We recently sent out a Newsletter to subscribers of the Barry Plummer Deep Purple Photobook project with exclusive news and previews. While we use professional mailing list providers to keep this information secure, inevitably some people’s operating systems still shunt emails like this into junk folders. So if you have not seen it yet, do check there! Don’t forget you can subscribe to updates on most of our forthcoming titles on the relevant pages.
After some pondering we have decided to introduce a larger A4 format series to allow us to tackle a couple of projects which require a landscape format. So after much deliberation this will be imaginatively listed as the Landscape Series (there are only the two of us in the office so the focus group consultation wasn’t too exhausting!). There are two immediate titles planned of which we can show the cover for the first below, covering Barry Plummer’s Deep Purple photo archive. More details will be added to the site in the next few weeks.
We usually try and work out a book’s front cover very early on; it helps focus minds and give everyone something visual to work with. And also it’s usually needed for sales information too. The problem is that inevitably small changes will need to be made but hopefully the basic design stays the same. After that the rest of the cover can wait as energies go into the inside pages, but we’re now trying to get the artwork for the Fire In The Sky cover prepared. The cover is a bit of a strange beast as it needs to be laid out flat but you have to keep in mind that it will be folded and creased to form a front, spine and back. Plus we like to have those wrap round flaps which sort of echo dust-jackets. The spine is often a bit of a guess but normally the rest of the book is prepared, and then if the spine needs to be made slightly bigger to fit I have to drop everything, adjust the artwork accordingly and get a new production files over to the printer within half an hour or so. Any of our titles which have a music theme, we use an image of album sleeve spines for the book spine. The idea is that if people have a few of the book titles, it will end up looking a bit like a mini vinyl shelf. It’s perhaps a little ambitious but our designer likes the concept!
The inside can look a little strange when viewed flat as the art needs to match up to whatever is happening on the first page of the actual book.
There have been quite a few emails coming in this last week or so asking why, if another website is busy announcing a new release date for one of our next titles, do we not have that information here? The answer is simple, we did not know about this! The website did not bother to contact us to check. So rest assured, as soon as we have a reliable production date for each of our next three titles it will appear here BEFORE anywhere else! Likewise if you order direct from us (once pre-orders go live) you will get the book BEFORE anyone else (that includes you know who) has stock.
Our next three titles are now close to production and will be the DEEP PURPLE BARRY PLUMMER PHOTO BOOK, The Deep Purple MACHINE HEAD biography FIRE IN THE SKY and the BOOM BOOM BRIAN SMITH BLUES PHOTO collection.
And just to prove things are happening, here’s a peek at a chunk of the Fire In The Sky page layouts (generated from within the layout software) which are being proofed and photo cleared at present. Our designer has added a colour coding to each section to make navigating what is becoming an increasingly complex document (there are over 700 images) a little easier!
Well 2019 didn’t pan out quite like we’d planned! With both Simon and Ann having had time in hospital, one after the other, current book projects had to be put on hold for some considerable time. However with the New Year, Easy On The Eye Books are starting to get moving once again and the titles which got held up are now being prepared for publication. We anticipate that the Fire In The Sky book will be first, this is now into the final photo clearing phase, with text proofed and the book laid out. This book has become much bigger than originally planned (around 700 images in total!) so will have around 260 pages now. This will be quickly followed by the Boom Boom Blues photo book, and then we’ll tackle the next two titles. Goodness knows how brexit will affect things this year but we’ll do our best (we print in mainland Europe, so have been dreading this). Anyhow, expect more page spreads and other updates in the coming weeks. Our thanks to everyone for their patience.
The illustration above is from the popular I Spy pocket books which were a publishing phenomena during the 1950s and 1960s. These are a big favourite with Simon and he has compiled a few pages devoted to them on his design site – check the link above.
This interesting image turned up recently while we were working on the Deep Purple book all about their seminal Machine Head album. Anyone familiar with the lyrics “We all came down to Montreux” should realise that this is a contemporary shot of the famous Montreux Casino, which burnt down in December 1971 causing chaos in the town, near disaster for Frank Zappa and his audience, but did inspire one of the most famous rock songs of all time, Smoke On The Water.
Frustratingly for us the photo just misses off the actual venue itself, that large grey block on the far right of the scene. But it does have a lot of atmosphere, although I’m struggling to know where it was taken from, as it’s somewhere in the lake! Nothing now remains of the Casino complex, which was later redeveloped. More details of the Deep Purple book Fire In The Sky can be found on the site, and the text is now in the proof-reading stage.
We were very chuffed to be given the ‘Book of The Month‘ choice in the respected German music monthly magazine Eclipsed’s February edition, for our German language edition of the Deep Purple in Rock biography. It’s nice for us, but also for the translator, proof reader and people at Hannibal books who commissioned this edition. You can read the full review (sent to us by Luts Reinert who helped in the early stages of the production), one of a growing number, on the German reviews page.
The German language edition of our popular Deep Purple book telling the story of the In Rock album and the events leading up to it is finally out. What I assumed would be a relatively simple job of replacing the english text taking me a couple of weeks turned out into a mammoth three month job and a steep learning curve! ItBut the end result does look very good and it seems to be getting well received in Germany. The book can be ordered direct from the publishers there, Hannibal Books, who have their own shop. It will not be available through us. A big thank you to our translator, the people at Hannibal, our proof reader and everyone at the printers. All are credited in the book. There is a preview of the book on our flipbook page.
There are flipbook samples of the Deep Purple In Rock book on our library now. There are 20+ pages from the English edition, and 20+ different pages from the upcoming German edition, so you can get an idea of what the book looks like whatever the language!
ENGLISH EDITION flipbook:
http://online.fliphtml5.com/msya/hemg/
GERMAN EDITION flipbook:
http://online.fliphtml5.com/msya/nmbd/
The upcoming German edition of our popular Deep Purple title Wait For The Ricochet (see below) can be pre-ordered direct from the publisher’s on their site. Doing this helps everybody concerned from the writers to the distributors and helps stop Am*zon’s plan for world domination. The English edition can still be ordered direct from our shop.
easy on the eye books 