The inside scoop on book insides

the making of the interior design of a Galiot Press book

Our first two Galiot Press books—SEX OF THE MIDWEST, by Robyn Ryle, and SWALLOWTAIL, by Emily Ross—are now in production. Each is in a slightly different stage of the process that takes the final manuscript through copyediting, proofreading, and typesetting. But they’re both on their way to their respective on-sale dates of October 14 and November 18!

I just used a bunch of terms that, normal as they sound, have a very specific publishing-industry meaning.

• Production: that process once the final manuscript has been agreed on, but before the book is available for purchase

• On-Sale date: the official date when a book is available for purchase, even though some outlets (on-line or IRL) might allow purchase before that date

• Copyediting: that process whereby every grammatical and semantic detail, every detail of English usage, every detail of timeline, character feature, and so on, is vetted, checked, and corrected

• Proofreading: the final chance to make sure there are no typos in the text

• Typesetting: literally setting out how the letters will appear on the page, preventing “widows” (those single-word-on-one-line instances that readers don’t like), assuring readability throughout

We’ve written about these stages in previous newsletters. Today’s newsletter takes us to the next step: interior design.

Often coupled with typesetting (i.e. the same person will do both tasks), interior design is in fact what it sounds like: it’s the design for how the book looks inside. What font will the text appear in? What font will the title page use? Will there be a “half-title page”? And, if so, what font will that one use? Then there are the questions of whether to use running titles across the top of each page, where to put the page numbers, whether to include the author’s name at the top of each page or not. Pull some books off your own shelves now and take a look. You’re likely to see a variety of treatments. Some books will show the author’s name across, say, the top of each left-hand page, and the title across the top of each right-hand. Others will leave that space blank. Some will have the page numbers at the top; yet others will have them at the bottom. Each of these choices has some sort of effect on the reader, whether we notice it or not. The choices matter!

If you’re a paid subscriber—first of all, thank you! and second of all, read on below for more inside scoop on how our interior designer Euan Monaghan thought through his decisions around the interior of SEX OF THE MIDWEST. I should say that we found Euan through a search of industry professionals. We liked his portfolio very much, and after an exchange of emails about his rates and his process, we felt it was a great fit to work with him. Thanks to the ease of the internet, it matters not at all that Euan is based in Europe.

But before we head to interior design details, we have a request.

Bring out your typewriters!

A GP typewriter installed at Kickstand Café in Arlington, MA

If you’re local to the Greater Boston area, especially, and if you have an old typewriter you no longer need, let us know and we’ll take it off your hands! Already in possession of 18 old typewriters, we’re looking for more that we will use for our unique NFC-chip-enabled distribution/marketing/pop-up system. Get in touch if you have a typewriter you’re willing to part with! (And if you’re not in the Boston area, do let us know, too. We’ll be expanding beyond our region.) Email us at info@galiotpress.com.

Two of these machines have already done stints (or are currently doing so) in local businesses—specifically Kickstand Café in Arlington, and Persona Salon on Newbury Street. Given that our books don’t go on sale until October, for the moment, the typewriters serve as a demo for this part of our system. We are using them to offer two short stories and one essay to people who simply tap their phones to the chip and open up the download page on their own device. (We’ve paid these writers for their work, but it’s free to you!) Stay tuned for the future deployment of our network of typewriters across partner venues, timed for the on-sale date of our first books.

Pro tip: if you need a haircut and want a free copy of “We Own the Jetty,” by Catherine Elcik, or “The Motherless Daze,” by Val Wang, or “Why We Fight,” by Linda Button, head to Persona and leave styled and storied!

And just for fun, a poll:

Now read on for the aforementioned inside scoop.