Once Neil had given the okay for Hill House to publish limited editions of
his major works, we knew that we had to create more than just the usual limited
edition. After all, Neil is more than just the usual writer. We were
going to have to engage the services of some of the best people in the
business—people committed to their craft and dedicated to bringing all their
creative resources into play.
Unfortunately, these people are few and far between—and locating them is no
small feat, not to mention getting them to make time in their busy schedules.
It took a tremendous amount of time—not to mention luck—to assemble a group
that would bring into being the finest examples of the bookbinder's art—volumes
that would be consonant with the talents of Neil Gaiman.
One note: as we're sure you know, there are many different grades of
limited editions. In many cases, the publisher will simply use the plates
from the trade edition. The interior of the limited will be
indistinguishable from the trade edition, even though the case of the book may
be more deluxe and the book may include a slipcase.
In 1989, Hill House made the decision to
provide a completely new design for the text of every one of our books.
This fact is especially important when one is doing a different trim size from
the original. For example, the trim size of the trade edition of AMERICAN
GODS is 6" x 9". The Hill House limited edition is 7" x 10". We also
knew that we wanted to have a striking new design for our book—one that would
set it apart from the run-of-the-mill limited editions. And so we started
a search for a book designer who could do the project we envisioned.
After a search of several months, we were fortunate enough to be put in
contact with Shubhani Sarkar. Shubhani is a
designer for a well-known trade publisher and she has already carved out a
reputation for taking bold new steps in the relatively stodgy world of book
design. Once we persuaded her that we were were intent on bringing out
truly fine books, she sent us some examples of her work. Some examples
from her portfolio are reproduced below:
Title Page for THE REPUBLIC OF EAST L.A.
Title Page for QUICKSILVER
(Note that the title page for Neal Stephenson's QUICKSILVER is taken from the
trade edition, not the Hill House edition—you can see two of Shubhani's
proposals for
the limited edition title page for this title below.)
Proposed Title Page for QUICKSILVER
Proposed Title Page for QUICKSILVER
