Processed!

Recently, while working on a book I realized how the world of publishing had evolved, if evolution is what you would want to call it!

For starters, shockingly, the whole idea of a mock had gone out of the window. People had hardly heard of it. Everyone is so caught up with getting things done 'yesterday' that the few talking of quality and procedure are best left archived.

With the influx of e-books and iPads and Kindle, the print industry is facing a stiff competition. Undoubtedly, it is easy to carry a lot many more books around. But it hardly makes up for the pure orgasm born out of the feeling of those pages ruffling between your fingers. Call me old school, but nothing is more fragrant than the smell of the pages of a new book. What is disturbing is this almost deliberate attempt to do away with the print industry. Adobe InDesign, Pagemaker, Quark, Photoshop have been raised to the pedestals than being the tools for creating legends. 

A friend narrated an experience where a 'book designer' refused to start work on the layout until he had all the material at her desk. As they were fast approaching the deadline for production, he called me in distress, whereupon, I told him that he could most definitely start on two things. First, make the pagination (the storyboard for the book). And second, start work on the regular pages (content, title, etc.) that would not require for the team to pour in the content. After keeping down the call, I felt disgusted and sympathetic in the same breath.

It was disgusting because the education system had turned around in making everyone a clerk/labour rather than a thinking person. Sympathy seeped in when it struck me how every one was being duped and not realizing it. I am sure this designer in question is an educated man. Yet, he fails to recognize software as tools rather than the brain of the project.

In reality, software are meant to fasten up a process. Nevertheless, the process is present for a reason and has to be followed in order to reach the desired result.

Talking about the publishing industry, there is a reason that publishers continue to make pagination and print mocks before the book is put into final print. Pagination and mock form two ends of the stream. Pagination is the overview of the entire project whereas the mock is the preview. It is not until you hold a mock in your hand that you would know if you are headed in the right direction. For all you know, once the first copy comes out you realize that you have conveniently missed out the introduction of the book written by a celebrity author and now you have 500 copies already in print minus the said page. All because you never bothered to make a pagination or print a mock!

A few extra hours and pages could save you a lot more green paper and embarrassment, not to mention the possible legal implications.

It is time to step back and take a breather; time to take a look at our approaches. It is charming to say that the end justifies the means. But the end could turn out to be a mere fluke if the means are not thought out and disciplined. And no one bets on a fluke!