Thursday, April 14, 2011

Making Books is Fun to Watch - 1947!

In this age of computers and self-publishing your own e-book, ever wonder how those old books got made?  Watch this 1947 video of “Making Books is Fun to Watch” from the Huffington Post.  What a fascinating but laborious process.  Kept thinking, what if someone got the lines out of sequence, or they dropped the lines and spilled those letters all over the floor.   

No wonder it was so difficult to made changes in the galleys.  It would be a huge process to change a couple of words here or there.  Wow.  And that’s just for one book.  How many books did they print a year, and where did they store all this stuff for future reprints?  The video is 10 minutes, but I guarantee you’ll never be able to look at a book the same way, especially those older books that smelled so nice, those books made the old fashioned way.


Now that you're inspired to write, go out and make your own book...the easy way.


2 comments:

sintaicharles said...

Wow, there are so many etched plates for printing a book. How difficult it was to get a book printed, trimmed, bound and covered in the past.

My e-mail: charles70823@yahoo.com

Borneo Expat Writer said...

Got it, thanks. Didn't see it earlier. Mind-boggling how laborious it was. I'm sure the printing unions were happy!