No 10 - Before & After

Occasionally I will feature local book covers that really need a makeover. These two books will start off this series.

This short article is not meant to say that the featured covers are wrong but to emphasise that with a little more effort, we can improve the look of our books - making them more attractive that commensurate with the books' good content.

Book 1 - Islamic Law Volume 2 - Zakaat




















Before: Clipart is being used for the image. I always believe that cliparts are for powerpoint presentation for a primary school project. Text layout and font choice is conservative.




















After: An appropriate image is selected. You can get these images from royalty-free image database. The book's title is made prominent. Fonts chosen compliments each other.

Book 2 - Islamic Law Volume 4: The Hajj




















Before: I presumed that the above is for a series. The title is a dead give away but the books' design did not give the impression that they are from the same series.




















After: If books belong to the same series, it is best that designs complement each other.

No 9 - Book Quotes

No 8 - Malay Children’s Literature

Malay Children’s Literature

Children’s preference and tastes in choosing what to read has become more sophisticated. Local Malay writers and publishers need to acknowledge this fact and only then can they find ways to attract our children to read Malay and Muslim publications. Not only are Malay publishers up against electronic media and video games producers (which are making aggressive drive to encourage children to buy and engage their products) but also better quality and more creative English publications both local and international.

International book publishers have anticipated this challenge to their industry from the electronic media and had no alternative but to improve on the quality and creativity of their products. That strategy paid off and they have managed to sustain readership especially among children.

From that perspective, the challenge facing local Malay writers and publishers is finding ways to lure Malay readers back to read and appreciate Malay literature and they can only do that by emulating the strategy adopted by international publishers, that is, to start producing better quality and creative publications.

As quoted by Assoc Prof Hadijah Rahmat (Assistant Head, Malay Division, Asian Languages and Cultures, NIE, NTU)

“It is imperative that a quality programme be instated to streamline the writing and development of Malay children’s books that can generate knowledge potential, creativity and at the same time produce literary talents. This will help to create an ideal environment towards the appreciation of Malay children’s literature.”

You can read the full article below:

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/rencana/story/0,3617,85659,00.html?

No 7 - Dot, Dot, Dot ...

Ellipsis Marks

The rendering of this punctuation mark is often incorrect. Analogously, in printing and writing, the term refers to the row of three dots (or four – the fourth one being the period if the ellipsis appear at the end of a sentence), not two or five or twelve!

. . .

The use of ellipses can either mislead or clarify. Ellipsis (plural: ellipses is Greek for omission) in linguistics refers to any omitted part of speech that is understood; i.e. the omission is intentional. This punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot.

Acronyms, Initialisms, and Alphabetisms

Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are abbreviations, such as NATO, laser, ABC, and WTO written as the initial letter or letters of words, and pronounced on the basis of this abbreviated written form.

Note that all acronyms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are acronyms.

Acronyms can appear with or without periods but the most common mistakes will be the omission of period for the last initial of an acronym for example:

W.T.O

instead of

W.T.O.

Try and look out for these flaws the next time you read newspapers, magazines ... .

The Straits Times, Saturday, November 25, 2006

A stylish name for a private housing estate - the Quintet, a classy full page/colour newspaper ad but terribly needing the service of an editor. Can you spot the error?

No 6 - Wiley Buys Over Blackwell

John Wiley & Sons Inc. has agreed to buy London-based academic journal and book publisher Blackwell Publishing Holdings Ltd. for $1.08 billion in cash and debt.

The decision by the Oxford-based academic publisher to sell itself will also put an end to the ongoing internal strife within the Blackwell family, which have hindered previous attempts to sell off the business in the recent past.

Blackwell’s which traces its history back to a small bookshop opened in 1879 in Oxford, is one of Britain’s biggest and best-known privately-held businesses. Although Blackwell Publishing is a separate company from the Blackwell bookshop chain, Blackwell family members serve on both company boards.

The publishing business has in recent years outperformed the bookshops chain, which has struggled against the growing use of the internet as a research tool and the competition from internet booksellers such as Amazon.

For Wiley, which publishes scientific, technical and medical journals, encyclopaedias and online products, the deal transform it into the second largest scientific publisher after Reed Elsevier.

The transaction is expected to be completed by early 2007.

About John Wiley & Sons Inc.

John Wiley was founded in 1807 and in the early years was best known for the works of Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and other 19th century American literary giants. By the turn of the century, Wiley has established itself as one of the leading publisher of scientific and technical information. It has 3,500 employees worldwide, with operations in the United States, Europe (England, Germany and Russia), Canada, Australia and Singapore.

About Blackwell Publishing

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society publisher, partnering with 665 academic, medical, and professional societies. Blackwell publishes 805 journals and, to date, has over 6,000 books in print. The company has over 1,000 staff members in offices in the US, UK, Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Singapore.

No 5 - Font Talk: Copperplate Gothic

FONT TALK

Copperplate Gothic

Copperplate Gothic is a typeface designed by Frederic W. Goudy and released by the American Type Founders (ATF) in 1901. While termed a "Gothic" (a metonym for sans-serif), the face has small glyphic serifs that act to empahsize the blunt terminus of vertical and horizontal strokes. The typeface shows an unusual combination of influences: the glyphs are reminiscent of stone carving, the wide horizontal axis is typical of Victorian display types, yet the result is far cleaner and leaves a crisp impression in letterpress or offset printing.

The typeface is most often used in stationery, for social printing, and is classicaly seen acid-etched into glass on the doors of law offices and banks.

The font was used by r media for Darul Andalus logo and later it was used by Berita Harian for its masthead.

