on The Book Designer:

This is a story about bad book design decisions, and how to avoid them.

Jill and I visited Copperfield’s Books in Sebastapol this afternoon.

Copperfield’s is a small chain of independent bookstores here in California, and a favorite place to browse their curated selection.

As an aside, when you consider all the books that are published each year, every independent bookstore is essentially an exercise in commercial curation. If customers buy the books the bookstore buyers have curated, the store will succeed, so effective curation is an existential necessity for any indie bookstore.

In any event, Jill found a book she had been curious about and brought it over to show me.

“I would never buy this book,” she said. “It’s a mess!”

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