Printing - It's all about the People

I am just back from three days in Verona, spending time with my colleagues at the factory.


Not that I needed a reminder, but here are 10 really good reasons to print your next book with Mondadori. And there are many more, it's just that my camera battery died before I could capture them all!! For that, my apologies.




















And that's just the beginning of everything Mondadori has to offer. Thanks everyone for a great time! xxxx

London Book Fair - Tuesday Evening - And yes, there was more eating

Its important in the middle of all this bad news to stop and smell the flowers, which is exactly what my colleague Maria Luisa from Verona decided to do.




Dealing with all the uncertainty is just plain exhausting. At the end of the day, a group of us who had come to London to represent Mondadori put business out of our minds and took a leisurely walk down London's side streets, in search of some place to have dinner.






I designated myself "Leader in Search of a Cute Place to Eat" and marshaled the group which included Italians who were too cold to eat outside, a Brit who need to stop for a cigarette break, and a noisy American like myself who was GETTING REALLY HUNGRY NOW.



We settled on an Italian restaurant serving Buffalo chicken wings, and everyone was happy.


And then sad, because really we did have an awfully good time together, despite all the gloom and doom, and these times when we can all be together are too short.

London Book Fair -Tuesday

I think most people were relieved to see that the London Fair was crowded, packed actually. A comforting mass of people jammed their way down the aisles. I had to hold two meetings standing up, as the Mondadori Booth was so crowded there were not enough seats for everyone.

And still, there is overwhelming uncertainty in the air. And so, many of us took comfort in just getting together and talking with old friends from the business. I was glad to share thoughts with Leslie van Breen of Hudson Hills, Dan Farrell of the Antique Collectors Club, Sherry Babbit of the Philadelphia Museum. I also had a chance to pitch ideas to Leslie Stoker of STC, Michael Jacobs of Abrams, Frank Oppel of Book Sales, Robert Abrams of Abbeville. There might even be a few resulting sales from these meetings, we'll see.



Paolo Scaramuzzo from Imago was proud to display a kit designed for children in the British school system by the Kew Gardens, that allows them to perform various horticultural experiments and learn all about Darwin's adventures and discoveries.





Steve Bryant of Everbest was looking suave and unflappable as ever, and expressed confidence that we'd all be making buckets of money by the end of the year.

London Book Fair - Monday

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Are these the last few people on the planet who read books???






Monday was the first day of the Fair, and yes we did do some work.

But the nicest part of the day was a "Sex in the City" moment in the late afternoon, lounging around the hotel lobby bar with Elsa from Paris and Maria Eugenia from Barcelona, and a couple rounds of Cosmopolitans and Margaritas!

Later we went off in search of an Italian restaurant. We never found the one that had been recommended to us. Instead we stumbled (not literally) on this cute little joint - Ollins Restaurant - with probably six tables and three giant chandeliers.  Dinner was great, and a bottle of Sicilian wine kept the conversation flowing from politics, to movies, to husbands, to dessert. 

London Book Fair - Sunday afternoon - Taking it Easy

I know New York City pretty well, after living there for 15 years. And once upon a time I could find my way around Hong Kong, in fact on a day off I would play a game in which I would actually try to get lost. But I always managed to orient myself because of the Harbour and the Peak, and never really got very turned-around.




But there is no other city I can really figure out. I could never figure out Boston, after four years of going to college there. And to a great extent the layout of Washington DC, where I travel once a month, is still pretty obscure to me (I have this vague impression that it is more or less like a circle, or a snail shell - wait, maybe that's Paris ...)




I wake up this afternoon in my London hotel, after a flight from New York in which every conversation on the airplane, subway, on the street seems to have to d0 with publishing and seems to invariably include "And Business is Down by 40%!" Outside, I have no idea where I am in relation to anything else in London, but it is Spring and it is beautiful and I am touched by that magical feeling that strolling through a foreign city on a lovely afternoon can give you. I decide to get lost, which shouldn't be too hard.



I have been to London several times already, but still really have no sense of the overall layout or feel of the place. I wonder: Is this what it all looks like? Who knows, but this is what it looks like to me. For all us clueless Americans there is lettering on every street corner to remind you which way to look so that you don't get flattened.





