Take a look at what is new at Booksby Press!

It has been a difficult summer and busy autumn at Booksby, causing me to miss five newsletters, but I’m back. This December issue will be my year end recap and note the few planned projects for 2024.

2023 saw a lot of growth at Booksby Press. Book V of the Book Culture series was completed at the end of December 2022 and released in early January. Books VI and VIII were also released in 2023 with Book VII slated for release later this month. Our first book of Victoria Roses’s poetry, Gentle Wonderings, and the beautiful book of Daved Cohen’s poetry, Touching the Harp Strings were both introduced early this year. Micro-miniature editions of three previous titles, Seven Secret Stories, Gentle Wonderings, and The Lonely Gingerbread Boy came out to great reception. In October Patrick Hansma’s second Halloween book, Ashtophet was released along with the third Booksby Press/ZeroFaded pocket calendar with Andie Brown’s charming artwork. The final project for this year, the embroidered book "Trees" has taken 18 months to complete.

In addition to the eleven regular editions in 2023 I also completed four small, commissioned editions of 20 or less copies. These books fall into the new product line I am offering, Books of Remembrance. The standard Book of Remembrance consists of 30 of your photographs, captioned or uncaptioned, in a hardbound miniature book. I design a personalized binding based on a few of your preferences. Subjects that I have made books for include cherished pets and loved ones, special occasions such as birthdays and weddings, and business products like baked goods or hand-crafted objects ‘d art.

I would like to expand the commissioned books side of publishing as well. If you have a memory, event, or product you would like to immortalize in miniature please do reach out and we will make it a reality.

I am still working on offering antiquarian and 20th century miniature books in catalog format. I have an expanding inventory of books, but I am just not up to creating the software to run it. I am talking with a developer and hope to have functioning software by spring.

The embroidered and jeweled edition of Joyce Kilmer’s poem Trees has been the most complex and most rewarding book from the Booksby Press to date. It was a collaboration of four artists bringing their best work to the table. Andrea Boltrez provided the amazingly embroidered covers, Victoria Rose created several charming watercolor illustrations, Robert Wu’s incomparable marbled papers served as endpapers, and yours truly brought them all together in the bindery. Half of the 20 unique books were sold in the first week.

The other new service I started offering in 2023 is the personalized journal. I can now place your name (up to 10 characters) in gold on the cover of my Japanese journals or art journals for a small additional fee.

Another new project on the horizon is a series of blank journals bound in Andrea's handmade pastepaper.
Look for them to debut later in December or early January.

On the sales side of things, my son has been continually upgrading the website to offer more options and a more user-friendly experience. I attended two different types of shows this past year with modest success. I had a table at the Miniature Book Society miniature book fair in Asheville, North Carolina in April and the Ann Arbor Dollhouse and Miniature Show in May. Both shows had good sales, but more importantly, Introduced Booksby Press and miniature books to hundreds of new people.

2024 hopefully will see further growth in both the quality and quantity of books I can offer as well as more new venues for offering them. Along with Book Culture VII which I am planning for a late December or early January release, there are several new projects in the discussion stage now. Both Andrea and Victoria are already planning big to stretch my abilities again with another embroidered edition and a pop-up book. There are possibly three books of a more historical nature (decorated papers, early 20th century cover art, ancient Roman tiles) being discussed. The text has already been selected and is in the editing stage for Patrick’s 2024 Halloween book. I am talking with a new author for a possible Book Culture IX book, and I’m sure Andie will come up with something charming for our 2025 calendar. There are a couple more books I really want to publish next year, but circumstances are making that difficult so more information on them will be revealed as it becomes available.

I am also considering exhibiting at more Dollhouse shows in 2024. The schedule of shows is growing. I am considering shows in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Indianapolis. I will keep you updated as more details are available.