Painted Edges: My New Crush
“Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,” began John Keats in his famous sonnet,“ On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” 1816.
Not only was it a metaphor for the exquisite literature he’d read, but a reference to the gilded fore-edges of a book. The process of coating a book’s edges in gold became popular in England during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The edge could be painted in a solid color or contain a small work of art like this book from the Virginia Museum of Art & Culture.
This flourish has become new again and I love it. In fact, I’m drawn to buying and collecting such books. I first saw this on Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures, published by ECCO, an imprint of HarperCollins. Then last week, I picked up The Faraway Inn, a YA cozy fantasy by Sarah Beth Durst, that I LOVE (published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House and manufactured in India.)
So, the Big Five are pushing this trend. I wonder how promising you or your book must be to become one of the chosen ones. More importantly, as traditionally published books raise the “pretty” bar, where does that leave us Indie authors?
Many of us have our books printed on demand by either KDP/Amazon (who is still the cheapest source in Canada) or Ingram Spark Lightning Source (who have a global network but no printers in Canada.) Book Vault offers “sprayed edges” in either a solid color, chosen from a palette, or a custom design. If you live in or around Britain you have the “edge” here as that’s where they’re printed. I got a quote just out of interest.
To make my latest novel “bespoke” (with solid-painted edges) the cost came back at £8.87 or roughly $16.85 per book (for up to 99 copies.) For a 272-page paperback, this includes shipping from England to Winnipeg and then on to me on the West Coast. But not taxes.
If, like me, you sell your books at markets for around $20 or you write bigger books or books with smaller dimensions than 6×9 which equals more pages, the cost is prohibitive. This doesn’t consider your time and expertise, your expenses (such as market fees), advertising, editors, and marketing. Writing is, after all, a business for most of us, even if we haven’t given up our day job.
Having said that, I’m tempted to order a case of my latest standalone because I’m so enamored by the look.
But wait— Another option is to learn the craft and do it yourself. This really intrigues me. A quick search tells me there are authors out there painting their own edges and making them remarkably “pretty.” With some wooden planks larger than your book, four heavy-duty clamps, extra paper, a couple of good brushes and some good quality water-based paint, you’re on your way.
You could even invite your writer friends over for a painting session (maybe not wine and painting.) I just created wands and have some brilliant gold I’d love to play with. Beware of the Reader offers a step-by-step tutorial. I’d suggest starting with some of those books that you just can’t sell for whatever reason. You want to be able to paint “without bleed” before you start in on your good copies.
I do think that painted edges might become a “thing” in my library. Of course, I’ll have to stand them all spine-in, or lay them flat, so we can admire the lovely art.