We also had a special visitor come and talk with our class about the publishing process. Heather McGee is a designer at Candlewick Press. She works with authors, editors, illustrators, printers, and many other people to get books ready. We had many, many questions for her, but she knew all of the answers. Being a book designer sounds like a lot of work, but she really loves her job.
She showed us a book she designed, The Black Rabbit. She had to make many choices for this book: from details about what color to make the title to what kinds of illustrations would be best. Even though people say, "You can't judge a book by its cover," the designer spends a lot of time making the cover exciting for readers, so they will choose it when they see it at the library or book store.
We learned that the whole process of publishing a book takes more than a year!
This is a large color proof sent from the printer. It is called a running sheet. The designer and illustrator check it to make sure that everything is printing as it should. Sometimes, they need to change the colors to make certain things stand out more. The colored bars on the side show the four ink colors they use in the gigantic printing press: cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black. These four colors get printed in layers to make up every other color!
Heather also shared a few other books that her company has made, and she donated a few to our classroom for us to read and enjoy. Thank you!
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