Open Book: All Black Cats Are Not Alike

All Black Cats Are Not Alike by Amy Goldwasser, illustrations by Peter Arkle
Edited by Wynn Rankin and designed by Alice Chau

Editor Wynn Rankin and designer Alice Chau tell us about how they transformed All Black Cats Are Not Alike, a book founded on Kickstarter, into something uniquely Chronicle.

Wynn, how did you first hear about All Black Cats Are Not Alike?

All Black Cats Are Not Alike was actually first self-published through a Kickstarter campaign. I first saw it on New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix, and again when an agent sent it over with a note: “You will love this.” He was right. We had to ask ourselves, if it’s already been on Kickstarter, what can we do that will make it something to bring to our list? What can we do that is different or special? The answer was in designing and adding the casewrap and the jacket — lux out the package, even though the interior was perfect the way it was.

Alice, what was the process like for designing the casewrap and jacket?

We tested printing out of all the cats on giant proof sheets to proof, and seeing them all on one big page got everyone super excited. It was very Chronicle. We proofed it three times, so we ended up with a lot of giant sheets of cats. One fun story during this process is that our logo, the Chronicle Book glasses, were placed on Mimi the cat (the cat that’s on the front cover) at some point, but we ended up not being able to use it on the actual book. You’ll see it being used for some promotion, though!