THE PUBLISHER’S DEVIL
‘HAPPINESS IS A WARM ISBN’
As a callow youth, I sensed innately that I had a great novel within. As a designer, I’ve come to the reluctant realisation that even a graphic novel is probably beyond me. I lack the stamina and the structural rigour for long-form; alas – I am no Robert Elms, Nadine Dorries or Steven Patrick Morrissey, so languish ‘in my lane’ as a pixel prodding, personal dub organiser for the looming, Lovecraftian visual miasma.
Nonetheless, books – other people’s books – scavenged from skips, car boots, house clearances and, just occasionally, at full price from actual bookshops – are a consuming habit which has eclipsed even the fevered acquisition of dustencrusted vinyl.
The stamp of legitimacy conferred by print on the page is hard to deny.
It’s a mark of permanence, glimpsed through the blurred slots of the digital carousel, and although the publishing churn is rapacious, to hold in one’s hands a finite ‘hard copy’ with its own unique ISB number remains a dizzying thrill.
Teaming up with a writer has afforded me the opportunity to investigate the burgeoning trend in vanity publishing, road-testing formats and layouts in a delicate ‘arm’s length’ foxtrot with an end user’s expectations; an unusual dynamic to say the least.
