Print, the Tie that Binds
One of the nicest things about being me is getting to meet incredible people.
Like Greg Mroczek, a savvy and super-smart book manufacturing expert who works in publishing at Hahhhvaaaad.
We go way back. About 13 years ago I started a print buyers group in Boston and ran dinner meetings throughout the year. Greg started attending those dinners from the beginning, and he came to the annual conferences I produced, too. We’ve kept in touch ever since. Now and then he weighs in on one of my blog posts, and he tends to email me when he comes across some cool print- or publishing-related article. I consider him a leading resource in book manufacturing. He’s absolutely the real deal and, like so many of us, a fool for print.
Over burgers and fries recently (let me be clear: the fries were his), we talked about printing people we knew back in the ‘80s. There were a lot of them, many quite colorful characters, and we swapped too many stories to share here. The 90 minutes flew by.
Greg scolded me for being such a Kindle fan (he works on physical books only) and we discussed our love-hate relationship with digital newspapers. He got the last word in when he stated unequivocally that ebooks are declining in popularity and sales, so long live real books. I certainly have no problem with that, but I do love my Kindle.
Greg Mroczek, the real deal.
It would be great to see Greg more often, not only because he’s smart and funny and tells great stories, but also because – maybe primarily because – we share this thing about print.
If you’ve read my stuff for a while, you know what I’m talking about. Being with kindred spirits who “get” print and who know what it’s like working with (and in Greg’s case, once upon a time, for) printers is a real gas.
The reason we met was because he wanted to give me a broadsheet from the NYT that came out in August. It’s an excerpt from a long piece of fiction by Colson Whitehead called The Underground Railroad that was available only in print.
Even this ebook fan had to admit: it’s a lasting thing of beauty.
(c)2016 Margie Dana