Julia and the Book Factory

On Friday I went with Sam Eades, my lovely publicist at Headline, to Clays printers in Bungay, to see Every Vow You Break roll off the presses. I had been told by David Headley at Goldsboro Books and S J Watson that it was an astounding day out (‘like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for book nerds’), and that the sandwiches were very good. They were right on all counts.

After those remarkable sandwiches at Cambridge House, a beautiful Georgian building where the company started and which they now use for hospitality, We were shown around the massive factory by the lovely Vicky Ellis and Phil and Steve, having a peek at every single part of the process.

Standing in the middle of a factory full of conveyor belts piled up with my new novel has to be one of the top experiences of my life. If I say how close I was to wanting to breast feed my warm, fresh, book, you’ll understand where it ranks for me.

Here, in the spirit of a geography field trip, is my photo essay. Unlike when they were printing the first editions of Harry Potter, when even mobile phones were confiscated at reception, they now allow cameras in.

So hard hats and hi-viz jackets off to all at Clays, and thank you for a day I will always remember.

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Sam and me at the start of our tour.

They're printing some other books, too. humph, Mr Billingham. This is how the covers look when they've been printed on the colour press.

All the lovely foils for fancy metallic finishes.

The foils are stamped out like transfers onto the printed covers.

A page plate with the words laser cut onto it.

Once the rest of the plate is dissolved, you are left with the pages.

Lovely big piles of paper cylinders.

the web of paper being fed through the text printer.

Another part of the journey of the text as it is printed.

It's cut and folded into sections.

Which look like this - two lots in one.

The sections lined up for collating.

There's a whole line of these machines, each with a different section to feed on to the conveyor.

So you end up with a whole book. The sections are glued and the cover folded onto them.

So you end up with a push-me-pull-you book...

Which is cut for the more conventional readers.

And, still warm, lovingly cradled in the author's arms.

Then they're stacked up neatly...

Shrink wrapped...

Tucked in...

Piled up on pallets...

And forklifted either straight onto a lorry or into the warehouse.