Chronicle Books Blog

Kathi Kamen Goldmark was an angelic enabler. She helped great writers*—Amy Tan, Stephen King, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Ridley Pearson et al.—fulfill their dreams of being performing musicians; and less-well-known writers become published authors through the author-enablers website she and her husband, Sam, maintained and the many adoring agents, editors, authors, publishers and booksellers she counted among her friends.

She was also a charming redheaded, leopard-print-Stratocaster-wielding guitar slinger, bandleader (The Rock Bottom Remainders, Los Train Wreck) and vocalist, and the author of books like Chronicle’s And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You and, with Sam, Write That Book Already! as well as significant additions to The Great American Songbook like “Older than Him (the Slut Song).”

She was a tireless supporter of both her many many friends and an almost equally long list of charities (Litquake, the JCC, and a plethora of literacy/education-related things).

Kathi Kamen Goldmark at Litquake’s Porchlight storytelling night in San Francisco.

Did I leave anything out? Tons, I’m sure. She was a modest, cheerful, creative, funny, sexy force of nature right up to the end, and I for one—and I am anything but alone here—will miss her terribly.

Nion McEvoy
Chairman and CEO

*and at least one publisher, yours truly, who played percussion with the Remainders in Miami, Greenwich Village and the very Fillmore Auditorium itself. I was also fortunate that she often sat in with my elusive and perennially under-rehearsed band “Rough Draft.”

Pizza, pasta, vino, gelato and… children’s books! Our Rights team just returned from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in beautiful Italy. We previewed our highly anticipated children’s books releasing this fall and in the spring of 2013. Publishers from around the world came to the fair to get a sneak peek at new titles and to pick and choose what they would like to publish in their own language.

Not only is the fair an opportunity for Chronicle to spread our much adored children’s books to all corners of the globe, but we also get to witness early reactions to the books from fair-goers before the titles are even released here in the U.S. The verdict? Incredible! There isn’t just one standout story, but a whole bunch including The Templeton Twins Have an Idea, Open This Little Book illustrated by Suzy Lee, Good News Bad News, Flamingo Dancing, and Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth. And everyone loves an oldie but goodie – the #1 New York Times bestseller, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, was proudly displayed and has sold 10 foreign editions so far! Stay tuned in the coming months for updates on these and more children’s books because we can’t wait for you to read them.

Next week we’ll be in London previewing our Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 lists. Be sure to follow @ChronicleRights on Twitter as we tweet about new books from the fair, and you can also follow our Pinterest board showcasing Chronicle covers from around the world.

Ciao!

Joya Anthony
Subsidiary Rights Coordinator

People always ask me where we get our project ideas. While it’s true that many of the things we publish come from literary agents’ and authors’ pitches, a lot of what we make is born right here by the brains of Chronicle employees.

Fig. 1: The Button Factory.

Here’s a rundown of just some of the things that went into creating this project from scratch.

THE IDEA
In July 2009, my coworkers and I cooked up this idea in Format Breakfast, a weekly meeting where Chronicle’s editors, designers, and production coordinators come together to think, talk, draw, and build dream projects. We come up with a lot of stinkers, it’s true, but a lot of gems, too. One Line a Day, 642 Things to Draw, and Port-a-Pug, to name just a few favorites.

We all love buttons (aka, pins or badges, depending on your provenance) and were lamenting how expensive button-makers are. We decided it would be awesome to offer an affordable way to cover buttons with fabric. We hammered out what the kit should include, did our competition research to see how our product had to be distinctive, and then I pitched the project to our board (sounds scary, but actually pretty fun). They agreed it would be a strategic addition to our list. Game on!!

THE FORMAT
With the board’s shiny seal of approval blessing our project, we then spent many months going back and forth with various printers to arrive at an affordable format that we liked. It’s quite costly to publish things that include non-paper components, so we had to explore many different scenarios.

We looked at boxes with windows, boxes without windows, and hanging blister packs. Anne in design made these rough schematics to communicate our vision so that Erin in production could request pricing estimates and dummies from printers. I also used these visual schematics to consult with our sales and marketing teams about which packaging direction they felt would be most successful for the stores that would do well with something like this. In the end, I was so happy we settled on a Kraft paper box sealed with a big label. In addition to liking the way it looked, this option was the more environmentally friendly route, as it doesn’t require any plastic for a window. Without that see-through window to display the box’s contents, we’d have to rely on photography and text to communicate what you’ll find inside the box.

THE CONTENT
While all this format research and development was happening, I wrote the manuscript over winter break last year. I’m usually an editor, not an author! So I started with the bare bones, charting out in my Moleskine what content I needed to cover (see below). I wrote text explaining how to cover buttons with fabric and project ideas for using vintage fabric, making photo pins, spreading birthday wishes, promoting a business, adorning buttons with embroidery, and making button cards.

