title like "The Hand That Paints the Sky" seems to just beckon for a bit of magic on its cover. The book—the third in a series of books that meld majestic natural photography and artwork—was manufactured using a printed end sheet, a gold foil and emboss for the title, and a matte film with a spot UV to add a bit of extra pop to the cover. These printing applications and materials were also used by publisher New Leaf Press on the first two books in the series. Left Coast designers fought for the splashy cover design for the first book in the series, "The Wonder Of It All," published in 2001, arguing that it would add cachet to the series and was worth the added cost.