Making books, then and now

Peggy Hughes posted this rather lovely film on how book were made a couple of weeks ago. Watch it and be amazed. (It’s 10 minutes long.)


(If the video doesn’t show above, if you’re running an ad blocker, for example, you can find it on YouTube.)

I did my own search to find a video on how books are made now. I expected to find something that took out most of the steps in the above that amazed me and made the process look safer, but still somewhat magical. I failed: most of the videos I found were marketing materials for large book printers and don’t cover anything before the moment of printing. The one below starts with the printed page and covers perfect binding – it’s not as fabulous as the one above but makes up for that by being under three minutes long.


(Or go to YouTube to watch it there.)

And as a bonus, here’s how Random house do their thing, from editing, to covers, to marketing. This is also close to 10 minutes long.


(Find it on YouTube)

Genre and world building: Paolo Bacigalupi, Lauren Beukes and Jesse Bullington in conversation

When I found out that there would be a conversation Google hangout with Paolo Bacigalupi, Lauren Beukes and Jesse Bullington yesterday I got really excited. It was at  the perfect time to watch with dinner so I bookmarked the page and updated my calendar. Then I promptly forgot all about it and went about my evening as if the internet did not exist.

Luckily, the conversation is available on YouTube. The writers cover several different topics but the first 15 minutes are about world building, a topic that I find endlessly fascinating. They then move on to character, another compelling topic. The video’s almost 59 minutes long and there’s a spoiler or two, but it’s all interesting stuff.

(And if the iframe doesn’t show, go straight to YouTube.)

Enjoy!

So you want to write a novel – the animated short film

I really like this little film about what it takes to write and get published. The writer character feels frighteningly real.

My favourite bit comes at around 2:58. “How many editors do you think Random House will assign to my book? Because it will need a lot of editing. I’m not the best speller.” Watching it is 4:38 minutes well spent.