For the photographs, Anne hired the dynamic duo Rebecca Thuss and Patrick Farrell of THUSSFARRELL. I was blown away by their work on this project – they went above and beyond. They made so many fabric-covered buttons for their photo shoot, they discovered some really useful craft tips that I added into the manuscript. And their photos were so fun, we decided to extend the length of the booklet so we could include more. With THUSSFARRELL’s inspiring photos in hand, Anne designed the booklet, cover sticker, box, and four custom fabric designs. We knew from the beginning we wanted a super poppy, ’80s palette, so it didn’t take long to come to a consensus on the designs.

THE EXECUTION
In September 2010, just over a year after we started, we reviewed and approved color proofs and all the final component samples from the printer. And in December, the best moment of satisfaction ever: an advance copy hit my desk, I tested the components, they all worked, and this button factory was in business. (Well, after they are assembled, travel across an ocean, arrive at our warehouse, are inventoried, and distributed to accounts around the world. No big deal.)

THE SELL & SHIP
Now we get to share our creation with you. Our sales team has been pitching The Button Factory far and wide – literally to stores around the world. One of the most exciting things about this project is two foreign publishers, one in Sweden and one in Germany, like it so much they’re going to translate and publish their own editions. I cannot wait to see what I wrote translated into Swedish and German (Die Bütton Faktory?!). Product started shipping to stores last week. You can find it online now on our site, at Urban, at Barnes & Noble, and beyond.

This is a super simplified slice of the mountain of work that goes into this kind of homegrown publishing. If you have questions about things I glossed over, fire away in the comments.

I’m so excited to share this project with you, that I’ll choose one commenter at random to send a copy so you too can spread The Button Factory love.

Kate Woodrow
Editor

I’m glad so many magazines have folded.

But don’t get me wrong. The reason I’m happy about having fewer magazines is because the quality of those that remain, and those that have recently launched, is so high. And, now I have more time to treasure their goodness. I do like perusing the online lifestyle magazines that have launched recently – but it’s just that: a peruse. My hands spark into spirit fingers when a beautifully printed magazine arrives in my mailbox, and I make time to savor the quality of the photographs, design, and thoughtful articles.

Look at the goodies that were tucked into my copy of Uppercase, which arrived this week. The “You Are My Sunshine” letterpress print, which totally made my day, was printed by husband-and-wife design team, Allison and Daniel Nadeau of Ink Meets Paper on their 1920s letterpress. Uppercase is a quarterly magazine “for the creative and curious.”

As a maker of books, I appreciate how much effort goes into publishing a magazine. Anthology documents this in its Making the Magazine spread with illustrations by Remilla Arcega. Anthology is a quarterly shelter and lifestyle magazine that launched in 2010. In my free time away from Chronicle, I do freelance editing for Anthology.

Good ideas resonate with me when they’re printed. Sunset‘s monthly garden checklist nudges me into action.

Trends are more powerful in print. House Beautiful‘s March issue inspired me to wear pink this week.

Last year I had heard chatter online about Faythe Levine and Sam Macon’s new documentary The Sign Painter, but it wasn’t until I sat down to read this article in Uppercase that I really digested what it was about and added it to my list of must-see movies.

It’s no wonder I love the feel (literally) of Anthology and Uppercase. Both are printed on handsome, thick paper, which makes the reading experience more akin to a beloved book than a disposable magazine. Both are perfect-bound like a book. Uppercase‘s uncoated stock gives it a toothy and slightly vintage feel – a printing technique Chronicle has used in some of my favorite recent books (Paper + Craft and Tartine Bread, to name just two). The paper even smells special! (Something you won’t say about this blog post.) Anthology has a sophisticated matte lamination, which is perfect for making photographs pop while keeping the pages feeling distinctive.

What other beautiful magazines do you love? I’d like to add to my arsenal of favorites.

Kate Woodrow
Editor

Phew! Stationery Show is over! What a whirlwind week we had at the Javitz Center. Chronicle’s booth was bustling with business. I thought I’d share a few pics from our trenches.

We had a lot to be excited about in our booth, from kids books to cookbooks to stationery, depending on the buyer’s needs and tastes. With buyers I spoke to, some standout packages were: Silhouette Art, 642 Things to Draw, All My Friends are Dead, Rosie Flo’s Kitchen Coloring Book, Taro Gomi’s Play All Day, and Tartine Bread. (All of these are coming out this summer or fall and available for pre-order now on our site. Get ‘em while they’re hot!)

There’s some terrific NSS trend reporting from bloggers I follow. Poppytalk did a comprehensive roundup of the stationery artists who showed their wares this year, including shout outs to artists we work with: Hello!Lucky, Yellow Owl Workshop, and Hammerpress.

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