Spredging and other curiosities of the book world
S1:E1
Last month, I had the pleasure of doing a book signing for The Golden Land at Barnes & Noble in Wareham, Massachusetts. For some reason, I expected the store to be quite small, maybe even a little rundown. Instead, it turned out to be a bright, beautiful store with big, open ceilings and colorful displays. (Do check it out if you’re in the neighborhood.) As I sat at my little table in the middle of this colorful store, chatting with curious shoppers and friendly staff, I had ample time to observe both the books and the habits of shoppers.
One thing that stood out for me was the popularity of Romance and Fantasy (duh, I know). Young women would literally run up to the Romance section, gushing with excitement over the newest releases. It was fun to watch. The other thing that struck me was the new/old phenomenon of “spredging.” Working in a library where books are rarely spredged, I was unaware just how popular this technique had become.
So, what is spredging? The term is shorthand for “sprayed edges” and refers to the process of adding color and stenciled designs to the outer edges of books. This relatively new phenomenon is a reincarnation of two much older and more painstaking art forms: gilt-edging and fore-edge painting. Gilt edging dates back to 400AD, when monks and other holy persons would embellish their manuscripts with gold leaf to protect them from mildew.
Fore-edge painting began in the 10th century, picked up momentum in the 14th century, and grew especially popular in the 18th century. Since acrylic and oil paint would crack over time, fore-edge painting had to be done with watercolors, a meticulous and painstaking process that requires many iterations to avoid saturating the inner pages. Books served as a canvases for tiny works of art, and as such were treated as a collectors’ items, as in the example below.
I don’t know about you, but I would be afraid to pick up, let alone turn the pages of a book with such an intricate design!! How would I mark my place? What if I spilled coffee on it?
Although spredged books can now be mass-produced, until very recently, they continued to be treated as collectors’ items. From what I saw that day in B&N, this is no longer the case. For a certain set of popular commercial books, ie, fantasy and romance, spredging now seems to be standard practice. Some attribute this change to the 2023 release of The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, which went viral on TikTok. Fans flocked to bookstores demanding copies with the dragon-designed edges they’d seen online, and booksellers perked up their ears.
Today, spredging has become yet another marketing tactic for those books that the industry thinks have a chance of becoming bestsellers. Like any commodity, it’s all about sales, publishers competing for readers’ limited attention with ever shinier products. As the NYT reported in their coverage of the 2022 Department of Justice vs Penguin Random House trial, only “a minuscule percentage of books generate the vast majority of profits.” It’s a fickle industry, and publishing companies need to make money somehow.
As for me, I like the added color spredging brings to bookstores, but the practice is otherwise wasted on me. Half the time, I don’t even know what the cover of a book looks like because I’m reading it on my kindle and/or listening to the audiobook version. When I do read print versions, a beat-up old paperback can provide as much joy as a brand new hardcover. What matters is the story. But I’ve been a reader all my life; I don’t need to be converted. If a spredged book motivates someone who might not otherwise read to go buy a new book, and hopefully read that book, what’s the harm?
How about you, what’s your take on spredging?
💕 Liz
A new word for my vocabulary! Interesting story behind it, too. Thanks, Liz! Always a decorator at heart, the idea is pleasing to me. But if the story inside isn't satisfying I won't care what color the edges of its pages were. Still, I'm for whatever it takes to create new readers! BTW, I agree that the Wareham B&N is quite nice!
Had no idea this had a name--thanks for such an informative post. (I'm sorta tempted to "spredge" my own book… maybe in colored pencil… It should would liven up the look on the TBR pile on my nightstand.