Jenny Bradley Writer

Communication is an art fraught with difficulties. You think you have made things as clear as that unspoilt stream high in the New Zealand mountains. Turns out, you haven't. Working on the latest book 'Sibling Poets' with big brother Jonathan, this has happened to both of us. After sending the original text and layout, we discover that for some reason our publisher - a very experienced and well thought of publishing house - has attached what we intended as the first page to the introduction. Several emails later, we accept a compromise.  I will attempt to explain. Our book is a collection of fifty poems, in pairs, one by yours truly and the other by big brother. Each pair of poems is preceded by a short piece of text introducing and explaining how these poems fit with the story of our lives. It is arranged in chronological order.  Thus we needed a short piece of text before the first pair of poems that was not part of the introduction.  Publishing convention is that page ...

Ah, the mysteries of style pages! How do you tell a graphic designer how you want your book to look?  It's a bit like telling a hairdresser what style hair you want. It never quite seems to look how you expect even if you have a picture of what you want. Your hair is different from the model's and anyway, you're probably 30 years older. (And then try repeating the new style at home once you wash you hair!). So it is with style pages. I have an idea in my head. I'd like it to look something like 'book x' but when the pages come back they look nothing like. My interpretation and theirs is clearly very different, or maybe it's like my hair, the unruly words won't be squashed into shape.  It's an iterative process requiring goodwill and patience on both sides. Until one day, the style pages arrive and suddenly, it looks like the book - more or less - you had in mind. Exciting!