Yanina Arabena is a young graphic designer that we employ on occasion to do some book design work with us. Lately she has been doing a lot of experimental calligraphy. Here is one example of her beautiful work and you can find more on her Flickr pages.
A number of blogs have talked about Picador’s new plans to release literary fiction only in paperback, bypassing the “prestige” of hardcover. Perhaps the most depressing aspect of that Guardian story was the quote, “It is not uncommon for a literary fiction hardback to sell under 100 copies.”
I didn’t think much about Picador’s new publishing plans until I was browsing the bookstores on Avenida Santa Fe this weekend and noticed that Coetzee’s latest novel, Diary of a Bad Year, is already out in the stores here in Buenos Aires and in paperback.
Most literary fiction in Argentina already debuts in soft cover. I assume that’s true for all the Spanish-language market. No one here seems to mind and the price is certainly lower than a hardcover equivalent. Essentially, in the Buenos Aires bookstores you only see literary hardcover for collector editions.
Diario de un Mal Año retails in Buenos Aires for 35 pesos, which is just over $11 US dollars. In the UK the hard cover is £16.99 and in the U.S. the book is a whopping $25.95! (And in the U.S. the novel isn’t even published yet).
Sometimes I complain about the price of books in Buenos Aires but in comparison 35 pesos is a great deal. But, hey, since Coetzee (one of my favorite authors) writes in English I’m going to wait for the English version, which will arrive with UK pricing converted to pesos – sigh.
But if publishers and readers of Spanish can deal with literary fiction coming out only in softcover, then why can’t UK and US publishers and readers?
In another view to this topic: publishers of books in Spanish save a lot of money by ripping off cover designs from the UK. (Note that this Spanish edition of Coetzee is published by Mondadori, the huge Italian publisher.) Here’s the Spanish version:
Compare that to the UK version:
Now, compare that to the U.S. version, which is quite different and we find quite lovely.
We like the UK version but prefer the U.S. version. The Spanish version is just an embarrassment, though it’s much better than a lot of book covers I see on the shelves of Buenos Aires bookstores. Note even the poor use of type in the Spanish version when compared to the UK version. Of course, it’s likely that Mondadori paid very little for the Spanish cover, probably 1/10 of the design fee charged for either the U.S or UK covers. For Spanish-language publishers, cover design is just not important – unfortunately.
At first, I was intrigued by the Amazon announcement of their new e-book reader Kindle. Then I didn’t follow much of the coverage since I don’t live in the U.S. and knew I wouldn’t have access to this new gadget. But Joe Wikert’s question, “How do you feel about paying $9.99 for an ebook?” made me think about Kindle a little more.
Here in Buenos Aires English-language books are hard to come by. There are two bookstores in this very large city that specializes in English books, neither is anything near a Border’s in collection size (far from it, actually). Of the two bookstores I almost always go to the one that sells used books, partly because they have a very good literary selection. At the used bookstore in Buenos Aires I usually pay around $25- $35 pesos for a book. That’s about $7.94 – $11.11 given current exchange rates.
Given the limitations of buying books in English I would gladly pay $9.99 for an e-book. Indeed, I would be thrilled for the ability to purchase a wide variety of books that could be placed on a portable e-book reader at that price.
Before moving to Buenos Aires I rarely read anything on the screen, almost always printing out everything I downloaded. Now, I tend not to print very much and over the last few years have gotten very used to reading on a screen. Having made that hurdle, I’m just waiting for a quality e-book reader to come along. Perhaps Kindle is it. I think it is getting very close and surely it’s just a matter of time before e-book readers become as common as portable audio players.
International use is where an e-book reader becomes a necessity. And I’m not talking about Canada, Australia, or the UK but places where books in English are not so easy to come across.
So, I thought, hmmm, maybe I should really consider getting a Kindle even with its current flaws. But the wireless device only works in the U.S. You can’t use the wireless downloads outside the U.S. I can live without wireless downloads if content could be transferred via USB from a PC. From reviewing the Amazon forums on Kindle, this question of international usage has come up a few times. Currently, Kindle only functions on the Sprint EVDO data network, which cuts out most of the world.
Yet, I’m certain these data access issues will become less restrictive in future versions of Kindle or with whatever new e-book device is next to appear. So, I keep waiting for that e-book reader, which for me down here at the end of the world, is a necessity.
Obviously, I’ve not seen Kindle in person but the photo of Kindle makes it look like a cheap, plastic toy made for children ages 5 – 8. That becomes especially obvious when I pulled up the Amazon home page last night that displayed Kindle just above the Nintendo DS, which looks lovely.
One of the things I like about living in a large city like Buenos Aires is the unexpected. A while back we were hanging out with our friend Robert at El Hipopótamo, one of those classic bars from the 1920s that dot Buenos Aires, when a bearded maker of miniature books came by selling his little books.
He had a selection of titles, most going for around $5. We chose the Cuentos de la Selva (Stories of the Jungle) by the classic Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga.
You can see the size of the book here next to an ink pen. The size of the book is 6cm x 7.5 cm.
Nice binding!
And despite the small size the print is very readable. (My little Sony digital camera doesn’t focus too well at this small of a distance – and I didn’t feel like throwing the book on the flatbed scanner – so any fuzziness in this photo is my camera and not the typography).
We’ve been busy designing book covers the past few months. The online portfolio has been updated and we’ve also created a PDF portfolio for download.
