Messieurs et mesdames, we have a colophon and a cover
Now all's we need is a bookbinder to sew it all up.The Baudelaire project moves toward completion after all the photo grokking and letterpress printing this weekend. I still have to add the accent marks, seeing as how my typefaces (Minuet and Cloister) were poured without them.
My lead on a French typewriter fizzled when I got to the resale shop just days after another buyer did. Dommage, but also tant pis. Much as I love this poem, I could never type it 25 times. And on thick Fabriano paper?—forget it. Plus, my handwritten accent marks will add a homespun touch. I thought briefly whether I could omit them, but then the poem reads all wrong. I can't do that to Monsier Charles!
Lately, I've been wondering, Does anyone send prospectuses anymore? I stopped after Bahia Night, probably because designing and assembling them usually added a month to the book rollouts, as they were. Still, I got a respectable number of orders that way, and even perhaps added to the allure of my offerings. It might be time to resurrect them; that way I could send everyone a ticket to "L'Invitation au Voyage."
posted by margaret @ 3:52 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Someone (Laura Russell?) recently posted the same question about prospectuses (prospecti?) on the book arts list. I don't remember what everyone said, but you might want to check it out.
The poem looks lovely, and I agree, need the accents.
Thanks for the tip, Shu-Ju. I found two posts on the topic (and yes, one was by Laura), but the question remains. As an increasingly rare marketing tool, the prospectus might be all that much more effective, being tactile, interactive, and wonderfully old-school? Besides, I have a hard time with the irony of peddling letterpress books online, in the very medium that seems to threaten it. Thank goodness for "the fondle factor" (a term I just picked up from the listserv—awesome). A good prospectus should offer a tantalizing taste.
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