{"id":207,"date":"2013-01-04T16:56:29","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T16:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/?p=207"},"modified":"2015-01-08T15:39:56","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T15:39:56","slug":"ten-things-ive-learnt-about-making-a-booka-journey-from-computer-file-to-warehouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/2013\/01\/ten-things-ive-learnt-about-making-a-booka-journey-from-computer-file-to-warehouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten things I\u2019ve learnt about making a book:a journey from computer file to warehouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 19th December 2012 I was lucky enough to visit Mackays<\/a> printing factory (part of the CPI group), to see my debut novel, Ten Things I\u2019ve Learnt About Love<\/em> come off the press.<\/p>\n

It was an amazing day, and I\u2019ll be blogging about the creation of the hardback copy of Ten Things<\/em> in the next couple of weeks. I also got a tour of the factory while the paperback of Rachel Joyce\u2019s The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry<\/em> was being printed. It was fascinating to find out what goes into making a physical book….<\/p>\n

Here are ten moments in that journey from computer file to finished book.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The computer files are checked to make sure everything\u2019s in order, and are then laid out (using a clever piece of software) in 48 page sections, which, when cut and folded, will ensure every page is in the right place.<\/p>\n

\"checking<\/a><\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The next stage is called \u2018imposition\u2019 (!). The text is imposed onto aluminium plates. UV light burns away everything except for the text.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"2a_making<\/a>\"2b_making<\/a><\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> The plates are set up in one of the printing machines. The ink is transferred from the plates onto a \u2018blanket\u2019 (which is made out of rubber, not wool!) and then from the blanket onto the paper. This is called offset printing.<\/p>\n

\"loading<\/a><\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> The text is first printed onto a single, huge sheet of paper. This is then cut into four pieces which are laid on top of each other (don\u2019t ask me how!) and cut down to page size. So you end up with 48 page sections. This machine pictured here can print 33,000 sections an hour! The sections are bundled up and packed on to crates.<\/p>\n

\"3a_printing\"<\/a>\"3c_sections\"<\/a>
\n5.<\/strong> The next step is the binding machine. Each section is aligned in order and the machine collates them (incredibly quickly) to create the complete book.<\/p>\n

\"7b_collating<\/a>6.<\/strong> A machine grinds 3mm off the spine to get it ready to be glued to the cover.<\/p>\n

\"8c#_covers<\/a><\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> The cover is glued on and the books take a trip around the factory on a huge conveyer belt to give them time to dry.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0625\"<\/a>
\n8.<\/strong> I hadn\u2019t realised that books are printed in twos \u2013 attached at the head if you like (pictured below). They are then sawed in half and every second book is rotated so they are all facing the same way.<\/p>\n

\"printed<\/a>
\n9.<\/strong> The pages are then cut flush to the cover.<\/p>\n

\"9_cutting<\/a>
\n10.<\/strong> A machine stacks up books in the desired number, and they are packaged in plastic to keep them safe during transit.
\n\"stacking<\/a>\"wrapping<\/a>I’d like to say a massive thank you to Karen and Daniel at Mackays and to Geoff at Picador for arranging the visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 19th December 2012 I was lucky enough to visit Mackays printing factory (part of the CPI group), to see my debut novel, Ten Things I\u2019ve Learnt About Love come off the press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}