Assignment Overview

Creating the book proof (or rough draft) is an extremely important part of the book design process because it is here where most, if not all, of the design questions and concerns will be worked out. It is where you begin to see the narrative take shape and the book to become a cohesive unit. For photo and text books like the one were are making, it is also the time when the book itself, through the placement of the images and the words, makes an important rhetorical statement.

Here, the goal is to create a book that both makes clear the need to help a particular charity and is also is one that people will want to buy. The first part of that equation is easy: the images and texts that we have chosen, as well as the introduction that you compose, will provide a case for the need (the introduction more tacitly, the images and texts more abstractly). The latter, however, is more difficult to ascertain. Will someone want to buy this book and for what reason? Will it be a gift? Will it fill a desire to help that particular charity? Will it be a book they will want to return to repeatedly (such as a coffee table book)? Will it be something they can use (such as a journal)? These are questions your group must find an answer to and then hope that it is the right answer (which we’ll learn as we begin to put them online).

Assignment Specifics

Each group must complete the following steps when composing their book proof:

1. Decide on the kind of book you want to create—coffee table-type or journal-type book. Your group may decide to create both kinds of books so that you’re able to approach two different types of buyers. The journal would be a subset of the coffee table book.
   • This will also include deciding on the size, page count, and cover type (hard cover is always nice than soft and you cannot sell both due to the costs of the ISBN and bar code)
2. Make final decisions for which images and texts will be accepted. If making a book and a journal, decide on which images and texts will appear in which book.
3. Choose a cover and images.
4. Using pencil or pen and paper, design inner page, front cover, and back cover layouts informed by the theories in Mat Thorne’s Blurb videos.
5. Choose fonts and font locations informed by the theories in Ellen Lupton’s book.
6. Create layouts in Blurb’s BookSmart software that matches as closely as possible the hand-drawn layouts. Your image and text content will begin on page 8. You will need a few pages at the end for Contributors. These also need to be formatted.
   • page 1: title page (right page)
   • page 2: copyright page (left page)
   • page 3: dedication page (right page)
   • page 4: usually blank but can have an image (left page)
   • page 5: preface (right page; composed by Bill Wolff for CWiP)
   • page 6: usually blank but can have an image (left page)
   • page 7: introduction (right page)
7. Decide on an an order of images and texts that is informed by theories in Mat Thorne’s Blurb videos (I strongly suggest using his method of putting the images and texts out on a table or floor and seeing what you like). With inner pages, think in terms of the 2-page spread because it will be important to see how images and texts work next to one another. You may also consider chapter or subject headings.
8. Populate BookSmart pages with your images and texts starting on page 8.
9. Compose your introduction (coffee-table type books: 700-800 words; journals: 350 – 550 words)
10. Complete the title page (informed by theories in Mat Thorne’s Blurb videos and including the CWiP logo [coming soon]). Add copyright, publication, ISBN, and Library of Congress Control number. Add the dedication. Add the Introduction. Add barcode to back cover.
    • Info on ISBN, Library of Congress Control Number, and bar code coming soon.
11. Create your cover and back cover. Add a catchy blurb to the back cover that describes the book.
12. Add the Contributors list and back page content (details for back page content coming soon).
13. Verify that all your information is correct.
14. Create an account for your group and upload the book to Blurb. Send log-in information to BW. Keep the book private. Each group member should order a copy.
15. Once the proofs arrive, you begin to go through, note layout and design issues, typos, and so on that will be changed in the final draft.

Assignment Due Dates

11/22: Upload the proof to your group’s Blurb account, send BW the log-in information, and order a copy by 11:00pm. Choose a shipping delivery that will allow the book to be shipped to you no later than Wednesday, 12/7.

11/22: Each group should compose a 2 – 3 page reflection that addresses the following:

• the narrative that the book is attempting to make through the image and text selections and the order in which they appear
• reasons for the design (including book size, cover type, and color), layout, and font choices the group made in terms of the theories we have learned
• any concerns you have about the proof, including, but not limited to images and texts selected, order of the images and texts, narrative, overall design and so on.

The reflection should be double-spaced, Time New Roman font size 12, 1″ margins, and have the following file name: wrtf11-[group abbreviation]-book-proof.docx (I do not accept .pages and .wpd files). Upload the reflection to the “book-proof-reflection” folder in your group’s Dropbox folder by 11:00pm, 11/22.