In dialoguing with another of our authors, the subject of how we approached the "book design" aspect of Bruce Ray Smith's Winter Light came up. Here's what we said...
Remember that our goal is “kalos” — beauty, in both form and function. Form, in the case of books, takes on the literary quality of the words and its expression, but also the design of the book (interior and exterior). Function is also at stake when designing a book; for example, in Bruce’s manuscript there was a poetic quality to the prose, but it wasn’t exactly a free-verse form. Also, there was the fact that it was presented as a series of journal entries. Therefore, we strove to convey that journal-style near-poetry in the way we laid it out. (We happen to think we accomplished our goal there!)
The digital versions were an interesting trick, because with Kindle and ePub you’re dealing with text that is re-flowed on the “page” by the device and at the preferences set by the reader. So, we forfeited total control there in order to be on those platforms— for example, we don’t get to set the fonts, and there are limits to how many different typefaces can be used in a single eBook in some cases (Kindle). But I think we still reached our overall goal, at least in that we produced a good book that is readable, the layout still suggests what it needs to, and nothing of the design gets in the way of the content.
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