Egmont Books

For the last session of the year, we were joined by Junior Project Manager Anna Robinette from Egmont Books.

Egmont's production process is particularly inspiring due to their use of design and experimentation. The recent title 'Seed' uses a beautiful holofoil finish with ink printed over the top. This gives a great effect, but adds to printing costs. 'Sedric' uses a shorter and wider book size to the normal B-format, which fits in with the concept of the stubby troll. The cover for this book was also printed on the reverse of the cover card, which means it has a rough finish. This effect can be a cheaper method of attaining a matte finish, but this side of the card tends to be more porous and more ink has to be used to give a bright colour finish, which can negate savings on paper.





















Egmont publish both magazines and books for children. I was intrigued by the amount of inventive and exciting products in the line, like the Minecraft Blockopedia and the Star Wars 'build a star fighter' book. These titles are said to have 'play value', and as such need to be tested using toy safety standards, vigerously.

 The children's range has crossed over into toys quite significantly, which has raised some issues for tax categorisation - as books are untaxable, but toys are taxed at 20%.

After displaying some of their work, Anna broke down the role of a production department within a company into the following responsibilities:

• Scheduling production and distribution: chasing up slow designe and editorial staff to ensure the product meets deadlines 
• Printer and supplier management: making an educated estimate regarding the projected sales for a title and sending this to print.
• Safety testing: sending products to be safety tested in the crossover toy/book field is extremely important to avoid customer issues, to prevent recalls and - in the worst case - an irreparably damaged brand reputation
• Digital production: sending briefs to app designers
• Product development: ensuring products are viable and safety-tested
• Costing: based upon pre-agreed rates for standard books and ‘spot costs’ for extra products like finishes, extra pages etc.

Anna stressed that the most important skill in this field was communication, as liaising between each individual department to maintain the smooth and prompt production of a product is the primary function of her role. I will take this on board into future roles.

One other importance in the team ethos at Egmont was sustainability, and the production department works with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) which ensure that the paper used in all of their products is sustainable and ethically farmed.