Visual Artistry in Publishing Makes a Comeback

I went to Barnes and Noble with my friend in December, and as we walked around we couldn’t help but notice that there was an unusual amount of books that had sprayed edges. Sprayed edges are a design feature in which a book’s edges are embellished with colors, patterns, and/or images. We were, of course, excited but also very surprised. Traditionally, books that have sprayed edges are hard covers and special editions or deluxe editions. However, while there were still special editions and hardcovers with sprayed edges on display, there were also plenty of regular paperbacks. We noted it, were excited about it, bought a couple of books with sprayed edges, and moved on with our day.

However, about a week later I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a post from the New York Times book account about “The Hottest Trend in Publishing” which was referencing the large increase of sprayed edges in books. As an individual with career interests in publishing, my curiosity was immediately piqued. It turns out that this is a major conversation within the book industry and community, with a long history behind the current revival.

Historians of the sprayed edges craze have noted that the design technique dates back to medieval times, when books commonly had painted edges, from manuscripts to the Bible. At the time it was called fore-edge painting. Fore-edge painting is slightly different from the modern sprayed edges we see, in that they are scenes painted on the edges of books, typically in watercolor, which would become visible when the pages fanned out. 

(The Last Supper painted on the Holy Bible)

Other decorations from previous centuries include gilded edges and marbled edges. By the dawn of the twentieth century, these practices fell off, but in the twenty-first century, they are becoming increasingly popular again. 

Now, instead of scenes painted on the edges of books, sprayed edges tend to be colorful with designs relevant to the novel. One such example is the novel Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros which has been credited for being responsible for the sudden resurgence of sprayed edges. Fourth Wing has black and gold edges with dragon designs on the edges, fitting for a romantic fantasy about dragon riders. It is also a good representation of the typical genres favored for sprayed edges, fantasy, romantic fantasy ( romantasy), and romance in general. 

Part of what is fueling this revival is social media, especially TikTok. TikTok has a whole subcategory, called ‘BookTok’ which has taken the publishing industry by storm. Popular influencers on ‘BookTok’ have a shocking amount of sway over what books become hits, and those books typically go on to have special editions. Similarly, booktok influencers like to have special editions to show off to their followers. It is also worth noting that Generation Z is a generation that has a fixation on aesthetics, so if ever there were a time for sprayed edges to make a comeback, this is it. 

Booktok and its influences encourage collecting, and special editions of books, or even regular books that have sprayed edges, make great additions to collections because, well,  they’re beautiful to look at.  And authors seem to have noticed and capitalized on this collector mindset. Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning was so popular that a deluxe special edition of it was published a year after it first came out. Now, its sequel, A Theory of Dreaming, is coming out this August, and its first release will be available in both regular hardcover and as a deluxe special edition. On her Instagram, Reid noted that it was designed to match perfectly with the deluxe edition of A Study in Drowning, and encouraged readers to buy both to have a matching set. It seems she was successful, as the deluxe edition of A Study in Drowning is almost out of stock, and I was certainly influenced into buying both.

Reid is not the only author seeing such success. R.F. Kuang’s newest novel Katabasis is not being released until August twenty-sixth, and yet already the deluxe edition–with its incredibly intricately designed sprayed edges–has been sold out. Although it is typically people who are already fans of the author that are buying these special editions, publishers are continuing to push for these editions into wider release. Popular books are starting to get sprayed edges in paperback editions such as Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter and the BookTok sensation and international best-seller If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. Additionally, genres beyond romance and fantasy are starting to get sprayed edges, which as typical for this trend, the edges represent something important to the novel’s story. For example, If We Were Villains–a mystery and literary fiction novel–has bright red edges matching a red splatter on the cover, meant to represent blood, since the novel revolves around a murder mystery. Publishers are expecting the demand for books with sprayed edges to grow, and perhaps that’s a good thing. In a world where people are constantly worried about whether people read enough and fear a digital takeover, if what it takes to get people to buy books is pleasing aesthetics, it seems like an all right trade-off to me.