The Further In We Go
9/5/09
Progress on Little, Big has been slower than expected, but the front matter and end matter are basically done — all but the bibliographic citations list for the art (in progress) and the colophon, which must be completed last. After multiple drafts, the title page layout turned out even better than expected; as one consultant wrote, “Oh my god, that is freaking gorgeous! Wow. I love the depth of the image, and the way the perspective looks both downward and upward. It’s almost dizzying.” Yes, at John Crowley’s urging, we will soon be posting PDFs of the title page spread and additional chapters on the site. Meanwhile, you can see the source image for the title page art.
Various enlargements can be accessed on that page. My trim is a slightly close in view in the leftmost third of the image, with the house towering above on the right, the staircase descending into the depths below in the middle, and one half of that magnificent tree on the left, overarching the depths, with the faces of the gatekeepers or pilgrims peering out from a window of Café d’Orphée.
Our review of the art for the book as a whole is continuing and should be finished soon. We’ve been working with the new printer on calibrating the art reproductions, and have received one round of art press proofs that look great but still need tweaking — a second round is forthcoming. The process is pretty elaborate — on that first round, sets of press proofs went to me, Peter Milton, book designer John D. Berry, and fine press consultant Scott-Martin Kosofsky; I then had to moderate the ensuing discussion and collate everyone’s comments before annotating a set of proofs for the printer’s production department. We are considering using a stochastic process in lieu of traditional screens for the duotone printing. Maximizing the quality of the art reproductions remains a top priority.
I hope to call this a wrap soon. No one is more eager for that than I am! But it’s crucial that we take as much care with the ending as we have with everything else.
Best Wishes,
Ron Drummond
Publisher
P.S. Here’s a wonderful new interview with John Crowley about Little, Big.