手取川製本 ~ Tedorigawa Bookmakers

Ep. 170: The Good, The Bad, and the Mis-titled.

I wrote a pentaology - five books in a series that aren't actually in a series. They are companions. They share characters and glide nicely between time and place. One is called The Year Without Days. I have called it the Year Without Days for a long time – while thinking of it, while writing it, while editing it, while setting it up on the computer, while casing it in. The Year Without Days. Why, then, did I print The World Without Days on the cover? And a not-so-good cover it is, too.

At least in today's accomplishments I can list a 2018-19 Schedule that came out fairly okay. Rounded corners and lots of weekly pages, monthly calendars, and three yearly calendars (2018, 2019, 2020). I used an old t-shirt for the cover material and backed it with thin shodo (calligraphy) paper. I didn't attach the paper so well and some of it came off, but generally, this was a good book. I give it to the proper owner by mail tomorrow! Only just in time – the schedule starts in March 2018, not January. Lucky me.

Ep. 169: City of (Roosters)

Not my latest novel but one of my latest. The latest is called Feeding Vicki’s Corpse while this one is called City of Cocks. This is why the title is (Roosters) on the download instead of the actual title. Don’t want parents of little ones to get all frantic; however, please think British English and Biblical English as in the cock crowed three times (Mark 14:71). But let’s skip the religious tangent for a moment and rush back to the novel itself.

I’ve read chapter one on this podcast and I should warn you, the last chapter is a variation on the first chapter except with, of course, a happier ending.

City of Cocks is a poetic murder. Which means one character is charged with murder while two others (his wife and his wife’s friend, Max) try to prove his innocence. Max is a well-known, poor, alcoholic poet who has traveled on his poetry to England and India (at least). The novel is about the people in a small town on the Oregon coast who Max meets. He meets drunks, policemen, a legless bartender, and a ghost. It is the ghost that helps Max the most; not with solving the murder — spoiler alert: the murder is never solved! — but with his drinking.

This is the first novel in my Small Oregon Coast Town Trilogy. The other ones are Feeding Vicki's Corpse and Fighting Für Frëibetjer. They are companions, these books. As many of the characters overlap and their backstories in one novel become more prevalent in another. However, they all stand alone, too. Neither Vicki nor Für are completed but almost.

Another three books to finish sewing, casing in, and enjoying!

Ep. 168: Thumbless Hosting Fees

I have sacrificed cash to the gods of hosting and have the ability to return to you fine folks via a podcast. Thanks for standing by whilst I do what I do. Besides which I toasted my thumb while cutting a potato and subsequently had both a nice dinner and four stitches.

I do, however, have many books to bind. I am writing two novels, one of which I hope to finish in November. Novel One is The City of Cocks about roosters & chickens, a murder in a small town, false accusations, an alcoholic witness, and the growth from immaturity to maturity in a 40ish-year-old poet.

The second is Giapan, the fourth book of my Japan pentalogy, which stars a nun, two guards for a tax collector, and a Japanese art appreciator. They travel from South Central Spain to Guadalajara during the time of the Spanish Armada, the author of Don Quixote (Cervantes, who is the tax collector and really was in real life) and their adventures plus development. I don’t think anyone is falling in love with anyone.

More to come! 

Ep. 167: Slip Case Making (Verbal only)

In this episode I attempt to teach you how to make a slip case for your books. There are no pictures to study, only my words. I hope it is successful. If not, please ask a question in the comments and hopefully I will get back to you with an answer. Of sorts.

Or you can slip over to Sage Reynolds’ YouTube channel. Specifically his Slip Case tutorial . He even puts on the inside cover and outside cover.

 

Ep. 166: Scribes & Synopsis

For a book cover artist to make a sufficiently good cover for your book, she has to know what the book is about. For example, many decades ago on another continent, a poet wrote a book of poems about knitting and other household activities. In the poem about knitting she used the words hooks and eyes, meaning the hooks and eyes of a knitting needle. The book cover artist designed a cover with eyes pierced by hooks (as in fishing hooks). Not a good match.

