Broccoli Books Blog

Galaxy Angel II vol 1 will be pushed back 2 weeks to accomodate for some printing issues that came up.

Our printer recently got a new binding machine, which is now binding all of the books tighter than before, creating a thinner spine. While it doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal, it’s a big deal for us when the spine width is now smaller than 1/2 inch.

The spine issue is more of a sales & marketing thing. Our books are already smaller than most on market (we use the standard B6 size, which is the same size as your typical 460yen - 580yen Japanese manga), and with a smaller number of titles, we really need to fight for shelf space & visibility in the stores. With a thinner spine, it makes it harder for consumers looking for the book to find it… and also makes it almost invisible to those who might casually pick it up.

So we went through all different options (going thin, using different paper that’s in-stock, using a different paper that’s not in-stock, etc etc)…

We really wanted to avoid using newsprint paper. Even though they bulk up the thickness of the book, they yellow easily (besides being a low quality paper). Of course with Galaxy Angel II vol 1 being 224 pages, newsprint would have made it a very FAT book.

Our printer found a new paper… 60lbs off-set vellum… which will keep the original spine width. The only problem is that the paper won’t be delivered to the printer until AFTER the holiday season. So the book will be printed in early January, and hopefully will be delivered to the stores by February 7.

All because of a single (but gigantic) binding machine.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Galaxy Angel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.