Dear Albert,
I?ve looked at the proofs again, these STILL aren?t right, my poems are still all misspelt. I really must say I don?t think it?s my responsibility to check the spellings, don?t you bother reading stuff at Castell & Castell ? I read everything for The Snood Review. Please correct them this time AND READ THE BOOK. ARRGHHH. I think the periods are too large in this font, and you?ve left some periods in italics, they need to all be roman periods. Are the italics too large, though? I think they could be reduced by about one hundredth of an inch or whatever that is in leading and dropped below the level of the other text, the bottom line thingy or whatever it?s called, it all rests on it a little bit and it tricks the eye. I don?t like it. I really must say I don?t like this font at all. Can you get rid of the squiggly thing on the ?g?. You really should try Palatino or Times, they?re my preference, what on earth is wrong with what I gave you as a print out. I?ve spoken to my friend Ronald who used be a professional typesetter, he says you?re doing it all wrong, too. Ronald also says that you could have used my print outs to make the book anyway which would have saved a lot of time. Apparently the dot matrix sheets can be REDUCED. I was holding the proofs up to my window and noticed that some pages don?t align at the top? If I turn them upside down the bottoms don?t match either. Can you PLEASE make sure that all the poems line up at the bottom and the top. I think it?s silly to have blank pages in the book, let?s just run the contents and acknowledgements on and get rid of all the blanks and those at the back. Ronald says any printer can produce a book of 81 pages, I?m not cutting ANYTHING and DO NOT put blank pages in the back. The title page CAN go on the left, there?s no reason not to. Please move all the quotations top right and italicize them. I?ve used a ruler to check the spaces between words and they?re all different where you?ve justified the text, can you make all the spaces between words EXACTLY the same. Take out all hyphens, too. I don?t like the font size. Make it smaller. Make the headings italic and center them. Change the book from 38 lines per page to 22 lines per page, except on ?The Burmese Breakfast? where you can make it 45 lines, this must fit on one page, but don?t decrease the leading. Center poems on the page. The letter ?e? looks odd, if you are sticking with Bembo or whatever it is, can you change all instances of the letter ?e? for Palatino. I much prefer the ?e? there. For the titles you?ve used upper and lowercase throughout the book, please use uppercase as per my manuscript. I?ve never bought any of your books, but if this is house style, I do not like house styles; they are restrictive for writers. I don?t like the ornament thing, the wiggly shape, can we change that wiggle for something less silly like a period. Please, please, please get this right this time, I do not like wasting my time on this stuff. Put all the page numbers on the LEFT. I?m sorry you?ve set the notes in something like a sixteenth of an inch. They?re too small, and must be a bit bigger, one squidgy bit up. Take out ?The Earth?s Old Business? and ?Pasternak?s Glee? replace those with ?Shy Moon? and ?South of the Rockies Once Again?. Move ?Benkelman?s Glee? to page 45, ?Omaha Sunset? to page 56, ?Maureen?s Cat? to page 71, ?Vater? to page 5, ?Utah is Dead? to page 44. Looking at these I think the commas are all too large. Make the commas smaller. The bold bits are too bold, make them less bold. Are these proper italics? The cover you showed me was stupid, it looks like those hideous things you see in bookshops everywhere. I do not like it. Change that to the picture I SUPPLIED of the lawn in my garden back in Colorado, keep the lawn in the center of the cover, everyone loves my lawn. My reading is next Thursday at Bonnet?s bookshop in Iowa City, please have the books there ON TIME. I presume Castell & Castell can manage that!
Yours
Tyler
Englewood
3 September 2003
Dear Tyler,
I do sympathise. I can see it must be fantastically difficult to keep a sense of proportion about our design and editing standards, especially when your own skills and indeed persona are so sadly withered and etiolated. You do have an eye for design and typography. However, I think it must be the one you poked out when you last tried eating with a knife and fork.
I had hoped that your mountainous ego might help you to coast through the publishing cycle, especially when it was matched so well with what I presume is paraphilic infantilism, but I can?t risk hand holding any further. Yours might be a soiled hand after all.
I can see now that your personal inadequacies, something you have in surprising abundance, have regrouped to hijack this project. It was, like democracy in China, always a long shot. I?ll have to bow to your judgement that this book is simply not ready for publication with Castell & Castell and redirect you to your local Xerox where professional Ronald can help you uncrease and photocopy your manuscript and staple the sheets together for your rapidly diminishing readership.
Indeed, the book is not ready for your reading in Iowa City. In fact, not ready for anyone, any time, anywhere. Not this century. Not in Bembo. Not sumptuously designed and printed on Vancouver Cream bookwove between the delicate mint green endpapers and boards of a fine Castell & Castell hardback. Not available from bookshops throughout North America. Not ready for our agents at Frankfurt. Not ready for our publicists to work on. Not ready for Oprah. Not ready for Borders, or Barnes & Noble. It?s so far from ready, I can only see you as a diminishing blot in the archives of our business, a footnote, just like mine here, cancelling your contract and tipping your author file into the shredder.
Adeiu, adieu, adieu,
Albert D Sump
Deputy Poetry Editor
Castell & Castell