Another reason why you might get distracted and bowled over by on-coming traffic is that it is just so incredibly cute. Yes, it does look like this.





Even the back alley ways are picturesque









Good Heavens! Who would have expected such unusual birdlife! I risk getting flattened (again) to capture this "National Geographic" shot of what is probably an ordinary London Bird, but looks highly exotic to me. He's big too!






Later I meet up with my colleague Nancy, and our wanderings inevitably lead us to a cute cafe and a glass of wine. After which we wind our way through these small streets, hitting dead-ends, false turns, a secret pathway between a tall garden hedge and finally make it back to our hotel just in time for our pre-Fair meeting.

Turbulence

I recently spent the week in Washington DC and then New York City.  These are such crazy times, with publishers, directors, managers being laid off right and left.  And yet at the same time, it seems to me that people are starting to focus on what comes next. Whether that means honing in on That One Special Talent or Market, or trying something completely different. Maybe we are all starting to come to grips with the complete shock of seeing friends and colleagues and respected mentors get laid off - and beginning to focus our energies on what each of us can do to keep business moving.

Some people are focusing in on their specialty. John, a packager I know who combines incredible good taste with charm and good looks, is overwhelmed with work at the moment, all of it celebrity-driven. "These clients are so high maintenance" he sighs, "but it seems to be the work I'm known for".  Doesn't sound too bad, being the book packager to the stars!  

Others are exploiting a niche. My friend Steve is doing incredibly well selling something called components: those items like book jackets and covers for bestselling books and kids books, that have all the fancy foil stamped type and special sparkly varnishes.

Other people I know in the printing business are taking a look at some of the non-traditional applications of their technology. A friend of mine at Toppan showed me samples of a new, high-grade lenticular printing, which made me think of William Gibson's holographic rock diva in Idoru...

And some people are just completely re-thinking what they want to do next. Mary, a friend who worked for one of my biggest customers, just got laid off and is thinking of starting her own "green" publishing company, something she's had in mind for a while. This change in employment status is the motivation she needs to take a serious look at this idea. Her friends have rallied to help her: "I've got a lot of contacts, and people have been incredibly helpful with introductions and support."

And then there are the entrepreneurs like Bahar, who see this time as an opportunity to experiment with and exploit new forms of communication, through his podcasting company Sonibyte. I think Bahar is determined to turn everything in print into a podcast! Books, magazines, even blogs, are all possible sources for this new audio tool.

In the world of traditional book printing and publishing, it is definitely a challenge trying to cajole clients to spend the extra money to print in Italy. Then, once the job is printed, the next challenge is getting paid! Just in time, Mondadori's director of Sales and Marketing flew in from Italy last week to spend quality time with some of our best customers,  administering a combination of arm twisting and good old Italian charm. We are nearly out of ammunition at this point, so let's hope this works!

By the end of the week I am trying to nail down my schedule for the London Book Fair. But who is going to the London Book Fair in April? Is anyone going to the London Book Fair in April?

Carved in Stone

For six years, William Wylie photographed the changing landscape of the Carrara marble quarry. His images capture the intense physical scale of the site, the dramatic setting, and the character of the stone cutters - caravatori - whose families have worked the quarries for generations.

Wylie has worked extensively on the subject of place - from the American West to Europe. His photographs have been widely exhibited, and may be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Yale University Art Museum and others.



Bill Wylie was on press recently at Mondadori for his latest project, CARRARA, which celebrates the legendary Cava di Gioia quarry in Carrara, the source of the luminous white marble used by Michelangelo, Bernini, and Henry Moore. It is a beautifully printed project in duotone and four-color. I just received my advance copy and I confess, it definitely took my mind off the daily drone of economic disasters.


Which stone supports the bridge, Kublai Khan asks? The bridge is not supported by one stone or another, Marco answers, but by the line of the arch that they form. Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: Why to you speak to me of stones? It is only the arch that matters. Polo answers: Because without the stones there is no arch. (Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities).

These questions from Kublai Khan are all quite interesting. But I wonder if Marco Polo could also tell me why these Carrara stone cutters are so darn stylish and good-looking?

Sartorialist, perhaps you would know ....