Bookplate Ink

Bookplates, or ex libris, are decorative labels, or stickers, to identify book ownership and for authors to sign.

stickers

A loving project

More than a year and a half ago — which now seems in the distant past — we had an order requested for bookplates for a wonderful and loving project: a book area for children at the Child Study of Center of Yale School of Medicine, in honor of the beloved Director of Finance and Administration there, Karen Muth, who was losing her long battle with cancer. Karen was able to help choose the design she wanted before she passed. As her friend Jean Herzog, who placed the order, wrote, “books will be chosen by the faculty and staff for children and families who are dealing with childhood cancer. Karen dealt with her own cancer for more than eight years and was very touched that her friends and family chose to remember her this way.”

Jean wrote to me recently to let me know that Karen’s Korner was finally opened, on May 6, 2022, after some delays due to the pandemic. This wonderful book haven includes rocking chairs and a bookshelf with a variety of children’s books, each with a bookplate dedicated to Karen Muth. You can read more about it at their website.

I was touched that Jean shared this with me. These are the bookplate orders that give so much meaning to what we do. Bookplates in memory of a loved one are treasured tributes.

Authors dealing with the coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic has required everyone, including businesses, to adapt and innovate. How can you serve your customers when you can’t be near them? How do you promote your business? And if you’re an artist or writer, how do you still connect with your audience?

Authors have had to cancel book tours and signings since the pandemic occurred. And, of course, libraries and bookstores are closed, so books are being purchased online.

For years, however, authors and publishers have been using bookplates to send to readers, either as a promotional item from their website, or to give to people in person. What could be easier than signing bookplates in advance and having them ready at book signings?

One of our longtime customers is an author and speaker. Jill Tietjen, who co-authored Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America, used bookplates for years for speaking engagements throughout the country. She signed the bookplates in advance and added a personal note when her book was purchased.
 
 
While in-person signings have now been canceled, more and more authors and publishers are using bookplates to continue to stay in touch with their readers. We have had several orders from loyal customer W.W. Norton & Company — a well-known independent and employee-owned publishing house — for their various authors. W.W. Norton has two of its own designs that Bookplate Ink prints. During this time of working from home we are of course, able to ship directly to the authors.
 
 
 
 
 
New York Times Bestselling author and former U.S. Navy Seal Jack Carr, who wrote Savage Son, True Believer and The Terminal List, recently re-ordered bookplates for True Believer. He sells the signed bookplates on his website at jackcarrusa.com and sends 100% of the profits to veteran focused foundations. This is a wonderful idea to connect with readers while supporting a great cause! He even has on his website these photos of a signed bookplate in his book and himself signing the plates.
 
 
Grove Atlantic, another well-known independent literary publisher, ordered some of our non-personalized border designs when they needed bookplates quickly for promotions for their authors. The one shown here, design N100, can be ordered both personalized and non-personalized. This art deco design is one of our most popular border designs. We have several more border designs suitable for signings by authors and speakers at bookplateink.com.
 
If you are an author — whether new or established — or a publishing company, we can help you! Feel free to call at 937-319-0067 or toll-free, 866-483-3830; or email info@bookplateink.com with questions or comments.

Exquisite Venitian Library

20160825_160649This past August, my husband and I had the good fortune to travel to Europe.  We spent a week in Lucerne, Switzerland, attending spectaular concerts at the renowned Lucerne Music Festival and hiking in the Alps with friends. After traveling by train to Italy, we visited Lucca, Florence and Cinque Terra, walking for miles, and loving the history and beauty of the area.

From there, we took the train to Venice, where we took in many of the wonderful museums and explored the city. One of the museums we visited was the Museo Correr in Venice, Italy. The Correr sits directly across Piazza San Marco from Basilica San Marco, and is steps away from the Grand Canal. There is an awe-inspiring amount of history and culture in just this one small area but I am going to focus on one exhibit in the Correr.

20160825_160013Within the museum is the Pisani Library, a room filled with beautiful walnut bookcases that came from the Pisani family palace at San Vidal. The Pisanis, an aristocratic family in Venice from the 12th to 18th centuries, were an important influence on the culture and politics of the time. According to the Museo Correr, they were “the first to set up what might be called a library-museum, in an attempt to endow the city’s publishing industry with its own aura of grandeur and munificent service to the State.”

The bookcases today are filled with “rare manuscripts and printed works, dating from the early Sixteenth Century to the end of the 20160825_155946Eighteenth.” Surrounding the shelves are display cases with beautiful books from the 1500-1600s.

The chandelier hanging above was made from Murano glass in the 1700s. Murano is a series of small islands just outside of Venice and has been home to glass-making since 1291, when the glassmakers of Venice were forced to move there due to20160825_155711 fear of fire within the city and its wood buildings.

It was fascinating and awe-inspiring to view the intricate artwork in books from hundreds of years ago. I’m grateful that people such as the Pisani family valued their libraries and preserved the world’s heritage through books. During this “digital age,” let’s not forget the importance and endurance of the printed page.

Bookplates for authors 101

Although bookplates have traditionally been used to identify one’s books in a personal library, many authors order bookplates from Bookplate Ink to use for book signings and as a promotional tool and thank you gift to their readers, so I thought it might be helpful to new authors (and seasoned authors!) to show some possibilities.