Many book cover artists want to know the genre of the book so they have a general idea about what the cover should look like. A mystery novel will probably have a man in the shadows; a romance will have a well-built barechested man on the cover. Swords and dragons appear on a different genre. In the 50s, a busty woman with a Martian adorned many a science fiction novel.

What kind of cover does a literary book require? Orwell’s 1984. Horror? Mystery? I believe the original cover had merely the author’s name and title. Occasionally an eye would appear. Speaking of eyes.

Here are two covers (with a church setting and minimalist) that I made for my novel The Year Without Days, an as-of-yet unfinished fifth novel in a pentology in Japan about:

• A religious group sets out to cause panic and fear in Tokyo in order to reap the benefits of people seeking assurance from a church,
• Two youngish people who meet and maybe or maybe not fall in love,
• The relationships between the leader of the church, her rich lover, and her followers.

It is not written in chronological order as in a Tom Clancy techno-adventure novel. It skips around between places, time, and people but they all lead to the climax which will be the result of the fake-terrorism plot by the church and whether or not the two youngish people get together.

Also, the youngish woman shows up in another as-of-now unfinished novel in the pentology ~ Botchan’s Bartender ~ as Botchan’s bartender.

Which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments and we can all be happy.

Ep. 165: Genre & Minimalist Covers

Here are two covers of two of my novels which may or may not be good. However, your project here is to determine if you like both, one, or neither and why. The first thing I noticed was the dimensions are not exact. Books need to be taller than they are wide and both appear to be too wide.

Here is something to consider. The purple V on The Year Without Days refers to the book being the fifth book in a pentology. The horizontal purple Roman 1 (one) on Botchan’s Bartender implies that it is the first book in the same pentology.

The little red dot is a reference to the fact that both books are part of my Japan Pentology: five books all some how related to Japan. Either the characters are Japanese (as in Botchan’s Bartender where all the characters are Japanese) or the location is in Japan (such as book two: The Nuns of Nañao. The characters in that book are Russians, mostly, but it takes place in the Soviet Union, the US, and Japan (Yokohama, mostly.)

Then there’s the added Japanese in Botchan’s Bartender which, translated, means The Murder of Botchan, or Botchan’s Murder. There are at least two murders in the novel and perhaps Botchan - a Japanese term now meaning a little spoiled rich kid or a kid who is trying to look grown up - a junior high school kid in a suit, for example. Originally it was from Natsume Soseki’s novel Botchan. 

The point of the red dot from the Japanese flag and the Japanese on some of the novels including Giapan - ジパン is to show that the books are part of that Japan Pentology. Hopefully they might be easier to market. If I could figure out the genre. Later, I’ll give you all a synopsis and you can clue me into to the synposis. Although Botchan’s Bartender is part mystery/detective.

I also see that I need a black border to separate the whiteness of the book cover from the whiteness of the page. Or maybe a darker cover - off-white paper? But the point is to keep it as minimal as possible.

We shall see.

 

 

Ep. 164 - Covers: Good and Not So Good

Covers are important. Both on beds and books. On books they are used to judge the entire content of the book. Imagine strolling through a bookstore where all the books have the same dull borwn and white covers. Only the titles and authors are different. How could we choose a book? The people who make book covers are talented creative people. Their talent and creativity, however, come at a price that first time self-publishers may not be able to afford. How do first time self-publishers (which used to be called vanity publishing) come up with covers?

Like me, they do it themselves. Like many self-creating book cover people, I have neither the creativity nor the talent to produce a good cover for my books. Nor the cash to pay a competent book cover designer. If I get the money to pay for a good designer (some designers get up to and maybe more than $2,000 a cover.), I will be more than willing to pay for a good cover.

On the Authority Self Publishing podcast they mention that authors should find a book cover designer who is familiar with the author’s genre. I realize you don’t want a romance novel cover on a murder mystery novel or a fantasy cover on a technical manual. But what if your genre is less specific. I’m talking about Literary Fiction, whatever that means. From Nanowrimo discussions, I can assume that Literary Fiction means not being in a specific genre that is easily identifiable such as fantasy or romance, mystery, thriller, or western. Or even historical fiction. The Great Gatsby? What’s the genre for that little tome? What about Moby Dick or Infinite Jest or House of Leaves?

