Designing the book

Today the authors held a meeting with editors at Bloomsbury to discuss book design in detail. Editors Richard Atkinson and Natalie Hunt were joined by Peter Dawson of Grade Design Consultants (www.gradedesign.com) who has been appointed as Book Designer.

Bloomsbury editorial meeting August 2012. Authors Gabriel Hemery (top left) and Sarah Simblet (far right) discussing some finer points of the first batch of completed illustrations with Natalie Hunt (left), Peter Dawson (centre) and Richard Atkinson (right)

Sarah Simblet also handed over the first batch of 30 completed drawings, which is a major milestone. These will be scanned at very high resolution (400dpi) and then test printed using different techniques and on various paper types with a view to reproducing the drawings of the very best likeness and quality.

Over the next few weeks the first mockups of a chapter will be designed, combining both text and drawings. This will be an exciting development for the authors and the publishing team alike as to date we have been dealing with text and images separately. Bringing together the two elements on the page will enable us to consider in detail the fonts for headers and main text, allow us to estimate word count accurately, and to hone the finer points of layout.

Sarah Simblet presenting, with Gabriel Hemery, the latest flatplan at the Bloomsbury editorial meeting, August 2012