Saw Books Being Born--Literally

I'm back from the two-day trip to Bethany House! What a blast! I enjoyed every minute--from chatting about future projects with my editor to eating Korean food with the marketing team. Being videotaped for the Bethany House YouTube Channel was a bit nerve racking, but in the end I enjoyed it. I can talk books and writing all day, and that's what I got to do for two solid days.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the print shop. The tour started with a look at how covers are produced, then we passed through a warehouse full of stacks and stacks of rolls of paper. There were all sizes for different sizes of books, plus there were lots of shades of white. I  felt like a character in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids."

Next we saw how pages are printed. They're done 16 at a time, then folded into what's called a "signature." The signatures are then assembled into books. A machine stacks them, the covers are glued on, they're trimmed, and they go down a conveyer belt into boxes.

I will never forget the next moment of the tour. I was watching hundreds of books come down the belt when I realized they were the paperback version of The Message Bible. My husband has bought dozens of these over the years and given them away. Seeing those books come down that conveyer belt by the hundreds was just amazing. It really was like seeing a book being born.

More on the trip next time . . . Maybe the story about lunch at the Korean Karaoke Bar. Good times!