Lost Art Press Letterpress Bookplate –
Starting next week, all the books that I’ve written that we sell through Lost Art Press will be signed via a letterpress bookplate.
For the last six months, I’ve been signing the books via a simple adhesive label. We wanted something nicer. These bookplates are about five times nicer and 32 times as expensive.
These self-adhesive bookplates measure 2-3/8” x 2-3/4” and were printed at Steam Whistle Letterpress and Design in Cincinnati, Ohio. The bookplates are on acid-free Mohawk stock and were hand-set and printed on vintage equipment restored by Brian Stuparyk at Steam Whistle.
If you need some letterpress work (invitations, business cards, whatever), I highly recommend his shop. Brian has been obsessed with printing since he was a kid and has quite the collection of vintage machines and type.
As a convenience, we are also offering these signed self-adhesive bookplates by themselves for $2 (that price includes shipping). That way you can affix them in a book you have purchased from one of our retailers. Let me repeat that in a different way: All books sold by Lost Art Press that are written by Christopher Schwarz are already signed by him via this bookplate. You don’t need to buy this item if you are buying a book from us. This item is for people who have bought a book from another retailer and want to add his signature to it.
Here’s the link to the item in our store.
Here are some quick answers to questions we’ve received about signed books.
1. Why use a label or bookplate? Why don’t you just sign the book itself?
Our inventory is in Indiana. I am in Kentucky. There simply are not enough hours in the day for me to drive to Indiana and sign all our books. Until the day comes when we can consolidate all our operations in one city, this is the best that we can do.
2. Why don’t you offer these bookplates signed by other authors?
I suspect we will do that in the future. It’s a time-consuming process, and our first goal is to produce books, not get them autographed by the author.
3. Can I get you to sign my book with no bookplate?
Sure, just show up at one of the places I am teaching (my schedule is in the right rail of the blog). I’ll sign your book, your bare chest, whatever.
— Christopher Schwarz
