Welcome to Literary Ashland

Follow

I watched a documentary called Helvetica tonight and it totally blew my mind! I didn’t think it was going to be good, and it wasn’t amazingly riveting, but it was really interesting and made me think about typeface in a whole new light.

Helvetica centers around the history and function of the typeface Helvetica, which is the most commonly used and recognized font. It sounds really boring, I know. But it made me consider how different fonts function in our everyday life without us even realizing. One of the people interviewed in the documentary said that typeface should be invisible to the reader but at the same time determine how that reader comprehends and interprets the text. In the early sixties when Helvetica became popular, it replaced almost all other typeface in advertisement. It was seen as a neutral and efficient font that implied meaning and power because it was not only clean but also had a “human” element to it. Who knew fonts could have so much personality?

It was also really cool to see how fonts are created and named and distributed. I really never thought about font as an art form or a business, but it is. There are whole companies that own specific fonts. A lot of the interviewees were old guys who created typeface back in the day and it was really cool to hear them talk about the difference in our relationship with fonts now as opposed to back when they were starting out. Again I hadn’t really thought about this, but because we use computers all the time and are constantly creating our own documents, we are completely aware of font and how it functions on the page. Back in the day it was something that no one but a few people in a few professions ever had to consider.

I could go on longer but I think you guys should just watch the movie. It’s on instant Netflix if you are interested.

Follow

I am finding some really interesting information on cover art. When I started research for this paper, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to find anything, but I have. For anyone who is interested in learning more about book cover art how it got started, where it got started, why it was started, Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design by Alan Powers is amazing. It not only provides great information about cover art but it has full color pictures that show examples of the book art they talk about. This book explains the history of dust jackets and cover art, breaking cover art into decades and art movements as well as famous cover artists. It’s amazing and totally worth checking out! Another good source of information on cover art is Penguin By Design: Cover Story 1935-2005 (thank you Professor Battistella for letting me borrow the book). Penguin has been one of the leading booksellers for years and they know a thing or two about cover designs, afterall, a good cover design can lead to better sales of a book. I’m also looking into how covers change over time. I found an article about a book called Black Boy and how the cover art changes everytime it is re-released.

In my essay I will be showing not only the change in the look of cover art over the years throughout each art period: modern, nouveou, etc. but also how this change shows that cover art reflects the culture that surrounds it. I am still working out the details but this is what I have so far. Any ideas on how to maybe expand it or shrink the idea down would be most welcome.

Follow

The article,“Novel Rejected? There’s an e-book Gold Rush,” was an amazing article that gives more insight to the world of both publishing and e-publishing. One thing that I find interesting that wasn’t mentioned in the article is that e-publishing allows the stories to be back in the hands of the reader. When one company owns most of the book companies in the United States then only one voice is being heard. With e-publishing many different voices and types of story can be heard. Even regular self-publishing has added books to the world that would not have been there before. Look at Exterminating Angel Press and their mass array of books such as, “The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy and the History of Comic Book Heroines,” that speaks on a topic that other publishers don’t want but the people want to read.

If the articles that we have read for this class prove anything it’s that the reader is gaining more and more control over books and the types that are being published. E-publishing allows this in a more instant form that saves on paper and seems to give writer’s a fairer shake than if they went the regular publishing route (only if the books sell of course). By allowing the writer to have up to 70% of the sales price it allows a writer the ability to actually survive off their books instead of only getting 10-15 % through a normal publishing which barely makes them able to pay bills.

E-publishing and self-publishing in general are changing the world of publishing for the future. For now, it seems to be a good change as it offers the readers the ability to dictate what is written and published instead of just one company of the same old ideas wants to publish. As we have seen with writers like J.K. Rowling big publishers often pass up blockbuster ideas multiple times before they are “found” or are shelved for good. Imagine what books have been passed up that could have been spectacular because the publishers didn’t see the point.

This type of publishing also allows the writers more control over what they are able to write which I believe is a wonderful thing. Writers are creators and when the creation is stunted by what publishers want then the writer will have a difficult time creating, but if left to their own devices the writers might just make a masterpiece.

Follow

I’m glad I got to learn more about Ashland Creek Press in this class. I had heard about her press from her travel writing workshop, and it was mentioned before in class, but no discussion ever got in depth. Now I am very excited about it. I thought it was just going to be another small press, but it is very unique. I’m confident Ashland Creek Press is going to do very well. It seems to have a solid foundation, and I think it is in the right place at the right time. I also found it interesting to learn that they have another small press called Byte Level Books, which is also very unique.

The one thing the Midge Raymond and John Yunker presented, which I had no idea existed, were book trailers. Even now that I know a little bit more about them, I still do not understand why a book needs a video trailer. The idea was and still is a foreign idea to me. However, the idea of book trailers made me wonder how hard authors find creating them. I mean summing up an entire book can be hard enough but to mold it into a two minute visual and auditory presentation? I don’t see the sense in it.

That said I thought Dennis Cass’s book trailer “Book Launch 2.0” was brilliant. I think I found it funny because that is the type of phone call seems to ring true. I could have a very similar phone call one day. It was just hilarious and I think the trailer did a wonderful job promoting him as an author.

Midge’s and John’s book trailer for The Tourist Trail and Forgetting English was pretty brilliant as well. Even though it’s not high quality, movie budget video I think that is more of a benefit than a drawback. I think it allows potential readers/audience members to connect with the authors and become more interested in viewing their work because it’s the type of video that they could have produced. I think their video makes them as authors more accessible to their audience because they feel like real people.

After class I decided to check out a few more book trailers. I looked at Jenna Blum’s book trailer for The Stormchasers (recommended by Midge in her blog) and Brian Rathbone’s trailer for The Dawning of Power. Rathbone’s trailer was all right. It had a dramatic feel, and I became somewhat interested in learning more about the book but that feeling wasn’t strong enough to get me to go check out his book on Amazon. Blum’s trailer, on the other hand, I thought was very good. It was very visual, and the questions from the video, and the hinting at what the story might be about while not giving anything away was well done. I was definitely intrigued enough to check out her book from her website.

On a side note, I just wanted to put out there that George R.R. Martin, a pretty popular fantasy writer, has an article/speech on his website called “Editors: The Writer’s Natural Enemy.” He wrote the speech in 1979, but I think its theme is still applicable today. It’s a bit humorous but I think looking at editors from his view gives us another piece to the larger publisher, editor, writer perspective that we have gained throughout the class.

[Editor’s note: Here is the trailer for The Tourist Trail. Enjoy.]