References

• Blackwell, Lewis. 20th Century Type. Yale University Press: 2004. ISBN 0-300-10073-6.
• Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
• Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983. ISBN 0-7137-1347-X.
• Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

No 4 - Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2006

Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2006

The Nestlé Children’s Book Prize is one of UK’s biggest and longest-running awards of its type, the Prize celebrates the very best in children’s literature and every year involves over 55,000 children in choosing the nation’s favourite children’s books! It has helped launch the career of many of today’s top children’s writers, including JK Rowling and Jacqueline Wilson.

The chair of judges, journalist Julia Eccleshare commented: “The judging panel have produced a superb shortlist from an exceptional field of submissions. The nine books chosen have one thing in common: the ability to draw the reader into a different world through the use of drama, humour, believable characters, and, in the case of the picture books, wonderful illustrations. They showcase the very best in children’s literature today”.

The shortlist now goes to the toughest critics of all, the children’s judging panel. Over 100 schools will take part in the judging process to decide the winners, who will be announced on December 13th at a ceremony at the British Library. Last year around 4,500 school-children were involved in choosing the winning books.

The Nestlé Children’s Book Prize is sponsored by Nestlé UK Ltd, one of the UK’s largest food and beverage manufacturers, and a major supporter of charities helping children and teenagers. The prize is administered by Booktrust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading.

Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Shortlist 2006

9-11 age category

The Diamond of Drury Lane: Julia Golding (Egmont Press)

The Tide Knot: Helen Dunmore (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

The Pig Who Saved the World: Paul Shipton (Puffin)

6-8 age category

Hugo Pepper: Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell (Doubleday)

Mouse Noses on Toast: Daren King – illustrated by David Roberts (Faber and Faber)

The Adventures of The Dish and The Spoon: Mini Grey (Jonathan Cape)

5 & under age category

Wibbly Pig’s Silly Big Bear: Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children’s Books)

The Emperor of Absurdia: Chris Riddell (Macmillan Children’s Books)

That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown: Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton (Orchard Books)

And the winners are:

2006 gold medal winners

9 to 11 years category
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding (Egmont)

6 to 8 years category
Mouse Noses on Toast by Daren King, illustrated by David Roberts (Faber Children's Books)

5 years and under category
That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton (Orchard Books)

No 3 - 13-digit ISBN and New Online Book Marketing

Publishing Update

The 10-digit ISBN giving way to a 13-digit one as required by the industry as of 2007.

To get ISBN-13 from ISBN-10, you use this online tool:

http://pcn.loc.gov/isbncnvt.html

(remember to select the option to add in hyphens)

Book Marketing

New avenue for online book sale:

http://search.express.ebay.com/Books__W0QQ_srcZ1

This is an Amazon-style website for publishers to sell their books online. Read the
overview for more details:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/announcement/overview/express.html

No 2 - Cover vs Content

Cover vs Content

A good read - where publishing is concern. It is an interview of Paul Buckley, an expert in book cover design - a veteran art director of one of the largest book publishers in the world, Penguin Group.

He said,

"No matter what you’re selling - a product, an idea or a skill - the presentation is just as important as the thing itself. Your customers will only do so much research (if at all) when purchasing your product, and when presented with similar choices, they will choose the one they feel most comfortable with. And that decision is most likely based on the packaging. Nothing illustrates this better than the experience of shopping for new books: before we even bother to read the description on the back of a book we have never heard of, we need to first notice the book and have enough desire to pick it up. And that decision is based on the book’s cover."

Click on the links below to read more ...

http://hearhear.us/articles/2006/07/12/an-interview-with-paul-buckley-part-one
http://hearhear.us/articles/2006/07/20/an-interview-with-paul-buckley-part-two

No 1 - What Future Books?

What Future Books?

Do not be too alarmed with the coming of the new media like blogs, podcasting, rss. Of course there will be an impact but it will not make books obsolete entirely.

But academic publishing is definitely changing rapidly. Resource materials like dictionaries, encyclopaedias and technical manuals will definitely go the electronic way because they are too heavy and expensive to publish. At the same time, libraries are running out of space to store the many volumes. Academics are finding it easier to rely on e-resources as they can get information that they need almost immediately - via on-line (pay-per-view, on-line subscription, one-time access ...).

General reading books especially children's books are as popular as ever. Click on the link below and in the downloaded page click on the pdf file: The latest children's supplement, published by The Bookseller, 17th March:

http://www.thebookseller.com/?pid=13

We see a multiplicity of media in future, rather than one medium replacing another. If you look at the history of media in general, when a new medium comes along, it does not usually replace an earlier one; it just adds to it. Books came first, then radio, cinema, video and computing. None of these things has replaced the book. Even the introduction of the CD-Rom (predicted to mark the end of books in the 1990s) audio and e-books have not been able to replace the printed books or media in general (like newspaper, magazines). These new media only enriches choice for the customer and that’s good news.

Publishers should make use of this new media to enhance the sale of their books.

Blogs: Publishers in the west are already making use of blogs to create book community (like a virtual book club). These blogs discuss books.

Examples of blogs on Malay books:

http://kakibuku.blogdrive.com/

http://buku.blogdrive.com/

RSS (Rich Site Summary) – can send info on upcoming books to your website’s subscribers.

Podcasting: the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Pustaka Nasional has started using this to enhance their books.

http://www.pustaka.com.sg/podcast.html

Other resources:

1. Making use of search engines like Google, Yahoo to publisher’s advantage.

2. Exploring Open Source resources for tools to enhance publishing workflow/marketing.

What We Do

r media is now mi-v design