I’m definitely not comparing myself to any of those authors but I do worry about what genre I belong to, if I belong to one. And if I don’t belong to a genre or sub-genre, how can I explain to the book cover designer what I need? Does the designer have to read the book? What if the designer doesn’t like my style? Or can’t read English?

Despite reading in all the book cover designer websites, such as The Book Designer, all of which say the first and biggest mistake any self-publishing author can make is to make their own covers, I did. Here are two.

The name of the novel is

This Giant Frothy Thing: Love and Terror in Tokyo.

I have two questions for you.

• Which cover do you prefer, even if you don’t know the content?
• What does each cover say about the content of the novel

 

Ep. 163: Green Blank Notebook plus Fiction

 

This is the small green blank notebook with 80 pages in A6 size, suitable for carrying around to take notes, doodle, draw portraits and cityscapes or whatever you usually do with blank paper. The interior pages, which includes page numbers and a title page, have been sitting on my desk for the last year or so. I finally forced myself to make it, with cheap endpapers but exciting and tactile cover paper.

As for fiction, I wrote a short novel of about 115 pages comprised of seven short stories. The main character in one story will see, or bump into, or be aware of another character in, possibly, a non-speaking role. The second character then becomes the main character in the next story. Or a subsequent story, at least. Two chapters are horror stories, four chapters are love stories, and one chapter is both a horror story and a love story. All of the characters either order, make, or think about drinking a Giant Frothy Thing (frappuccino) so the title of the piece is Giant Frothy Thing: Terror and Love in Tokyo with each story ending with the phrase: And so their adventure of life begins. Implying their life continues and may or may not be connected to the story we are allowed to read. No cover yet, but when one becomes apparent, you’ll see it first here. Well, first after me.

 

 

 

Ep.162: Beige Blank Notebook

After not doing much for the last few months Except write a Lot. I mean, a Lot! Two or three novels, two or
three other things mostly Not fiction; starting a new novel made up of short stories of related characters, I decided to bind a book. A beige book. For drawing. A blank notebook with a beige cover that I, or anyone, can use as a drawing exercise book.

The book has many pages that I didn’t count and it is almost square but a bit taller than wide. It has colorful endpapers and an outdent similar to the Japanese method of titling a book i.e. Vertical title on the upper right-hand side of the cover. Related to how scrolls were titled back when everyone was using scrolls.

It does, however, have a nice endpaper made up mostly of colorful flowers on a black background. Not so much used but the paper was not so expensive, either. 

The next book I bind will be soon. A novel. The Tokyo Tunnel Girl If I ever get the cover printed. Criminals, murderers, and manga artists running around the imaginary tunnels of Tokyo trying to find the Real bad guys. And selling the movie rights to the manga at the same time. Fun and games for the whole imaginary and perhaps fictious family.

You can buy a copy of The Tokyo Tunnel Girl if you wish. Email me and I’ll work out a deal. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ep. 161 Procrastinating 101

I have been busy. Not binding books. Not printing out books to bind. Not even cutting book cloth and book boards into the proper shape to bind a book. I have been doing my utmost to procrastinate. By writing. I am currently writing three novels.

• Giapan - Japanese man in Inquisition Spain, part of my Japan Pentology
  
• Botchan’s Bartender - a murder mystery, also part of my Japan Pentology
  
  
• The Giant Frothy Thing - a stand-alone sort-of novel made up of many characters who meet one another in coincindental incidents. Person A casually sees or hears Person B while A is looking for Person C. Person D then meets Person B during or after Person A casually sees or hears them. Not that complicated but fun. Also, the subtitle is Tales of Terror and Love in Tokyo but until I looked at the cover, it had no terror in it. Now it has Psychological Terror! Fun?

I must, must, I say, get back into bookbinding. And soon.