Let’s focus on quality!

Editor – S K Khurana Print has always fascinated me. Being a printing technologist, it has been my hobby to collect good printed samples from all walks of life – whether it is an excellently printed ticket or a restaurant menu card or a book – my collection is forever increasing. Whenever I pick up a book, before going through the content, I look at its production quality. If it is produced well, it immediately catches my attention. That does not implies that content is immaterial—in fact content is the king…always! But, reach to the content increases if the book is produced well.

With increasing competition from ebooks, it becomes all the more important to catch the reader’s attention – in print. So, what are the major attributes of a good book? The idea is to entice the senses. To see is to believe…hence the overall production quality of the book is important. The title and the spine design, the colour combination, the printing and the binding quality – all are equally important.

The feel of the book too makes a difference – the paper used for the book also matter. Sometimes, value-additions on the covers like a different texture, spot UV, etc make the cover not only interesting but also good to touch and feel.

Then, comes the ergonomy – the flatter the book opens, the easier it is to read. Besides, font style and its size are also important for a reader enabling comfortable read.

Finally it is the content…whatever genre it is…the content has to be the best – thoroughly researched, edited and formatted. There are innovative ways to present the same content. Children books, for example, should have a bigger font size and lot of illustrations/pictures. Books meant for older people also need to have bigger fonts. Choose your style wisely – in sync with your target audience.

Let your book stand out in the crowd…apart from keeping intact the very interest of your reader i.e. good quality product by all means! After all there’s nothing like winding off with a well produced book after a tiring day.

Happy publishing!

SK Khurana
sk@smediagroup.in