I first saw people talking about sprayed edges on books a few years ago. It was rare and I’d never seen it outside of creatives who do art on the fore edge of a book. I was intrigued, but not enough to try it. I guess I’m just not that cutting-edge.
Now it seems like books with sprayed edges are everywhere. Bigger authors even get digital prints on the edges of their books, which means they can have pretty much anything put there. But those kind of things take very large print runs, and I am still very small. While I’m currently speaking with a new manufacturer about getting books produced with some attractive extra features, I still don’t have the readership to support very big ventures like that, so I guess it’s time to add a new skill to the list of things I can do.
The concept seemed pretty simple: wrap the covers with paper, tape the edge of the spine, clamp the books between boards, and paint. Well, I already had everything needed for the project, so I figured it would be a great opportunity to practice by making some special hardcovers as thank-you gifts for the wonderful beta readers that helped me develop The Witch and the Wyrm.
The first hitch was that my airbrush decided to do nothing but clog. Unfortunately, that’s just sort of the way airbrushes are, so I decided to give it a go with a regular paint brush instead.
I learned a couple things pretty quickly.
One, don’t use too much tape on the spine. It’s better to get paint on the cover and wipe it off with a cotton swab than to have too much tape and end up with bare spots at the base of the pages.
Two, don’t thin the paint for application by brush.
Three, trying to fix thin spots results in everything turning blotchy. Better get it right the first time.
Only one of those really matters for airbrushing, but I think in the future, I’ll pick up some Tamiya or Vallejo acrylics for painting edges instead of trying to thin regular acrylics.
In the end, though, I think the books turned out well enough, and my betas were delighted by the idea of having the only hardcovers that came with colored page edges.
Combined with the features the new printer I’m planning to work with has to offer for books, I think this spells good things for the future and what kind of special editions I’ll be able to offer.
I’m considering getting more of my books made in hardcover format, but right now, I’m a bit unsure.
Are you more of a hardcover reader or a paperback person?
