Update on Book February 2018

Update

Before you get to the article…

On February 23, 2018, my book on the Mau Maus and Sand Street Angels, who were two Brooklyn youth gangs from the 1950s, has been completed.  It took 15 years of research and writing to complete Brooklyn Rumble: Mau Maus, Sand Street Angels, and the End of an Era.  This book is roughly 6″x9″ and has 370 pages and includes a look at the characters in the Mau Maus and the details of a gang killing that happened in February 1959 in front of the iconic Brooklyn Paramount Theater (now Long Island University).  If you want to buy a copy, click here and this link will take you to an online ordering page.

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On February 7, 2018, my book finally began to print.  Brooklyn Rumble will be printed in sections which will then have to be hand-collated together to make up the book.  The reason I am doing this is because it will be more cost-effective this way.  My wife will be helping me collate.  I am printing 350 books at first and if they all sell I always have the option to print more later. The book is being printed in a “4-up” fashion which means it will print on a 12″x18″ sheet of paper with four of the books being on one page.  The paper will be like a gloss paper and won’t be like the typical paper you see in your average book.

Here is what the “4-up” looks like:

"4-Up" on a page progress for Brooklyn Rumble book

“4-Up” on a page progress for Brooklyn Rumble book

Here is one table with part of the book that needs to be collated:

Collating time

Collating time

Once the collating is completed, I then send the 12″x18″ loose-leaf books (all separated) and the cover to another printer.  There, they will trim and “perfect bind” (basically glue the book and cover together) it and then UV coat the cover to give it a nice finish.

Here is a video of what the book looks like getting printed (You will need Adobe Flash activated to see the video):

I expect the printing and collating will be done by the end of this week and next week the second printer will take the rest of the week to perfect bind and UV coat. This means that if all goes well, on the weekend of February 17-18, I will finally be selling the book. For those who are interested in how to get a copy of this book, you will be able to order it on this website (I will have a notification under my “What’s New” tab letting everyone know when they can begin ordering). Right now the option will be to order the book in hard copy form. Perhaps later in the year I will figure out how to set it up where e-copies of the book can be purchased on Amazon.com.

While I was figuring out all these things, I had two copies of the book printed, perfect bound and UV coated. This is my “proof,” an example of what the book would look like when it was completed. Here is a picture of what the finished product will look like:

Book "Proof" of Brooklyn Rumble

Book “Proof” of Brooklyn Rumble