Afterword is a new Q&A series with authors to give an insight into the different ways you can produce a publication. Every author is asked the same five questions about a selected book.
Inside pages of 21st Century Folk Art: Social art and/as research (Social Art Publications, 2019). Photo credit: Lucy Wright
Lucy Wright is an artist and researcher living in Leeds and ‘head librarian’ of the Social Art Library.
1. How did you start making your publication?
My book, 21st Century Folk Art: Social art and/as research was basically created to celebrate ten years since the start of my practice-led PhD. In 2019, I realised that I’d been working on the same set of questions about ‘folk’ and the nature of tradition in the 21st century for a decade. As a social artist, I’m not usually very motivated by the production of art objects (although this might be starting to change), so the majority of the work I’d done was scattered about in different places, some online, some not. I wanted to pull everything together—all my photos and writings and artefacts—and take stock; to see where I’d come from, where I’d been, where I might choose to go next. At first, I’d intended this to be for my eyes only, but as I started going through everything, I decided I wanted to create a more permanent record of everything. I have to admit there was also a bit of ego in there too–I wanted to see a book with my name on, on the shelf!
I’d never created a book before, so it was quite a steep learning curve to get to grips with InDesign, but an incredibly valuable one, as I’ve since produced a couple more in a similar way!
“I wanted to pull everything together—all my photos and writings and artefacts—and take stock; to see where I’d come from, where I’d been, where I might choose to go next.”
2. How did you print your publication?
I was really fortunate that around the time I was trying to decide which printer to go with, Marcelo (RM Sanchéz-Camus, SAP) had recently printed his book, Elan Calls, with www.digitalprinting.co.uk. I had been considering a couple of cheaper places online, notably, Mixam who also do great quality prints, but what swung it for me with Digital Printing was the selection of specialist papers. You can request a sample pack so that you can have a proper look (and feel) of all the different papers, which made it easier to visualise what the final product would look like. I went with their Premium Uncoated paper for the inners and Constellation Snow for the cover. My book was perfect bound which meant that it had a spine and the cover image wrapped around, uninterrupted!
3. How did you fund your publication?
An unexpected bonus from work funded the print costs of my book! It was a little pricey as an outlay, but I’ve been able to make a reasonable amount back in sales. Digital Printing is great because it has an online quotation calculator where you can input your book specification—how many pages, what sort of paper, binding etc.—and it will give you an instant costing. If it’s too much, you can toggle things around a bit and get it down to a better price for your budget. I’ve also used some of the more budget printers for other projects and have always been really happy with the results. You can spend an absolute fortune on a bespoke book, but you can also put something out there for relatively little money that still looks great.
4. How did distribute your book and what has the response been?
21st Century Folk Art was launched at Live Art Development Agency in London, at the same time as SAP was launched in December 2019. SAP’s partnership with LADA / The Unbound has been a real boon and my book has sold out there twice, to date!
Having an ISBN is brilliant too: I’ve received a couple of orders for university libraries through being listed that way, plus it means that a copy of your publication is held in the British Library, which feels reassuringly permanent.
As head librarian at Social Art Library, I am also duty-bound to say that my book is also part of our growing archive of social projects online. This is another great way to share your work with others in the social art community, as well as researchers and curators looking for what’s new.
5. Any final tips and tricks?
Publishing my book through SAP was an unmitigated pleasure for me. It was invaluable to be able to draw on the support and expertise of my peers as I navigated some of the practicalities of print for the first time. I’m also incredibly proud to share my work alongside artists I admire so much.
“It was invaluable to be able to draw on the support and expertise of my peers as I navigated some of the practicalities of print for the first time.”
In terms of tips and tricks, I’d say give yourself plenty of time, especially if you’re new to typesetting/design. It’s really well worth taking the time to make sure your layouts are balanced and pleasing to the eye and that your text says exactly what you want it to. There’s nothing that focuses the mind quite like knowing you’ll soon be hitting print on tens, possibly hundreds of copies of your work, with the intention of sharing it with the wider world, so don’t feel as if you have to rush!
Secondly, images can be really, really important for giving a sense of your project to someone who wasn’t there, so try to get good, high-res photographs that help to tell your story in ways that words might miss. Be aware though, that if you go for a perfect bound book, like I did, that you lose a small chunk of the inner edge of the layout where the pages are glued to the spine, so try not to position anything super-important right in the centre of a spread. It’s not a big deal, but if you’re really worried about it you can go for staple binding or even lay-flat binding.
You can buy 21st Century Folk Art: Social Art and/as Research directly from Lucy’s website.