I intended to email this
month's newsletter on the 1st but then...
A good friend of mine
passed away on the 1st And it only matters to you because
if you printed a book with me from 1980 through 2005, Diane Burkhart
probably burned the plates for your title. And if you had proofs,
Diane burned and folded them too.
None of this is
remarkable, except in this digital age, not many craft people like
Diane exist anymore.
Diane came up through the
pre-press ranks. She could strip covers and text and run both ends
of the camera when needed, so if she was waiting for a new neg and no
one was around to help, she'd shoot it and strip it in herself.
Even better, she'd catch
everyone elses' screw-ups. If you owned a dog and got a few stray
hairs on your negs Diane cleaned them, burned the plates, then hunted
you down to let you know that she expected better. If you windowed a
page a little short and left some type covered up, she'd pull the
flats off the burner, haul it over to a light table, open the window,
check it for opaque, roll it back up and make the plate. If you
labeled your flats wrong, windowed them wrong or listed them in the
wrong burn order she'd probably catch it. It was rare that a pressman
would catch a problem that Diane had missed.
God forbid you used the
plate frame in her absence and left some telltale signs that you
neglected to clean up after yourself. The sign in her work area was
always the same: “I'm NOT your mother! Clean up after yourself!”
I wasn't always glad to
see her at my door. If the exposure times on the plate frame grew
inordinately long she let me know we needed a new bulb, which wasn't
always at the very top of my to do list. Then she'd become a reliable
daily visitor to let me know that I was paying her extra money to
stand and wait for plates to burn because I hadn't ordered a new bulb
yet.
We were a tight group
back in the day. The annual Graph-Expo print show in Chicago
generally saw a contingent from our shop spend a day or two walking
McCormick Place by day and exploring the night life of Chicago after
dark. (You probably knew that going back at least to Ben Franklin's
days printers had an appreciation for ale.) Diane loved the show and
always returned with bags of colorful posters that were printed and
dispersed by the press companies. Back at work she'd set them on a
light table to share with everyone.
When her only son Jon
died in an auto accident her life changed dramatically. Her laugh was
not so spontaneous. She never joined the gang after work for a quick
beer. She spent a lot of time driving to see her mother in
mid-Michigan, frequently bringing her along for a week-end at Jon's
house in Black Lake.
Diane was a professional.
She knew how a book was printed and did her part with technical skill
typical of the best crafts people I worked with.
And she was just a nice
person. I knew her when we were all young and beautiful, and I knew
her when our hairs turned to gray.
She leaves behind a
brother and his family and a wide network of friends and co-workers
who called her DiBaby.
New
Google Tablet Targets Kindle Fire
The
fight for dominance in the tablet market gets even hotter with Google
preparing to take on Amazon. Is there an underdog in this fight?
Authors
Guild vs Amazon at DOJ
The
Authors Guild has filed a letter strongly objecting to the Department
of Justice's proposed settlement of the eBook price fixing lawsuit.
The
point by point presentation of Amazon's monopolistic tactics
deserves thoughtful analysis, but expecting that from the DOJ may be
foolhardy.
Consumer
Federation of America Sides with DOJ
The
Consumer Federation of America, best known as a
shill for the genetically engineered food industry, has sided
with the DOJ's price fixing agreement.
Library
Budgets Stabilize
56.9%
of libraries reported flat
or decreased funding this year, down from last year's 59.8%.
Overall library funding is expected to fall 4.9% next year.
Print
Lives
Disparaging
the argument that “print is dead”, this industry consultant
argues that print
is alive and well, and that publishers are the ones struggling
with the digital transformation.
Novelist
Russo Also Argues for Print
Pulitzer
Prize winning author Richard Russo's next publishing project will
not be available digitally or online, saying, “Readers can't
survive on e-books alone”.
As
Does Steven King
Best-selling
author Steven King has also announced his next book, due out in one
year, will
only be available in paper and ink editions. King said he “loved
the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid”.
eBook
Best Sellers
It's
frequently pointed out that tracking eBook sales is difficult because
they are sold through so many disparate channels. Now Media Bistro is
attempting to report the top
independently published eBooks by reporting weekly Top 10 sales
from three different sellers.
Toshiba's
No Print Day
Just
back from selling print equipment at the Drupa trade show, Toshiba
has shown it's commitment to the industry by declaring Oct. 23 as
National
No Print Day. Toshiba's reasoning
is skewered by the print industry commentator at Dead Tree
Edition.
Late
word: Toshiba has surrendered and canceled No
Print Day. In the words of Emily Litella, “Never
mind.”
One
(Comic) Book, 56 Different Covers
IDW
Comics issued Mars Attacks #1
with 56 different covers, each cover gracing 1,000 copies, plus a
boxed set of all 56 editions with a bonus 57th
cover included. 55,000
of the 56,000 printed have been sold so if you see one at the
newsstand...
Disappearing
Ink
In
a very strange promotion to encourage readers to explore and enjoy
newly published authors, an Argentinian publisher has released a book
printed
with ink that disappears two months after being exposed to light
and air.
Bankrupt
Dorchester Backlist to Amazon
Two
years after announcing a switch
to eBooks and the Print-on-Demand publishing model, the bodice
busting backlist
of bankrupt Dorchester Publishing will be purchased by Amazon.
3D
Paper
HP,
3M and UC Santa Clara are co-developing a
paper that will show printed graphics in 3 dimensions. For
instance, by looking at a picture of a flower from different angles
the background and shadows will move correspondingly.
eBook
Espionage
Did
you highlight a passage in 50
Shades of Gray
on your Kindle? Did you give up on finishing Killing
Lincoln
on your Nook? These are some of the simpler bits
of data uploaded from your eReader.
Final
Thought
To
acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge
from almost all the miseries of life. W. Somerset Maugham
