The saying goes: Never judge a book by its cover. But what about the edges of its pages?<\/p>\n
Sumptuous fore-edges \u2013 sprayed a bright color, stenciled with city skylines, made to look like pointy teeth \u2013 used to be relatively rare. But in recent years, publishers have brought decorated edges to the masses. Edge-painted books are now so widespread that you can find them at Walmart. The feature has spread from romance and fantasy to horror, thrillers and even literary fiction; it\u2019s spread from works by famous authors with ravenous followings to those by debut novelists hoping to make a splash. It even has a (horrifying) portmanteau: spredges. On social media, readers show off floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed full of these books \u2013 spines facing inward, of course.<\/p>\n
Jim Sorensen, president of Lakeside Book Co., the largest book manufacturer in North America, recalled the time a decade ago, when a colleague brought back edge-printing samples from a work trip to Europe. \u201cHonestly, there wasn\u2019t a whole lot of interest\u201d from clients, Sorensen said. Times have changed: \u201cWe\u2019re now producing millions and millions of books on an annual basis with this specialized edge design.\u201d Since bringing in new equipment last year, the company has quadrupled its capacity for such projects.<\/p>\n
The surge was driven by a few corners of the publishing world. S ubscription companies, such as LitJoy Crate and Illumicrate, seeded interest (and a sense of exclusivity) among readers as they printed relatively small runs that quickly sold out. Self-published authors, selling special editions of their books on their personal websites or at conventions, also helped to popularize the look. This prompted publishers to invest in the trend. When, in 2023, Bloom Books sprayed the pages of Elle Kennedy\u2019s Off-Campus novels in powder blue, the set hit the bestseller lists \u2013 an unusual success for a collector\u2019s bundle.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were excited for the new covers \u2013 but they were really excited for the edges,\u201d Editorial Director Christa D\u00e9sir said.<\/p>\n
Barnes & Noble, after seeing the trend take off with the exclusive editions sold by its sister chain Waterstones, now devotes an entire section of its website to decorated, stenciled and sprayed edges. Decorated edges have \u201cdeveloped into an extension of the book experience itself,\u201d said Shannon DeVito, director of books at Barnes & Noble.<\/p>\n
The printed-edge craze has also opened up a new business niche. Inspired by DIY videos, Stephanie Moreno launched an edge-painting service earlier this year, including live painting at author events. What, after all, could be more limited than an edition only offered at a single local signing? \u201cIt\u2019s a way to create excitement, bring people together, and give them a nice look that\u2019s different for their book,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For designers, the edge gives a whole new surface to play with and another opportunity to make a book recognizable. \u201cFrom a creative standpoint, it\u2019s thrilling,\u201d said Molly Waxman, executive director of marketing for adult fiction and nonfiction at Sourcebooks. Logistically, there were some kinks to work out, she added \u2013 such as building in time for ink to dry, so pages don\u2019t curl unattractively.<\/p>\n
As printed edges have flooded into stores, ramping up the competition for eyeballs, \u201cthe bigger race is being able to manage all of these specs and still hold a price point that\u2019s not going to be so difficult for a consumer,\u201d D\u00e9sir said. \u201cI\u2019m not worried about us not having good edges. I\u2019m more worried about: Can the book carry it? Is this something that\u2019s going to sell enough that we can actually make it work at that price point?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot every book needs edges,\u201d DeVito said. Factors that publishers consider before spraying include genre and audience, and \u201cwhat\u2019s going to merchandise really well and stack well and draw your eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some, the novelty has worn off, with rumblings of complaint among some customers and booksellers. \u201cSprayed edges serve as a false flag of popularity,\u201d Selah Jordan wrote in a recent article for Paste, complaining of books that smelled like fresh spray paint, many of them chipping in transit.<\/p>\n
Anyone thrown for a loop by this trend can take solace in history. When, in the 1500s, people in the English-speaking world started storing their books upright and on shelves \u2013 moving them from chests and lecterns \u2013 they stored them just as many TikTokers do: with pages facing out. Title information was printed there in ink, said Mark Purcell, director for research and collections at Cambridge University\u2019s libraries and archives.<\/p>\n
Then, starting around the early 1600s in England, modish bookbinders started gilding titles on the spines of books, and so collectors started to reverse their displays. The practice spread gradually and unevenly over a century-and-a-half in what\u2019s called \u201cthe Great Turnaround.\u201d \u201cIt depends where you are, how up-to-date you are, how fashionable you are, how wealthy you are, what your library is like, all sorts of things,\u201d Purcell said.<\/p>\n
But wait, how did pages-out become standard way back in the first place? \u201cI think you could just flip the question around,\u201d Purcell said. \u201cWhy is it the convention that we store them with the spines out? There\u2019s no reason \u2013 it\u2019s just what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did note one possible practical consideration favoring the old way: Some libraries threaded chains through their collections for security reasons, and the system only worked with the pages facing out. Publishers looking for the next big thing, take note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The saying goes: Never judge a book by its cover. But what about the edges of its pages?…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-112643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114958534289222493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}