A Boom Year for All Sizes of Books

I guess you could say that books are getting smaller and faster these days. At least, that’s the opinion of Armand Hanson of Santa Ana and myself.

Hanson, who is busily engaged in preparations for the 21st annual Orange County Authors’ Celebration banquet, said that among the 75 books written by Orange Countians and published during 1985 was the smallest one to ever be submitted.

The hand-bound edition is a mere 2 by 2 3/4 inches, a 46-page miniature book published by Orange County Superior Court Judge Leonard Goldstein. It is entitled “Comet Halley: Fact & Folly,” by Donald K. Yeomans, an astronomer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadesa.

“This is the first time we’ve had a ‘mini,’ ” Hanson said, speaking to the Friends of the UCI Library’s collection of works by local authors.

“Maybe we should keep it in a bread box to prevent it from getting lost in the stacks. Or maybe the Friends should raise funds to build a tiny library if the judge’s book marks the start of a trend,” Hanson said.

Hanson and I compared tales of woe about the miniature books each of us own. They seem to become invisible among the larger books on the shelves. It once took Hanson two months to find one of his that had become squeezed behind some big books.

But that’s a small matter. The larger matter, which has developed substantially beyond the trend stage, is the faster books. More authors in Orange County are cranking out more books faster than in any other time in county history.

The 56 authors to be celebrated at next Sunday’s banquet have produced about 80 books. For examples, Hanson said, Rhondi Salsitz of Fullerton, under the pseudonym of Rhondi Vilot, had eight books published last year. Marie Charles and/or Marie Nicole (her real last name is Rydzynski-Ferrarella) of Irvine had seven books published in 1985. Jackie Hyman of La Habra has produced three books. Jeff Parker’s “Laguna Heat” was written twice as fast as a couple of previous books he worked on.

The reason is the computer word processor, compared to the old typewriter.

Joan Dial, a local author who has recently moved to Lake Elsinore, has written four novels in one year. She figures she can write 4,000 to 5,000 words a day on a word processor and still keep going, but, she says, according to Hanson, she has to rein herself in, and stop “to reconnoiter” when she finishes the equivalent of about 10 pages a day. She finds the characters and the story line start to run away by themselves and get confused.

The computer has simplified, speeded up and made flexible the process of writing, rewriting and editing, once, of course, the commands are mastered. Add to this the tremendous, time-saving advantage of not having to retype corrected manuscripts. Just punch a button, pour a cup of coffee and relax while the computer transmits the corrected electronic words into type on the proof machine.

Increasingly, Hanson said, writers are sending computer discs of their books to publishers, who ultimately put them into a typesetting computer, and “Presto!” the book is ready for the printer.

Hanson reminisced about the longhand and typewriter era of a mere 21 years ago, when the first Friends’ book awards banquet was held. Then there was represented 16 Orange County authors. And each had written but one book during the previous year.

He wagged his head in disbelief over the production of some of last year’s authors. Hanson, a writer himself, is painfully aware, as are all of us who write, that the computer is nothing more than an improved writing tool.

“If you haven’t got it up here,” he said, pointing to his head, “then no amount of computer expertise is going to make you into a selling writer.”

Oh, by the way, our Times columnist, Jack Smith, who first fought using the computer like I did and now marvels that he ever wrote without one, will be the featured guest speaker at the banquet, to be held at the Registry Hotel in Irvine.

And another by the way: May 1-3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Friends of the Newport Beach Public Library will demonstrate what happens to unwanted books. They will be resold at their annual used-book sale at the Newport Center Branch Community Room. So here’s a fine opportunity to start a collection of largely non-computer-written books, many of them printed by letterpress in the slow, old days.