Sometimes, things just go sideways. In the case of the first page of my book, The Laws of Creativity, things are sideways literally and figuratively.
Pictured below is the first end page of my book. There’s a giant slash on the right page which, unbeknownst to me, means a whole lot more than I intended.
I had the incredible luxury (and deep challenge) of designing my own book. Most authors are subject to their publisher’s whims, and while the folks in each design department always strive for something beautiful, the result doesn’t always live up to their hopes.
With most benefits, however, come drawbacks. I personally don’t have the wide breadth of publishing and bookstore knowledge that most publishing teams have. And while I’m a devourer of books, have worked at a big publishing house in my early career, and do my best to double check my work…
… I made a mistake. (Sort of.)
! Minor Spoiler Alert !
The slash on the front page was meant to be intriguing. It was meant to have the reader stop, briefly, and say to themselves, “Huh. I wonder what that’s for?” Then they’d forget about it—but a hundred pages or so into the book I would reveal the answer:
In the case of a new notebook, “first page syndrome” is real. It’s the fear of “messing up” the page and thus marring the vibe of the whole thing. So—to overcome that—I’ve been making a huge slash on the first page of every notebook since I was a young designer.
Simple, right? Well, turns out, no so much.
! End Minor Spoilers !
A few weeks after launching The Laws of Creativity, we began getting emails about “bad” or “messed up” or “marked up” books. At first I thought it was just folks thinking someone had manually put a slash on the first page (as opposed to it being printed)—but then we learned something even more nefarious: bookstores put a giant slash on the first page of books that don’t sell!
I had, unwittingly, put the mark of death on my own book.
Thankfully, I tend to find this funny rather than disheartening. The book has gone on to sell just fine (it hit #1 on Amazon), and folks who do discover the explanation as they read are delighted in their “Aha!” moment. For those that write in, we do our best to calmly explain the situation (the team asked me to write this blog post for this exact purpose!).
When I designed the sideways slash into the first page, I had no idea what I was in for. If you’re one of the folks confused by the “messed up” book—I hope this helps clear things up.