 

 

One popular option is to have bookplates printed with custom artwork from your book(s). Some authors have bookplates with the artwork from the jacket cover of the book at the top of the bookplate or as the background for the entire bookplate. Sometimes artwork related to one element or character of the book is used, along with the author’s name and/or website.

 

New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater has used more than one design for her young adult Raven Cycle series. Maggie posts photos and offers signed bookplates through her website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Fountain Bookstore. We have seen more than one tweet with a photo from an excited reader who just bought one of her books and received a signed bookplate. Shown here is one of the bookplates Stiefvater created for her Raven Cycle series.

 

Brenna Yovanoff is another young adult fiction writerScreen Shot 2016-05-03 at 1.06.59 PM
who recently ordered bookplates for her new book, Places No One Knows, and posted a photo on Instagram. The book will be released later this month, but those who pre-order through the Tattered Cover Book Store will receive a free signed bookplate. Many authors use a signed bookplate as an incentive for pre-orders.

 

 

Bookplate Ink has also printed bookplates for
New York Times bestseller Garth Stein. His latest bookplate is a good example of a design useful for an author who wants a bookplate that encompasses all of his or her published books. As you can see, the jacket covers of his books are shown at the top along with his photo, while his website address is at the bottom of the bookplate.

 

 

If you’re looking for a simpler and more affordable option, another possibility is one of our non-personalized border designs. These bookplates are printed on a non-glossy, cream colored paper and look very classy. At 3×4 inches, they have plenty of room for your signature and a short message. As they’re pre-printed and we keep them in stock, they ship quickly and are less expensive than custom bookplates. Shown here is one of our most popular border designs, N100. It is available as both a non-personalized bookplate or a custom printed bookplate with the text of your choice.

 

For a more personalized look, many authors order one of our many border designs and have the bookplates custom printed with their name, website address and/or book title. We can also add artwork or a logo to any of our border designs.

 

There are many possibilities regarding styles and sizes of bookplates. If you have any questions, feel free to call 866-483-3830 or e-mail info@bookplateink.com.

 

 

Creative bookplate ideas

As I’ve written in previous posts, connecting with wonderful people around the world is one of the most fun aspects of the bookplate business. And hearing the creative ways people are using bookplates is icing on the cake.

GramercyPark2Our non-personalized bookplates, which are sold on our site in quantities as small as 20, have become quite a popular item. Recently, Etta wrote about using Design B211 for her Gramercy Park-themed birthday party in the fall of 2013. Gramercy Park is a private fenced-in park located within the Gramercy Park Historic District in Manhattan. According to the NY Times, the park has been fenced in since the 1830s and locked since 1844. In 2012, only 383 keys were in circulation, all given to residents of the historic district. GramercyPark3

Etta ordered copies of the book Gramercy Park, An American Bloombury by Carole Klein from Amazon to give to each attendee of her party as part of a goody bag. Interestingly, since the book is out of print, three different versions came, as shown above. She wrapped each one in raffia with autumn foliage and then placed it in the goody bag with a B211 bookplate attached to the outside of the bag with the respective attendee’s name written on the bookplate.

GrammercyPark1Since Gramercy Park is a well-established garden with mature plantings, Etta felt the gnome walking in the garden bookplate fit the theme perfectly. This lovely artwork was created by John Huchthausen, an artist trained in architecture and religious art who created many designs for the Antioch Bookplate Company in the early 1940s. Etta reported that everyone at the party loved the goody bags with their bookplate attached.

Etta wrote about her party when she ordered another set of bookplates, this time the non-personalized version of Design B253. Etta planned to host a party for her daughter, who was graduating from college in Charleston, South Carolina. Again, each attendee of the party was to be given a goody bag, this time with a book on the history of the college—which was established in the late 1700s—as well as other school memorabilia. B253Etta chose design B253 partly because she likes the inscription in the border, which reads, “A book is like a good friend; my friends I would forever keep.”

Other customers have used bookplates for guests to place in books for baby showers, to memorialize loved ones with a donation of books, for author signings, to put in books as a party favor at a wedding reception….the list is endless. Let me know if you have a unique use for bookplates!

Abraham Lincoln bookplate

It seems that I’m hearing about Abraham Lincoln quite a lot these days, and it’s not even his birthday. That’s because the much anticipated movie “Lincoln,” based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals,” is now in theatres.

I found this bookplate depicting our 16th President in an old catalog of Etchcraft designs called the Celebrity Series. I like that Lincoln appears to be looking down at the space where a name would be added to the bookplate, under “Ex Libris,” which means “From the library of.” Under Lincoln’s signature, the text says “By: Saint-Gaudens.” Augustus Saint-Gaudens was an Irish-born American sculptor who was well-known for his sculptures of Civil War heroes. With a little research, I discovered that this statue, unveiled in 1887, still stands in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. According to AbrahamLincolnOnline.org, the monument was created using “the 1860 life mask of Lincoln by Chicago sculptor Leonard Volk. A Vermont farmer of approximately Lincoln’s height served as the model.”

These is also a copyright with the single name “Richard, ” apparently the creator of the bookplate design. All of the bookplates in the Celebrity Series have this same copyright and are of famous people or places.

As shown on the cover, these designs were acquired by Antioch Bookplate Company, whose designs we acquired. This catalog is most likely from the 1950s. Another detail that made me smile is that the sticker on the cover from Antioch Bookplate has as its border design M752, which we are still printing today and happens to be one of our most popular border designs.