Handmade Books in the 21st Century

Ink is in Our Blood

The pounding of steel rings out across the factory floor, competing with the sanders, air pumps, presses, and belts to create an orchestra of industrial sound. People's voices ring out over it all, signaling the cooperation that has brought quality and prestige to the product they create. At the BindTech factory near Kingsport, Tennessee, Dragonsteel’s premium leatherbound books are brought to life by hardworking men and women.

Kingsport has a long history of book printing. Throughout the 20th century, Kingsport  Press was busy. They produced Bibles and instruction manuals for American troops in WWII, as well as textbooks and yearbooks for students in the late 20th century. Remaining on the cutting edge as printing and publishing evolved, they embraced new technologies and processes like offset lithography and even developed their own systems for book cloth manufacturing and gold stamping.

The Press itself closed in 2006 as the publishing industry continued to change. The facility changed hands, and today, BindTech utilizes the factory space there to produce some of the world’s finest leatherbound books. Dragonsteel has been a proud partner with them for nearly a decade, refining our leatherbound collection with their team of expert craftspeople.

A Legacy in Leather

Dragonsteel’s foundation is our leatherbound book collection. Since the first printing of Elantris, Brandon and his team have been working on premium versions of the books that have built the Cosmere and beyond. With each book wrapped in leather, our team learns more and pushes the boundaries of what can be done. The Eye of the World is the latest book to get the full treatment, with Creative Department Vice President Isaac Stewart and Art Director Shawn Boyles giving the project all of the attention it deserves over the last three years.

The Eye of the World turned 36 on the fifteenth of January this year, a day that Isaac, Shawn, Donald Mustard III, and I celebrated by visiting the BindTech Facility near Kingsport, where the books are coming off the production line. We spent the day with their team, witnessing first hand some of the processes that go into making the books we love. We’d seen parts of the process before, from Dragonsteel’s visit to the factory three years ago during the Words of Radiance leatherbound campaign—this visit was immortalized as a leatherbound bookmaking documentary that you can check out at the top of this page. Now, Isaac and Shawn have pulled out all the stops for The Eye of the World. The genuine Italian leather is striking in bright red, with exquisite pressing and gilding layered with symbolism from the Wheel of Time. The endpapers show off the original cover art, contrasting the red and gold exterior with the familiar midnight blue of Darrel K. Sweet’s 1990 epic fantasy painting. Other artists who have spent 36 years in love with Robert Jordan’s world and characters came together to create an internal gallery of brand new artwork, with reimagined chapter ornaments and illustrations by Petar Penev taking center stage.

Our time at the factory was brief, but Isaac, Shawn, and the BindTech team used every second. They dialed the stamping to the nth degree of precision, then ensured that the gilding was nestled into the leather in exactly the right spot. From the pressure of the stamping to the individual scales of the snake on the cover, there wasn’t a detail that didn’t come under scrutiny. “We wrestled that snake for months,” joked Rick Jennings, director of operations at the Kingsport facility.

The Eye of the World is available for pre-order now, and shipping starts soon; these books are already coming off the production line!

Onward and Upward

Specialty books are more than just leather. I’ve heard since elementary school that print was a dying industry (RIP Newspapers), but book lovers and authors alike have proven that statement false. The resilience of print editions comes in part through a love of story and storytelling and also through evolving to provide consumers with exactly what they want. In the age of audiobooks and ebooks, books are more than just the words on the page. Authors and publishers have turned their books into works of art, helping speak the visual language that drives collectors and the internet alike. TikTok in particular has an appetite for books that are a feast for the eyes and a joy to read. Sprayed edges, exclusive dust jackets, and more help create a visual first impression that lasts, and over the last few years BookTok has shown that these tastes are sticking around.

BindTech is right on top of that, with Dragonsteel also watching these trends closely. The Year of Sanderson brought the Secret Projects, a few unexpected literary treats from Brandon that received a never-before-seen Dragonsteel premium edition treatment that helped make them the record breaking sensation that they are. Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man were the first books to receive that care, but others have followed. Isles of the Emberdark featured black pages and silver ink, telling significant parts of the story in a narrative “dark mode.” It looks like The Fires of December is going to follow in this new premium edition tradition as well.

Bill Wearne has been our printing and binding consultant since The Well of Ascension leatherbound. He’s helped us create books that are both premium collector’s items and fantastic reading experiences, and his work on The Eye of the World helped it to become the showstopper that it absolutely is. His work hasn’t stopped though, and he and Isaac talked long into the night as they weighed design considerations for The Fires of December, coming later this year (you can check out the preview chapters and Brandon’s reading here).

We are very excited to have a backer exclusive edition for The Fires of December, rewarding the fans who stick with us from beginning to end. While this is still taking shape, features like painted edges or a unique cover were topics that the two passionate men workshopped endlessly. Tran Nguyen is the cover and interior artist, and fantastic art graced the cover of Tor's edition of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Wesley Chu’s Art of Prophecy series, and a number of incredible places (Magic: The Gathering, anyone?). Her art captures the qualities not only of December’s protagonist, but of the story itself, and the campaign exclusive version of The Fires of December is a book I can’t wait to get my hands on. With the Hoid’s Storybook Crowdfunding campaign fast approaching, new fans and old have shared their enthusiasm for The Fires of December and the future of the Cosmere. Keep up with them by following the campaign on Backerkit and keep your eyes out for more exciting news soon.

Publishing continues to evolve. Authors have more power than ever to create the ultimate versions of their books, and audiences are hungry for them. My own bookshelf has leveled up thanks to the trends of the last several years, as I exchange dog-eared and well loved mass-market paperbacks for hardcover heirlooms that I’ll read again and again.